Welcome to the 3rd edition of The TV Ratings Guide's Contributor Collaborative. This edition sees Gena and Rebecca discuss the 2019 Emmy nominations. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Gena
Holy shirt! After its third season,
The Good Place finally broke into the Comedy Series category -- making it the only broadcast-network sitcom of the bunch. Ted Danson's nod for Lead Actor in a Comedy and Maya Rudolph's for Guest Actress in a Comedy were less surprising (they were both up last year, too), but nice to see; and while I was a little disappointed that recognition for TGP didn't extend to lead actress Kristen Bell or supporting actress D'Arcy Carden, it was still forking awesome to find "Janet(s)" (an excellent showcase episode for Carden) singled out for a writing nomination. A few more random observations:
1) Re: SNL, I'm guessing the Emmy voters must be as burned out on Alec Baldwin's Trump impression as I am, as he wasn't nominated for Supporting or Guest Actor in a Comedy this year;
2) Among the Drama acting nominees from
This Is Us, I was thrilled to find Mandy Moore finally recognized for her star turn as the Pearson family matriarch, as well as pleasantly surprised to see Chris Sullivan (whose character struggled with fertility and mental-health issues this past season) score a nod for his supporting turn;
3) Of all the nominations, I think I was most excited about the hilarious "Holiday Party (I Did a Little Cocaine Tonight)" (from the
Documentary Now! episode "Original Cast Album: Co-Op") being up for Original Music and Lyrics; and
4) I would say my biggest disappointment was the total shutout of Comedy Central's
The Other Two, one of my new favorites.
Rebecca
I usually have a lot to complain about with the Emmy nominations, but this year's nominees aren't as bad as usual, even with some of their more unexpected picks. Comedy-wise, I was delighted by all the love for Schitt's Creek, though I was upset to see Grace and Frankie, Will & Grace, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Better Things all cut out of the acting categories. All of the comedy nominees are pretty worthy though, even if there were a few that I would swap out. Veep also deserved some more love all around, with the never-nominated Timothy Simons deserving some recognition for the show's final season. Drama was extremely weak this year, however, and there's plenty of nominees there that I wouldn't nominate in stronger years. Given the choices out there, there isn't much else to complain about there, but I would have loved to see Susan Kelechi Watson and Frances Conroy break into the Supporting Actress crop. In the Limited Series/Movie category, every nominee whose work I've seen is very worthy, but some nominations for ABC's Live In Front of a Studio Audience in the acting categories would have been nice to see. In the Variety categories, I was happy to see Amy Sedaris and Sarah Silverman's shows score nods, though I was hoping to see Tracey Ullman's Show score its third nomination in the Variety Sketch category. The Variety Talk category was pretty solid, though I would swap out The Daily Show for Late Night with Seth Meyers, which has been ignored in the category for years even though I find it to be one of the strongest of all the late-night talk shows.
