Darren Criss (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace”), Aidy Bryant (“Saturday Night Live”) and Kenan Thompson (“SNL”) earned their first Emmy nominations for acting this year, but these aren’t their first nominations overall. All three of them recently contended for songwriting. And they’re far from the only ones who have crossed the threshold between music and other fields at the Emmys. Far from it.
Criss rose to fame as an actor on “Glee” before earning his first acting nomination, Best Movie/Mini Actor for playing killer Andrew Cunanan in the limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” But “Glee” is what brought him his very first Emmy recognition. He earned a nom for Best Music and Lyrics in 2015 for writing the song “This Time” from the series finale episode “Dreams Come True.” But he lost that prize to Kyle Dunnigan and Jim Roach, who wrote “Girl You Don’t Need Makeup” for “Inside Amy Schumer.”
With first-round voting performer ballots topping out at more than a dozen pages each, name recognition is important in the increasingly crowded space that is the Emmys, but it alone isn’t enough. Instead what grabbed voters’ attention this year was a combination of star power and consistent body of work on the small screen.
Going into Emmy nomination morning, it seemed pretty unfathomable that an A-lister like Al Pacino wouldn’t get recognized for his turn as the late college football coach Joe Paterno in HBO’s original movie “Paterno,” but that’s exactly what happened. The movie itself scored a nom in the television movie category, undoubtedly aided by the combined star power of Pacino, executive producer and director Barry Levinson and its ripped- from-the-headlines tale. But Pacino himself, who had not done a television project since 2013’s “Phil Spector,” couldn’t beat out more familiar TV names such as Darren Criss (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“Patrick Melrose”) and Jesse Plemons (“Black Mirror: USS Callister”) to earn a spot on the ballot.
Similarly, big-name creatives David Fincher and David Lynch were shut out of the drama and limited races, respectively, for “Mindhunter” and “Twin Peaks.” Drama was dominated by returning series, some in their sophomore years (“This Is Us,” “The Handmaid’s Tale”) and some longer-running (“The Americans,” “Game of Thrones”). The limited series category, too, was populated by familiarity, be it new installments of anthologies (“American Crime Story,” “Genius”) or those with a larger pool of year-over-year TV talent (“Godless,” for example).
thewrap: Did you hear?! The ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ squad received a total of 18 Emmy nominations, including individual nods for Darren Criss, Judith Light, and Édgar Ramírez. Congratulations to our #Emmys "Miniseries/Movies" cover models! #ACSVersace
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“Ryan Murphy turned to me one day with my dog-eared, well-worn script and was like, ‘You should be a director.’ Then he called and offered me the opportunity on Versace. It was just a really profound gift. I’ve never met an actor I didn’t like—even the prickly ones I love. It was a great opportunity to work with people like Darren Criss and Edgar Ramirez and all this great theater talent. Thank God you have someone like Ryan who is willing to look at someone like Jon Jon Briones and see the talent in him and give him a huge opportunity. It was a great, great first directing gig. I have a few directing offers for the fall. I’m not sure how it’s all going to go, but I know I will be directing for Ryan in the fall.“
John Legend gets some love. In a category filled with hard-core, dramatic performances, it has been interesting to see the star of a musical, Legend, get a nod in the Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category. But then “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” happened to be no ordinary musical. Though Legend doesn’t stand a chance – especially against Darren Criss’ chilling performance in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” – it’s nice to see the well-staged “Superstar” get some love
The Emmy nominations brought a much-deserved accolade to Darren Criss for his extraordinary work in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.” Criss was nominated for Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. There is stiff competition in the category, including Antonio Banderas for “Genius: Picasso” and John Legend for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” among others, but we think the breadth of Criss’ amazing performance, the nuance with which he presented Andrew Cunanan as both tortured, closeted gay man and vicious, sociopathic serial killer, deserves the win.
If you didn’t see the series, binge it. Criss is mesmerizing. Our only surprise is that the Emmys didn’t recognize some of the other players in that amazing series, notably Judith Light. The series itself is nominated for Outstanding Limited Series, and we don’t see anything else in the category that is as good. Ryan Murphy and Bryan Falchuk should get the win.
Welcome to the Awards Circuit podcast titled “CIRCUIT BREAKER!,” a weekly podcast from AwardsCircuit.com featuring host Clayton Davis along with panelists Sam Coffey, Mark Johnson, Joey Magidson, Chris James, and Karen Peterson. We discuss movies, television and all the awards shows that need predicting. New episodes are released every Monday. | 27 June 2018
Nominations for the 70th annual Emmy Awards were announced today. The list of nominees are varied with some standby shows and some love for some newer or freshman shows. Netflix beat HBO for the first time in the streaming service’s history with 112 nominations this year which is up from their 91 nominations last year. However, HBO’s Game of Thrones led the field of shows with 22 nominations overall followed by NBC’s SNL and HBO’s Westworld with 21 nominations and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s tale receiving 20 nominations. As for freshman series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel received 14 nominations and HBO’s Barry received 13 nominations. Some surprises included no acting nominations for Game of Thrones in any of the Lead categories, Twin Peaks not being nominated for Best Limited Series, YouTube Red’s Cobra Kai only getting one nomination, and NBC’s The Good Place being shut out in the Comedy categories. | 12 July 2018
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