As Emmy voters prepare to submit their ballots later this month, the Television Critics Association just provided a good blueprint for shaking things up a bit this year.
The organization honored Succession for both program of the year, its top award recognizing exceptional cultural import, and outstanding achievement in drama, its equivalent to the Emmys’ top drama-series prize. The Bear continued its hot streak by winning on the comedy side, as well as taking the new program category. But elsewhere, the TCA eschewed obvious front-runners by recognizing shows and performers that are very much in the conversation—which is to say, Emmy-nominated—but haven’t exactly gotten their big awards moment yet.
Most thrillingly, Rhea Seehorn won the individual-achievement-in-drama award. Notably, the TCAs do not differentiate between lead or supporting, and also combine nominees into a genderless performer category. This means that the Better Call Saul scene-stealer was up against both prime Emmy competitors in supporting actress as well as all those Roy siblings on Succession. It’s her highest-profile win with any awards group to date, a visibility boost that can hopefully increase her chances when it comes to her last Emmys stand for Saul’s final season.
Over in comedy’s performer race, the front-runners—including The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White and Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson—were similarly beaten out in a welcome upset for Natasha Lyonne. The Poker Face star is the only above-the-line Emmy nominee for her Peacock breakout procedural, and she’s in a competitive Emmy race that also includes Dead to Me’s Christina Applegate and Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega. But her wonderfully funny and grounding performance stands apart, and may stand a shot as a fresher option for the Television Academy.
Elsewhere, Jury Duty—nominated by the TCA for achievement in comedy and James Marsden’s performance—eked out a win for, of all things, reality program, for which the Emmys did not consider it eligible. I Think You Should Leave’s win in variety programming here tells a similar story, since the Tim Robinson sketch comedy competes instead as a short-form series with the Television Academy. At least both parties wound up agreeing on Beef’s classification as a limited series, after some initial categorization confusion. The Netflix dark comedy, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, won the top race with TCAs this week, and is positioned as a strong favorite for the Emmys—whenever the broadcast may finally air.
All of which is to say—maybe it’s worth paying a bit more attention to these results, with so much of the usual phase two campaign apparatus MIA, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Voters could do worse than look at these results for some inspiration.
Full winners list:
- Program of the Year: Succession
- Outstanding New Program: The Bear
- Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: The Bear
- Outstanding Achievement in Drama: Succession
- Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, or Specials: Beef
- Individual Achievement in Comedy: Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face
- Individual Achievement in Drama: Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul
- Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk, or Sketch: I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson
- Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming: Ms. Marvel
- Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming: Bluey
- Outstanding Achievement in Reality: Jury Duty
- Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: The U.S. and the Holocaust
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