The easiest way of explaining the Emmy awards is to say that they’re like the Oscars, but for television. There is a Television Academy in Los Angeles, similar to the Motion Picture Academy, which honours the best of primetime television. The awards are determined in an identical manner as well, through peer voting. The Emmy awards differ from the Oscars, however, in the manner in which the votes are cast. Unlike the Oscars, where every voting member of the Motion Picture Academy gets to vote in all the categories, the members of the Television Academy are split into groups based on expertise. So, actors vote for acting categories, writers for writing categories and so on, making the voter group smaller, and the awards, very competitive.
The nominations this year have been mostly predictable, like Game of Thrones being nominated in 23 categories, but with a few surprises, like Aziz Ansari being nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in the Comedy Series category, as well as his show Master of None being nominated for the Outstanding Comedy Series. If Aziz Ansari wins, he will be the first actor of South Asian descent to win an Emmy in the lead comedy actor category (he’s the first to even be nominated), but faces stiff competition with the likes of Jeffrey Tambor (who plays a woman, Maura Pfefferman, in Transparent ) and Thomas Middleditch ( Silicon Valley ) also vying for the honour.
The Night Manager found itself in the honours list as well, with the show being nominated for Outstanding Limited Series, and its leads, Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman nominated for acting honours. It’s hard to say if they’d win though, because non-Americans haven’t had the greatest runs in the Emmys, and also because People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story is in the same category. The show scored 22 nominations, making it second only to Game of Thrones with respect to the volume of nominations, so while I have a great deal of love for The Night Manager , I won’t be putting my money on them. This year also saw The Americans finally being given the nominations it deserved after three years of being in the Emmy snub list. The show has been nominated for Outstanding Drama, and the leads, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, have both been nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor in a Drama Series category, respectively. Keri Russell is up against some stiff competition with Viola Davis ( How to Get Away with Murder ), Taraji P Henson ( Empire ) and Robin Wright ( House of Cards ), and so is Matthew Rhys, who is competing with the likes of Kevin Spacey ( House of Cards ), Bob Odenkirk ( Better Call Saul ) and Rami Malek ( Mr. Robot ).
I hope The Americans wins an award this year, not because the performances and writing were better than that of its fellow nominees’, but because it deals with a subject matter that is complicated, and uncomfortable — it makes you empathise with your enemies, and turns your perceptions of the bad guy on its head. So, could this be the year of the Emmy underdogs? Or will it be just another year where the rest of us television nuts wax lyrical about our deserving, offbeat favourites, but Game of Thrones and House of Cards split all the awards between themselves? Probably the latter.
