Emmy🌃 fever has swept a💧cross Hollywood — and it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
While nominations won’t be announced until July 13, preliminary voting is under way in 117 categories. And the traditi𒊎onal battle pitting commercial vs. cable networks has been upstaged by streaming services Amazon and Netflix — which have been holding nightly “For Your Consideration” question-and-answer sesౠsions for 20,000 members of the TV academy.
“Netflix has been drawing crowds in Beverly Hills and Amazon took over the old Hollywood Athletic Club,” says Pete Hammond, awards columnist for Deadline Hollywood and a former member of the board of governors. “They shipped in the sets from their variou🌊s shows. It was like going to a museum. Some of the sets were incredibly beautiful. They did that all of May and into June every night and on the weekends.”
This year, streaming network Hulu has a major contender in all drama categories in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and has gone beyond billboards and banners to campaign for votes, stationing women dressed in the series’ red cloak and white bonnet uniforms in various🦄 locations around LA.
Because, he🐓y, when it comes to winning a𓃲n Emmy, no gesture is too large.
“Whoever rises to the top is the show that finds a way to get people to watch their shows,” says Hammond. “The campaign is as important as getting the awa🍌rd itself.”
The explosion of TV platforms and content has dramatically raised the stakes in drama categories across the board. Academy president Jim Yeager released some mind-boggling figures. For the seven spots in the Best Drama series category there are 180 entries — up from 151 in 2016 — including front-runners “The Crown” (Netflix) and “This Is Us” (NBC). For the six spots in Best Actor and Actress categories, there are 140 and 113 entries, respectively, both up♌ drastic🌠ally from last year.
Another abundant category is Best Actress in a limited series/TV movie. There were 30 entries in that category in 2016; this year, there are 50, including a resurgent Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, t♕he stars of FX’s “Feud: Bette and Joan,” who are expected to duke it out with the younger stars of “” (Reese Witherspoon and ✨Nicole Kidman).
Hammond acknowledges the inf♈usion of visiting film stars has made this category especially competitive. “It’s very hard [for them] to get things done in the main film industry,” Hammond says. “And some of the best scripts [they are offered] are on television.”
Emmy nominations are also a matter 🔴of timing, and Hammond acknowledges that projects that were released la﷽st summer like HBO’s “The Night Of” — and cancelled series such as WGN’s “Underground” — may not receive their due.
“It’s very difficult,” he says. “It’s like opening a movie in January for Oscar consiꦐderation.”
Following the nominations, awards watchers will have t🐭o wait until the fall to see the main ceremonies, airing Sept. 17 on CBS with host Stephen Colbert.