TV Movie Emmy Noms Are Nonsensical This Year — But This Category Has a Long History of Unusual Choices

Halim Dhanidina did something that lawyers and LGBTQ+ advocates in Long Beach had attempted for more than 50 years —  He helped put the nail in the coffin of the Police Department’s odious practice of targeting and discriminating against gay men in lewd conduct stings.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Variety special “Adele: One Night Only” and docuseries “The Beatles: Get Back” also scored five trophies, though they won’t figure in the Primetime Emmy ceremony. Those wins, along with the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show’s victory for variety special (live), led some to quip that the Creative Arts Emmys felt more like the Grammys.

Emmy’s Outstanding TV Movie category this year featured one traditional awards film, Barry Levinson’s harrowing WWII tale The Survivor for HBO, joined by four followups to canceled series, Disney+’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Showtime’s Ray Donovan: the Movie, Paramount+’s Reno 911!: the Hunt for QAnon and Roku’ Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas.

Night 2 of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards kicked off with Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Drama Series and Limited or Anthology Series, won by HBO’s Succession (casting directors Avy Kaufman and Francine Maisler), ABC’s Abbott Elementary (Wendy O’Brien) and HBO’s White Lotus (Meredith Tucker, Katie Doyle), respectively.

Abbott Elementary (which can be streamed with a Hulu subscription) was a critical and ratings hit during its freshman season, leading to six Primetime Emmy nominations. While series creator and star Quinta Brunson hit a major first with her awards nods, this year's awards noms marked a major milestone for Mrs. Howard actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, as this is her first nomination, which is for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Night one of the 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards is underway at the Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. The first of two Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies this year, the Saturday night event focuses on mostly unscripted fare, including reality and documentaries, as well as variety shows and specials. (Animation is also included on the evening.) High-profile awards on Saturday include animated program, character voice-over, documentary or nonfiction series, documentary or nonfiction special, exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking, music direction, narrator, short form comedy/drama/variety series, structured reality program, unstructured reality program, variety special (live) and variety special (pre-recorded). Among the possibilities for the evening: Norman Lear is in line to become the first-ever 100-year-old Emmy winner. Also, President Barack Obama is up for an Emmy in the outstanding narrator category, and Chadwick Boseman, Jessica Walter and/or Norm Macdonald could win posthumous Emmys in various categories.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large [Above: Emmanuel Acho celebrated at the 2021 Creative Arts Emmys after winning for “Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man.”] There’s a reason why event producer Bob Bain didn’t employ a host for this year’s two Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies. He has 45 awards to give out on Saturday, Sept. 3, and 48 categories to honor on Sunday, Sept. 4 — which means there’s little time for anything else. “If you think about it, the biggest challenge for a host is that once you have him or her, you have to justify them being up there,” Bain says. “For us to create, over the course of two hours, six or eight throws or standups for a host, just takes up more time than we feel we need to spend.”

William Earl Variety’s annual Showrunners Dinner will return in-person on Sept. 8, to celebrate the year in television ahead of the 74th Emmy Awards. The event will be presented by A+E Studios and will feature opening remarks by Barry Jossen, president and head of A+E Studios.   The Creative Conscience Award will be given to writer and producer David E. Kelley for his prolific career in television. David remains one of the most influential figures in television – having created iconic roles for women in “Ally McBeal,” “Big Little Lies” and “Big Sky.” Kelley is a trailblazer for creating complex female characters on television, especially in his early career when such characters were unknown in primetime television.  

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large When the Television Academy revealed this year’s Primetime Emmy submissions in June, there were a few glaring omissions. Fans of Netflix’s young adult drama “Heartstopper” (pictured above) were particularly perplexed, until they learned that the show instead opted to vie for a trophy in the new Children’s & Family Emmy Awards run by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. With this move, the coming-of-age tale based on a graphic novel about a gay teen who falls in love with his classmate now has a better shot at winning than it would if it were still competing for a Primetime Emmy trophy. Entries were due earlier this month for the Children’s & Family Emmys, which will include around 50 categories. Some of those races have moved over from the Daytime Emmys, which New York-based NATAS also oversees, while others are new, to reflect the full scope of youth-oriented fare (including shows like “Heartstopper” that might have previously competed for the Primetime Emmy race, which is administered by the Los Angeles-based Television Academy).

After struggling the past couple of years with Emmy campaigning in virtual lockdown, and with no in-person events or Q&As allowed by the Television Academy, things have gone back to ‘normal’. The pandemic protocol meant the 20,000-some voters in the Academy were relegated to participating in virtual online sessions where the opportunity for networking and word-of-mouth was greatly reduced.

After a hiatus, we’re back with a new episode of Deadline Hallyuwood. Joining us is actor Jang Hyuk, star of the movie The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die. 

Just a bit ago, I learned that Robert Douglas Dalton—best known as Roman Polanski’s long-time lawyer—had died.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“The Amazing Race” still holds the record for most wins in the competition category, with 10 altogether starting in 2003, the year the category launched, to its most recent win in 2014. That means married producers Elise Doganieri and Bertram Van Mun- ster together have 20 statues, which got us curious: Where do you put all that hardware? The duo invited us to their home to find out, and it turns out they’re very tastefully displayed on shelves in a living area.“The first win, 2003, was so nerve-wracking, that I almost didn’t want to go on stage,” Van Munster says. “I was almost hop- ing we wouldn’t win so I didn’t have to go on stage.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThis year, just two basic cable series made it into the outstanding series field: AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” in drama, and FX’s “What We Do In the Shadows” in comedy. It’s a far cry from the golden age of basic cable at the Emmys, when the drama field, in particular, was dominated by the platform. The streak began in 2002, when FX made history by becoming the first basic cable network to win one of the major Emmy awards — when Michael Chiklis was named best actor for “The Shield.” By 2008, basic cable was on the same path first forged by HBO when it leveled the playing field for premium cable a decade earlier.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeNow, Garner has doubled her Emmy nominations tally to four, picking up another supporting actress nod for the final season of “Ozark” and also landing one for her “Inventing Anna” role, as lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie.Given her “Ozark” success, that nomination wasn’t a shock. But the success of “Inventing Anna” at the Emmys — including in the key limited or anthology series category — was a bit of a surprise, especially given the expectation that another Netflix series, “Maid,” would make the cut.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeJazz Tangcay writes:Although the Creative Arts Emmys aren’t set to be handed out until Sept. 3 and Sept.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“They asked, and it’s an honor,” Thompson told me Thursday on a sweltering August afternoon in Hollywood, where he was receiving his star on the Walk of Fame. “It’s a giant career milestone to host an Emmys, an Oscars, a Tonys, whatever.

A Scots Instagrammer who is facing deportation from Sri Lanka for sharing images of the country's revolution online has appealed the cancelling of her visa.

Clayton Davis Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official awards predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis; Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders by television editor Michael Schneider (for Emmys) and Davis (for Oscars); Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly interview series with talent and an expert roundtable discussion; and Awards Circuit Video analyzes various categories and contenders by Variety's leading awards pundits. Variety's unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online, as well as provide inside reports on all the contenders in this year's awards season races.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAMC Networks has renewed the Emmy-nominated short-form series “Cooper’s Bar” for a second season, while Acorn TV — AMC Networks’ streamer devoted to British and international fare — has given a Season 2 renewal to “Harry Wild,” starring and executive produced by Jane Seymour.Both pickups were announced Wednesday during AMC Networks’ portion of the Television Critics Assn. press tour.