While the powerhouse HBO series The Pitt and Hacks received the most Emmy nominations this year (25 and 24, respectively), two brand-new genre shows are hot on their heels. Widow’s Bay earned 19 nominations, and Pluribus got 18. A few other SFF series also crop up here in the major nominations: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for Best Drama Series; Wonder Man’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; The Testaments’ Chase Infiniti for Lead Actress in a Drama Series; and three nominations for Paradise, including Lead Actor (Sterling K. Brown), Drama Series, and Outstanding Supporting Actress (Julianne Nicholson). But Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus and Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay are way ahead of the pack.
Widow’s Bay is nominated for Best Comedy Series, and four of its stars are up for the related acting awards: Matthew Rhys (also nominated for his work in The Beast in Me), Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, and Dale Dickey. Guest stars Hamish Linklater and Betty Gilpin are also nominated for Best Guest Actor, which is as it should be.
Pluribus has a quartet of similar nominations on the drama side of things: Best Drama Series and acting nominations for star Rhea Seehorn and supporting cast Carlos-Manuel Vesga and Karolina Wydra. It also has two Guest Actor nominees in Jeff Hiller and Miriam Shor.
Once you get into the Creative Arts Emmys, SFF is all over the place, from Steven Yeun’s Best Character Voice-Over Performance nomination for Invincible to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ lone nomination for Best Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie. Alien: Earth has a nomination for Best Cinematography for a Series (One Hour), and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Fallout has two different makeup nominations.
Our beloved Murderbot is also now an Emmy-nominated television program, with nominations for Title Design, Main Title Theme Music, and Sound Editing. Star Wars: Visions turns up in Best Animated Program, and Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord in Best Sound Editing.
The (massive) full list of nominees is available via the Emmys website. Mariska Hargitay hosts when the Emmys air at 5 p.m. PDT/8 p.m. EDT Monday, September 14, on NBC and Peacock.
