2023 Emmy Nominations, Airdate, and More

As of posting, the 2023 Primetime Emmys have been postponed. While the original date was set for September 18, 2023, the ceremony will now air on January 15, 2024.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has already postponed the Daytime Emmys and the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards. The Emmys still might not happen until the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) agree to a fair deal.

A lot of shows’ For Your Consideration (FYC) campaigns were also impacted by recent events. According to The Wrap, the WGA suspended all its FYC campaigns as part of the strike, leaving promotion solely up to the studios. And those studios, as we’ve seen in recent months, only truly care about a few big projects (and not necessarily the people who make them). So if something got canceled or removed from streaming—like Willow, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies—it probably didn’t get a lot of Emmys love this year.

Let’s take a look at 2023’s Emmy nominees—we’ll analyze some of the biggest categories, but you can always find the full list on the Emmys website.

2023 Emmy nominees, comedy

This year’s big comedy players are Ted Lasso and Abbott Elementary once again, with Only Murders in the Building taking a smaller share of the nominations than it did last year (11 vs. 17). Newcomers Jury Duty, Poker Face, Shrinking, Wednesday, and The Bear also make a few appearances.

It’s time for the Television Academy to admit it—their drama/comedy categories no longer make any sense. Yes, The Bear is considered a comedy, along with Barry and Wednesday. Sure, we guess! But shows like The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers aren’t included as comedy, since animation is still considered a genre and not a medium.

There are quite a few shows missing from this year’s comedy-specific awards, including Ghosts, Atlanta, The Great, and Schmigadoon!. Some of these shows received nominations in other categories—like costume design and choreography—but don’t appear on the higher profile award lists.

2023 Emmy nominees, drama

We’re glad to see The Last of Us, Yellowjackets, and Better Call Saul on this list, but what’s up with the Television Academy and HBO? Succession scored 20 nominations this year, and its cast dominates several categories. HBO (and Max, “the one to watch for HBO”) received the most nominations overall this year, with a whopping 127.

In fact, this year’s nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series are exclusively actors from just two HBO shows (four from Succession and four from The White Lotus, another Emmys favorite).

For comparison’s sake, the Hollywood Critics Association’s comparable category for cable TV represents supporting actors from seven different shows (Succession, Yellowstone, Yellowjackets, FBI, Better Call Saul, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus). And its comparable category for supporting actors in streaming TV represents eight more: The Handmaid’s Tale, Star Trek: Picard, The Boys, For All Mankind, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, The Crown, The Diplomat, and Andor.

Succession and The White Lotus are good, but they weren’t the only shows on TV this year, so what’s up, Television Academy?

Other 2023 Emmy nominations

We don’t have the room to go over every Emmy category—you can check the Emmys website for those—but in the spirit of recognizing different types of media and behind-the-scenes creators, let’s check out a few other categories.

NBC’s That’s My Jam kicked Let’s Make a Deal out of the Outstanding Game Show category this year, although unfortunately Dropout’s Game Changer failed to change the game by appearing in this year’s nominations.

The animation category is a little weird this year—the most surprising nomination is Entergalactic, which is a movie and not a TV show like the other nominees. It’s kind of silly that the Emmys don’t include it in the Outstanding Television Movie category. If they’re having a hard time thinking of other animated series beyond The Simpsons and Rick and Morty, we have plenty of recommendations for them. And anime too, if they’re willing to go international.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies scored choreography nominations for six of its routines. This must be pretty embarrassing for Paramount+, which unexpectedly canceled the show and deleted every episode from its platform just weeks after it aired.