Who Will Bring Home Awards On TV's Biggest Night?
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — NBC's "This is Us" will look to end an extended drought among broadcast networks when it competes for the drama series Emmy Sunday, while the network's "Saturday Night Live" will try to cap what has already been a winning Emmy season.
"This is Us" is the first drama nominee from the four major broadcast networks since CBS' "The Good Wife" in 2011. A series from the major broadcast networks hasn't won in the category since Fox's "24" in 2006.
The show will have the advantage of not competing against the category winner of the past two years -- "Game of Thrones." HBO's smash hit wasn't eligible to be nominated because its only new episodes aired during the eligibility period were part of the body of work considered for last year's victory.
Another HBO hit, "Westworld," is in the mix for outstanding dramaseries, along with Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," AMC's "Better Call Saul" and a trio of Netflix streaming shows: "The Crown," "House of Cards" and "Stranger Things."
Among comedy programs, HBO's "Veep" will be seeking its third consecutive Emmy. The show will compete with FX's "Atlanta," ABC's "black-ish," Netflix's "Master of None," HBO's "Silicon Valley," Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and ABC's "Modern Family."
The nomination for "Modern Family" is the show's eighth in eight seasons. It was the winner in the category for five consecutive seasons, tying the record set by NBC's "Frasier" from 1994-98.
"Saturday Night Live," which saw a rebirth in the past year thanks largely to its lampooning of candidate-then-President Donald Trump, will compete for outstanding variety sketch series.
Challenging "SNL" are truTV's "Billy on the Street," IFC's "Documentary Now!," Comedy Central's "Drunk History," IFC's "Portlandia" and HBO's "Tracey Ullman's Show."
"SNL" won five awards during last weekend's Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies, including guest performer wins for Dave Chappelle and Melissa McCarthy. The show has multiple nominees -- Vanessa Bayer, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon -- in the supporting comedy actress category Sunday, along with a supporting comedy actor nod for Alec Baldwin, for his portrayal of Trump.
"SNL" is also nominated for outstanding writing for a variety series, competing with the teams behind "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "The Late Show
with Stephen Colbert."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has won five consecutive Emmys for outstanding lead actress in a comedy for "Veep," will look to repeat in the category, but she's facing a tough field that includes both Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin of Netflix's "Grace and Frankie."
Also nominated are Pamela Adlon of "Better Things," Tracee Ellis Ross for "black-ish," Allison Janney for "Mom" and Ellie Kemper for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
Louis-Dreyfus has won nine Emmys in her career -- seven as a performer and two as a producer of "Veep." In addition to her five performance wins for "Veep," she won an Emmy as lead actress on "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and as supporting actress on "Seinfeld."
Jeffrey Tambor will look to collect his third consecutive lead comedy Emmy for his cross-dressing role in Amazon's "Transparent." He'll be challenged by"Atlanta's" Donald Glover, Zach Galifianakis of "Baskets," Anthony Andersonfor "black-ish," Aziz Ansari for "Master of None" and William H. Macy for "Shameless."
Nominees for outstanding lead actress in a drama series are Keri Russell for "The Americans," Claire Foy for "The Crown," Elisabeth Moss for "The Handmaid's Tale," Robin Wright for "House of Cards," Viola Davis for "How to Get Away with Murder" and Evan Rachel Wood for "Westworld."
Two actors from "This is Us" are nominated for lead actor in a drama series -- Sterling K. Brown and Milo Ventimiglia. Anthony Hopkins was nominated for his work in "Westworld," along with Matthew Rhys of "The Americans," Bob Odenkirk of "Better Call Saul," Kevin Spacey for "House of Cards" and Liev Schreiber of "Ray Donovan."
Competing for outstanding limited series will be HBO's "Big Little Lies," FX's "Fargo," FX's "Feud: Bette and Joan," National Geographic's "Genius" and HBO's "The Night Of."
For outstanding television movie, nominees are Netflix's "Black Mirror: San Junipero," NBC's "Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love," HBO's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," PBS' "Sherlock: The Lying Detective" and HBO's "The Wizard of Lies."
Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon are both nominated for outstanding actress in a limited series or movie for their work in "Feud," while Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon earned nods in the category for HBO's "Big Little Liars." Rounding out the category are Carrie Coon of "Fargo" and Felicity Huffman of ABC's "American Crime."
Robert De Niro is nominated as outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie for "The Wizard of Lies," topping a star-studded category that also includes Geoffrey Rush for NatGeo's "Genius," Ewan McGregor for "Fargo," Benedict Cumberbatch for "Sherlock: The Lying Detective" and Riz Ahmed and John Turturro for "The Night Of."
CBS' "The Amazing Race" is again nominated for outstanding reality-competition program. The show has been nominated in all 16 years the category has existed. It won each of the first seven years, and again in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
NBC's "The Voice," which has won the previous two years, is nominated in the category, along with NBC's "American Ninja Warrior," Lifetime's "Project Runway," VH1's "RuPaul's Drag Race" and Bravo's "Top Chef."
The 69th annual Emmy Awards honor programming initially airing between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. from June 1, 2016, to May 31, 2017. The ceremony, televised by CBS, will be held at the Microsoft Theater and hosted by Stephen Colbert.
For a complete list of winners in categories already announced, nominees and all categories, click here for the Television Academy's website.
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