Amid the largely business-as-usual announcement of the 2022 Emmy Awards nominees — get ready to get sick of hearing “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” yelled out on September 12 — there were some slightly unexpected events. . Nothing was more shocking than last year’s “Emily in Paris” nomination for outstanding comedy, but there were some notable omissions. As actors and actresses in “This Is Us” and “black-ish” found out, it wasn’t a good year to be a star of a much-loved and long-running series in its final season.
Stump: ‘Yellowstone’
Taylor Sheridan has built an impressive television empire with his nostalgia and testosterone fueled vision, but he failed to receive the expected drama series nomination for his flagship series on Paramount Network, TV’s highest-rated entertainment show in the 2021-22 season. †
Snubs: Sterling K. Brown and Mandy Moore
A four-time drama series nominee, the sentimental NBC hit “This Is Us” never gained much traction in the category in its sixth and final season, but the stars were expected to earn nominations in their respective fields. This is the first and only time since the start of the series that Brown, who won in 2017, is not among the drama actor nominees.
Surprise: Reese Witherspoon
Jennifer Aniston was expected to receive a drama lead actress nomination for her role on the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show,” but the nod went to her co-star Witherspoon instead. Also somewhat unexpected in the category was the presence of both stars of BBC America’s “Killing Eve”, Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, rather than just one.
HBO Max’s uplifting miniseries “Station Eleven” after the plague was a hit with critics, but Emmys didn’t get much talk about Patel’s performance as a writer who accidentally becomes a father. Patel’s nomination may have come at the expense of Samuel L. Jackson, who was one of the favorites in the limited series actor category for “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.”
Snub: ‘Reservation Dogs’
It would have been nice to see FX’s soulful and charming series about a group of Native American teenagers make the field for excellent comedy, and it was thought to have quite a shot at it. But never underestimate Larry David, whose “Curb Your Enthusiasm” probably took the one spot that wasn’t predestined. Also absent was another prominent FX series, the two-time nominee ‘Atlanta’.
Surprise: ‘Inventing Anna’
Julia Garner’s nomination for her portrayal of serial fraudster Anna Delvey was expected, but the Netflix show itself was on the brink of discussion in the limited series category, despite its popularity. Left out was another more highly regarded Netflix miniseries, “Maid,” along with two true crime dramas, HBO Max’s “The Staircase” and Hulu’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
Snub: ‘The Amber Ruffin Show’
The two nominees in the variety sketch category, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” were about as guaranteed as anything in the Emmys. But it’s a shame that no room could be found for Ruffin’s clever and funny series about Peacock.
Surprise: Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult
Both stars of ‘The Great’, Hulu’s satirical comedy about Catherine the Great, were strong contenders, but they each beat someone considered more certain in the comedy acting categories: Selena Gomez of Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’ and Anthony Anderson. , a seven-time nominee, on the final season of ABC’s “Black-ish.” Anderson, like Brown, was nominated in every previous season of his show’s run.
Snub: Conan O’Brien
None of the talk show nominees came as a surprise, and they all would have complained loudly about being left out. But it was kind of sad that “Conan,” a nominee last year, was left out in his final round, which served as the end (at least for now) of O’Brien’s long run as late-night host.
