The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced today and in a true show of force Netflix has cemented its place as a major contender thanks to no less than 112 nominations. While this in itself is a milestone for the company, it also means this year Netflix has more Emmy nominations than HBO (108 nominations). A point to note, as it’s the first time in the last eighteen years that HBO will not be heading to the main event as the leader in terms of number of overall nominations.
Although this does represent a significant change at the network level, it’s very far from bad news for HBO. As when it comes to the top three most-nominated programs, two of them are HBO programs. “Game of Thrones” was the overall series leader pulling in 22 nominations, while “Westworld” came in joint-second along with NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” – both of which now have 21 nominations, and are just ahead of Hulu’s big hit “The Handmaid’s Tale” on 20 nominations. So in spite of Netflix commanding the coveted most-nominated network spot, it’s more of an across the board win for the streaming service than a reliance on any single series.
Which likely highlights both a major strength and weakness for the streaming service. As while it’s clear a number of shows offered by Netflix have been nominated, Netflix is still some way away from competing in the single title race – something Hulu seems to now have already achieved with “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As for the Netflix shows that have received Emmy nominations, “The Crown,” “GLOW,” and “Stranger Things,” are all up for at least one award. Along with the Black Mirror episode “USS Callister” for Television Movie – where it will be up against three offerings from HBO. Of course, nominations are not the same as winning, so it is still likely HBO will walk away from the show as one of the biggest winners, if not the biggest. For those planning on tuning in to see who does win what, the winners will be announced during the main awards show on September 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.