Succession, The Last Of Us and White Lotus have dominated the Emmy nominations, racking up 74 nods between them.
Stars of the HBO and Sky shows dominate the acting categories of the coveted awards, but the nominations have been overshadowed by a looming Hollywood actor strike.
It’s Succession, about the dysfunctional media dynasty, that makes history with three of the leads – Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin – making it into the best acting category for the first time, with Sarah Snook getting a nomination in the actress group.
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Jeff Bridges for The Old Man, Bob Odenkirk for Better Call Saul and Pedro Pascal from The Last Of Us make up the rest of the drama acting category.
In the actress group, Snook goes up against Sharon Horgan from Bad Sisters, Melanie Lynskey for Yellowjackets (and in another category for The Last Of Us), Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid’s Tale, Bella Ramsey for The Last Of Us, and Keri Russell for The Diplomat.
In the supporting drama actor category, only actors from Succession and The White Lotus appear, with the cast in the latter all considered supporting rather than leads. Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck and Alexander Skarsgard appear for Succession, while F. Murray Abraham, Micahel Imperioli, Theo James and Will Sharpe complete the category from The White Lotus.
Jennifer Coolidge is nominated for The White Lotus for the second year in a row, alongside colleagues Meghann Fahy, Sabrina Impacciatore, Aubrey Plaza and Simona Tabasco. They’re joined by actresses from The Crown, Better Call Saul and Succession.
The White Lotus, a satirical drama-comedy which follows wealthy travellers to the fictional White Lotus luxury resorts, was a popular winner last year.
The Last Of Us and Succession also dominate the guest drama acting categories, with no other shows nominated in both the male and female groups – Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett, Arian Moayed, Storm Reid, Anna Torv and Cherry Jones all featuring.
Elsewhere, heart-warming football show Ted Lasso leads out the comedy nominations, with lead Jason Sudeikis getting a nod in the best comedy actor category, with cast mates Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Phil Dunster and Brett Goldstein all getting supporting nods, with Abbot Elementary and Netflix’s Wednesday also bagging a number of nominations.
Read more:
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Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett in the critically acclaimed third episode of The Last Of Us. Pic: HBO/Sky
A strike looms over Hollywood
But actors could be a few hours from walking away from productions, if last-ditch talks collapse in Los Angeles.
SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors around the world has agreed to a request from major production studios to meet with federal mediators in their ongoing row over pay, conditions, and the use of artificial intelligence.
The union says streaming services are not playing fair when it comes to pay, and are losing money from residuals with actors and writers now getting very little remuneration when their shows are watched.
There are also fears more studios will deploy the use of AI in their writing and production, eliminating the need for humans.
Why Hollywood stars could walk out and what could it mean for the film industry
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The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) is already on strike, and has delayed productions such as the final season of Stranger Things, among many others.
If SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP (which is negotiating on behalf of the likes of Disney, NBCUniversal and Netflix) fail to agree a deal by midnight Los Angeles time (8am UK time), actors could begin to walk off sets.
It means filming could stop on major productions, actors may pull out of junkets and interviews, and stars won’t appear at film premieres.
