Expect an Emmy Bloodbath in the Overcrowded Drama and Comedy Series Races

Clayton Davis The 74th Emmy Awards nominations could set some records, and make history — whether it’s actors or studios or streamers, everyone is looking to dominate the headlines. The most exciting record is the 160 nominations in one year by a studio — that was set in 2020 by Netflix.

David Beckham’s Studio 99 is producing a series on the rise of football’s Premier League billionaires for Paramount+ as the streamer unveils a five-strong UK factual slate that includes shows on luxury yachts, the Loch Ness monster, Simple Minds and strippers in Vegas.

EXCLUSIVE: Armani Jackson (Honor Society, Chad), Bella Shepard (iCarly, The Wilds), Chloe Rose Robertson (Wildflower) and Tyler Lawrence Gray (Our Town, Macbeth) are set as the young leads in Paramount+ series Wolf Pack. The series hails from Jeff Davis, developer and executive producer of the 2011 MTV series Teen Wolf, and MTV Entertainment Studios where Davis is under a deal.

Emmy voting has started today, and for our penultimate TV Talk podcast of this stage of the season, we have some names for you to consider.

Hunter Ingram Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched “Brave,” the series finale of “Love, Victor,” now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.Hulu’s “Love, Victor” came full circle in its series finale, ending where it began — atop Creekwood High’s Winter Carnival Ferris wheel.In the closing moments of the third season, Victor (Michael Cimino) returned to the spot where, exactly one year earlier in the pilot, he took a ride with former girlfriend Mia (Rachel Hilson) to conceal his sexuality. Only this time, it was his ex-boyfriend Benji (George Sear) sitting beside Victor, professing their love for one another after they spent the season apart so Benji could address his alcoholism and Victor could get to know himself.

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired North American rights to the romantic drama The Good House from Amblin Partners, in association with Participant. The film based on Ann Leary’s New York Times bestseller is heading to the Tribeca Film Festival for its U.S. premiere in June 18, and will hit theaters via Roadside on September 30.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterPlenty of newbies will be breaking into the comedy category this Emmys season, but two leading rivals for the title will be actual competitors for the first time: “Atlanta” and “Ted Lasso.”As wildly different series that fall into the same genre in the awards competition, their performances in this race will likely lead to a discussion about the industry’s relationship with feel-good TV.“Those shows are going to have interesting moments, both with Donald Glover having been out of the spotlight for a minute, intentionally, taking a detour with a music career that was more successful than I think a lot of people expected,” a Hollywood industry insider told Variety, “while there’s been probably more publicity than I think Apple would like on the fact that the upcoming third season is likely the last season of ‘Ted Lasso.’” The Jason Sudeikis-led Apple TV+ comedy is the reigning champ and has never aired in an “Atlanta”-less world, while Donald Glover’s show is a twice-nominated FX series that has lost twice, first to HBO’s “Veep” in Season 1 and then to Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in Season 2.And just as “Ted Lasso” has been a topic of joyful conversation continuously for almost two years, the very idea of when “Atlanta’s” Europe-set Season 3 would finally premiere — following a four-year wait since Season 2 — has also been a much-discussed event.“I’d anticipate that if ‘Atlanta’ was gone for so long and came back as the exact same thing, it probably would have less of a chance,” another industry insider says.

Returning to Hulu for its third and final season “Love, Victor” brings the story of Victor Salazar’s (Michael Cimino) queer coming-of-age full circle. While at its heart the show remains a romantic comedy, it also finally embraces the artistic freedom to truly explore his sexuality.

EXCLUSIVE: AllBlk has greenlit the supernatural drama Wicket City from executive producers Tressa “Azarel” Smallwood and Donte Lee set to debut this winter.

Charlie Amter As the war in Ukraine rages on, recently marking a grim 100-day milestone, some of the country’s music stars are banding together to raise funds abroad in an effort to aid their countrymen, and women, still fighting in the east of the now war-torn nation.Ivan Dorn, one of Ukraine’s most eclectic and best-known music names, just finished a string of European tour dates and he now will be joined by Ukrainian artists The Hardkiss, ONUKA, and Artem Pivovarov in a small American “Stand Up For Ukraine” tour this summer. The trek is set to begin in Miami later this month, with shows to follow next month in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.For Dorn, the gigs are a chance to play for Ukrainian fans currently living in the United States, as well as for liberal Russian expatriates and curious Americans who are sympathetic to Ukraine’s current predicament.

EXCLUSIVE: Chloë Sevigny is the latest cast addition to Poker Face, Peacock’s 10-episode mystery drama series starring Natasha Lyonne, from Rian Johnson, his T-Street banner and MRC Television.

Frank Rizzo After the Great Recession of ’08 — not to mention anxiety about the current economy — will a Reagan-era comedy about insider trading and the glory of greed get the same laughs? Can it sing, too?In the 1983 movie “Trading Places,” the life of a financial manager is switched with a Philly street hustler when two filthy-rich commodities brokers — brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke  — make a nature-versus-nurture wager and puppet-master their secret social experiment. The same prince-and-pauper plot outline applies to the latest film-to-musical treatment premiering this month at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, which last launched the joyous “The Prom” to New York — and before that, the less successful “Tuck Everlasting.” But this screwball switcheroo still has a long way to go before it’s a safe Broadway bet.

Jessica Kiang It’s possible that the very first casualty of war is not truth, but nuance. Since Maksym Nakonechnyi’s grimly disturbing “Butterfly Vision” was conceived and shot, the protracted Donbas conflict during which it is set has flared into all-out war following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

A year into the COVID pandemic, out director Andrew Ahn received the script for Joel Kim Booster’s “Fire Island” and knew almost immediately he needed to make it.

Carson Burton The new half-hour anthology series “Spotlights: A Showtime Short Film Series” features work from various emerging filmmakers, Showtime has announced. All five epidodes of the series will premiere Sunday, June 12 on streaming and on demand for Showtime subscribers.Each episode of “Spotlights” will showcase two to three short films that vary in timely subject matter, tone and perspective.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFX has commissioned a comedy pilot from Brian Jordan Alvarez.The pilot is called “English Teacher.” Alvarez will star as Evan, a gay high school English teacher in Austin, TX, and his fellow teachers trying to balance the competing demands of the students and their parents in a world where the rules seem to change every day. Alvarez is writing the pilot and will also executive produce in addition to starring.

The perfect scene partner! While reflecting on filming season 4 of Stranger Things, Brett Gelman revealed that having Murray team up with Joyce — without Hopper — offered a unique professional highlight for him.