Emmy nominations 2022: Biggest talking points, from Succession’s sweep to Chadwick Boseman’s posthumous nod

Hello, and welcome to our 2022 Emmy nominations live blog!

So today is a big day for TV watchers, with a host of shows in the running for this year’s Emmy nominations. The nods will be announced at 3pm today and can be watched live at Emmys.com, with Curb Your Enthusiasm star JB Smoove and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero on hand to crack awkward jokes in between announcements.

Of new programming, Yellowjackets was a major hit this year and is also expected to collect nominations today for its vast ensemble cast, which includes veterans including Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci, newcomers such as Ella Purnell, and the great, often overlooked Melanie Lynskey. The Independent’s Annabel Nugent chatted to Purnell earlier this year in a very candid conversation that roped in everything from Brad Pitt to The Daily Mail. She also wrote a wonderful tribute to Lynskey, an actor who – if all goes her way today – may no longer be allowed to be referred to as “underrated”. Good for her!

In a stark reflection of the TV landscape, the limited series categories are among the most hotly contested categories at this year’s Emmys. Just look at the material: The White Lotus, The Dropout, Dopesick, Maid, The Staircase, Under the Banner of Heaven, Pam & Tommy, Station Eleven and Gaslit. Our big money is on a White Lotus sweep, even if it’s technically just finished filming a second season (rules? The Emmys don’t need rules!), but shout out to Amanda Seyfried as disgraced tech mogul Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout. She gave far and away the most riveting small-screen performance of the year.

Comedy is also fraught with possible contenders. Only Murders in the Building, which just kicked off its second season, may be the most likely to score numerous nominations for its slow-burn yet wonderfully comforting first year. In that scenario, though, who would win between inevitable Best Actor nominees Martin Short and Steve Martin? Would they potentially cancel each other out? Only time will tell. A few weeks ago, Tom Murray wrote a celebration of the series and its low-stakes drama, which is well worth a read!

One show practically guaranteed multiple nominations (and likely a Best Drama series win) is Squid Game, the runaway Netflix smash that dominated our social media feeds for weeks last year. A win would also go down in Emmys history, as it would become the first ever series not in the English language to take the top prize. We’re obviously getting a bit ahead of ourselves at this point, but it would be a much deserved victory all the same.

It’s worth noting what a huge shift in the television landscape the Emmy favourites represent. A few years ago, the Emmys were dominated by cable networks like HBO and CBS. Now, the potential nominees are awash with shows from streamers like Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video. Last year, Netflix boasted 44 Emmy wins across the board, equalling CBS’ 1974 record for most wins for a network in a single year. Could Squid Game see them beat that record?

Due to the Emmy Awards’ eligibility rules, two shows with split seasons will have portions of their series eligible, but not all of them. It’s a tad confusing but Stranger Things season 4 volume 1is in the running but not volume 2, which came out 1 July. In her four-star review of volume 1, The Independent’s Amanda Whiting called the episodes “formulaic” but “fabulous”.Likewise, Better Call Saul’s season 6 part 1 is eligible but not part 2. Capeesh?

Could this be the year that Yellowstone finally meaningfully enters the Emmy conversation? The much-loved series set on a Montana ranch has tremendous word-of-mouth appeal, but has only been nominated once before – it lost an Emmy award for production design. And no actors among the standout cast have been nominated for an Emmy across the show’s first three seasons.

In January, though, Yellowstone earned a Screen Actors Guild nod for best ensemble in a television drama, alongside big shows like Succession and Squid Game. 2022 could be the year that British actor Kelly Reilly is nominated for her scene-stealing turn as the acerbic Beth Dutton. If she is, it’s easy to imagine Kevin Costner will get a corresponding nomination for his taciturn rancher John Dutton, the last real cowboy in America.

Unlike the Grammys, the Brits or the MTV Movie & TV Awards, the Emmys still has gendered categories for its acting awards. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, nonbinary Grey’s Anatomy star E.R. Fightmaster said, “It really should not matter what we look like when we are naked… It should just be the art we are making.”

Gendered categories puts actors like Fightmaster in a difficult position; though nonbinary actors are eligible to choose whether to submit in the actor or actress categories, why should they have to? Annabel Nugent wrote a compelling piece about this following the Brits’ decision to ditch gender divisions last year.