Harriet Walter’s Rare Back-to-Back Double Nomination Highlights This Year’s Guest Emmy Races

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Mary Lou Belli knows she’s the longshot to win the Emmy for outstanding comedy director, and that’s fine with her. After all, she’s up against some marquee names, including Tim Burton (“Wednesday”), Bill Hader (“Barry”) and Amy Sherman-Palladino (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer and Oscar-winning director/producer Barbara Kopple are this year’s recipients of the 44th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards lifetime achievement honors, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was set to announce on Tuesday. The News & Doc Emmys take place over two days next month in New York: Blitzer will receive his honor at the news ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 27, and Kopple’s Emmy will be presented at the documentary ceremony on Thursday, September 28.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Leah Remini-hosted Game Show Network series “People Puzzler” is set for off-network syndication on stations this fall. The gamer has now been cleared by Lionsgate-owned syndication distributor Debmar-Mercury in more than 90% of the country, including Fox-owned stations in the three top markets: WWOR New York, KCOP Los Angeles and WFLD Chicago.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large For those of us who write about the industry, it’s been a bit of a challenge finding ways to still cover the Emmy Awards, especially as Phase 2 voting got underway on Aug. 17. My colleague Emily Longeretta, who oversees our special Emmy extra editions, has gotten creative in turning some of our podcast interviews into stories, for example, and relying on other approaches to covering nominated shows and talent.

Sage Steele is opening up about her experience with the late Barbara Walters.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large And yet, let’s give credit where credit is due. It is extremely impressive. And it has only happened twice before: In 1992, when NBC scored four of five slots, with “I’ll Fly Away,” “L.A.

Ethan Shanfeld Sage Steele, the veteran sportscaster who recently left ESPN after settling a lawsuit with the sports media giant, has accused the late Barbara Walters of assaulting her backstage during an appearance on “The View.” “It was Barbara, Whoopi [Goldberg] and myself in the dark green room off to the side,” Steele said on an episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” Thursday. “I was probably about four feet from the wall and the trash can, and Barbara was standing over here in front of me. She just started to back up toward me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me, and it pushed me back into the wall and the trash can.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It would come as no surprise to learn that “Back on the Strip” started out as a “Magic Mike” parody. I’m not saying that it did. (The main character is named Merlin, not Mike, after all.) But what else could explain the bizarrely literal premise of an ensemble indie comedy in which our hero is a wannabe magician who heads to Vegas hoping to be the next David Copperfield, only to wind up shaking his wand for a Chippendales-style male dance revue instead? What makes “Strip” so consistently funny for most of its too-long two-hour running time isn’t Merlin’s lame prestidigi-dream (that part feels like co-writers Chris Sanders and Eric Daniel have been watching too many Nickelodeon movies) but the sorry state of his fellow dancers: a has-been crew called the Chocolate Chips.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large One of my favorite categories this year, however, is lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie. And here’s the top reason: This is the only acting category this year that features not a single previous Emmy winner among its nominees. As a matter of fact, half of them have never been nominated at all.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Primetime Emmys were delayed, but the show must go on for the Television Academy 75th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards. This year’s recipients, revealed on Tuesday morning, will be honored at an awards ceremony on Wednesday, Oct.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Jo Koy is extending his relationship with Netflix, signing a deal to bring his next two stand-up comedy specials to the streamer. The specials will mark Koy’s fifth and sixth with Netflix; first up, the next one will tape at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on November 10 and 11, with an expected 2024 premiere. Art & Industry is producing that special.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large In a previous column I made a strong case for moving the ceremony to November, when at least the Emmys wouldn’t feel too stale or crash into Oscars season. But since Fox is moving forward with January, the silver lining is that there’s a lot more time — five months, as a matter of fact — for producer Jesse Collins Entertainment, along with Fox and the TV Academy, to figure out how to make this major Emmy anniversary a show to remember. Much of that will come down to who hosts the telecast.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Keeping that in mind, there I was once again backstage last year in the press room when I realized that no one else was going to ask a similar question to the “Ted Lasso” cast and producers. Having won back-to-back Emmys for outstanding comedy, “Ted Lasso” was on a roll. And yet, there were already signals that “Ted Lasso” might wrap after a third and final season.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Emmys officially have a new date: Fox and the Television Academy were set to announce this morning that the 75th Emmy Awards will shift to Monday, January 15, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT.

Sophia Scorziello editor This season, television was pushed to its limits and into spaces that teetered genres and kept audiences guessing. From an improv show about a fake court trial to mockumentaries about public schools and vampires, a sci-fi drama about nuns, the 2023 Emmy nominations were a grab bag full of interesting television, and artisans helped take them even further.

Sophia Scorziello editor “A lot of what we do as directors is just putting out fires,” said “Ted Lasso” director Declan Lowney. Whether those are unavoidable or self-made fires, the directors at Variety’s Creative Collaborations: Directors on Directors panel all agreed that their shows and films faced serious challenges — but that didn’t stop their projects from earning Emmy nominations. Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton of “Fleishman is in Trouble,” Peter Hoar of “The Last of Us,” Lowney of “Ted Lasso,” Glenn Weiss of “The Oscars” and Davis Guggenheim of “Still: A Michael J.

Hannah Brown is opening up about finding love on a dating app with her boyfriend, Adam Woolard.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Succession,” “The Last of Us” and “Ted Lasso.” “Choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life; the false Grail will take it from you.” This quote from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) could also apply to selecting episode submissions for the Primetime Emmy Awards. Some choose well, others not so much. Per Emmy rules, after the nominations are officially announced, the selections for drama series and comedy series each choose six episodes that best exhibit the very best of their nominated seasons.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “Miss Universe” is extending its relationship with The Roku Channel and Telemundo. The Miss Universe Organization, which has been undergoing an overhaul under new owners JKN Global Group PCL, has sealed a multi-year deal with Roku and Telemundo to continue as the U.S. streaming and broadcast homes for the pageant, in both English and Spanish, respectively.

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