On Wednesday morning actress Yvette Nicole Brown and Television Academy Chair Frank Scherma announced the nominees for the 75th annual Prime Time Emmy Awards.
To no surprise leading the charge with the most nominations is HBO’s messy rich white people drama Succession which earned 27 Emmy nominations. Not too close behind is The Last of Us — the queerest most-nominated show of the Emmy season. The White Lotus garnered 23 nods while Ted Lasso earned 21.
Speaking of The Last of Us, the HBO drama was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series while star Bella Ramsey earned her first Emmy nomination for her impressive turn as Ellie opposite America’s favorite Daddy Pedro Pascal, who also earned his first nom (he also received nom for hosting Saturday Night Live and Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World).
The Last of Us also earned Murray Bartlett a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series for his performance as Frank in one of the best episodes in television history titled “Long, Long Time”. His co-star in the episode, Nick Offerman also earned a nomination as Frank’s partner Bill. And the cherry on top? Bartlett also earned a nom for his role in Welcome to Chippendales.
The Last of Us recognition continues with Melanie Lynskey, whose role as the evil and sickening Kathleen earned her one of her first Emmy noms. The second was for another queer-driven series Yellowjackets, which also earned her an nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a drama alongside Ramsey. The Showtime series also earned a nom for Outstanding Drama Series.
LGBTQ guest actors were in full effect this season as Cherry Jones, one of the only sources of queer representation on Succession, earned a nom for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series in the acclaimed HBO series. Nathan Lane also received a nomination for his role as Teddy in the popular Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building. The fabulous Niecy Nash-Betts earned a nom for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie her role in Netflix’s divisive Dahmer while Maria Bello scored a nom for her role in the wild revenge drama Beef.
The Andrew Ahn-directed Fire Island earned a nomination for Outstanding Television Movie while the film’s star and writer of the queer re-hashing of Pride and Prejudice, Joel Kim Booster received a nomination for Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.
On the comedy series side, not much queer representation was present. Of the series nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, only Abbott Elementary has an openly fully realized queer character played by Chris Perfetti that is part of the core cast. The very queer Wednesday was nominated and in the last season of Ted Lasso, they leaned into Colin Hughes (Billy Harris) and Trent Crimm’s (James Lance) queerness alongside Juno Temple‘s Emmy-nominated performance of Keeley, who is bisexual on the series.
Despite the controversies surrounding it, The Other Two earned a nom for Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series while Bad Sisters snagged one for Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series.
For Outstanding Limited Series there are glimpses of queerness with nominated shows such as Beef, Daisy Jones & the Six, and, of course, the divisive Dahmer.
Wanda Sykes earned two nominations for her comedy special I’m An Entertainer one for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-recorded) and another Outstanding Writing For A Variety Special. Comedian and actor John Early earned a nom in the same category for Peacock’s Would It Kill You To Laugh? Starring Kate Berlant & John Early. Paula Pell also got some Emmy nomination love. She received a nom for Outstanding Actress In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series for Die Hart 2: Die Harter. On top of all these queer specials, Disney+’s Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium earned a nod for Outstanding Variety Special (Live)
On the unscripted and reality side of the Emmy grid, Prime Video’s My Transparent Life for Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special alongside queer adjacent films like Being Mary Tyler Moore, Judy Blume Forever,andPamela, A Love Story.
It’s without a doubt that RuPaul’s Drag Race is an Emmys juggernaut, earning 63 nominations and winning 26 of those. Last year, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls put an end to Drag Race‘s Outstanding Reality Competition Program winning streak, but, to no surprise, RuPaul’s game changing reality competition is back in the running this year against The Amazing Race, Survivor, Top Chef and The Voice.
Drag Race‘s aftershow Untucked also earned a nomination for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program alongside Bravo’s reality series Selling Sunset. And once again, Mother Ru received a nomination for Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Competition Program alongside Nailed It‘s Nicole Byer as well as Queer Eye‘s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, and Jonathan Van Ness — whose Netflix series received a nom for Outstanding Structured Reality Program.
The 75th annual Prime Time Emmy Awards which are set to take place September 18 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and will air on Fox at 5pm PST.