Will ‘Better Call Saul’ Be the Last Basic Cable Drama to Receive Big Emmy Love?

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.

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).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeComedian Nick Kroll is returning to standup — and doing it via Netflix, the home of his animated comedy “Big Mouth.” Kroll’s first stand-up special in a decade — and his first for Netflix — is titled “Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy,” and will premiere globally on September 27.The special will air a month before the Season 6 return of “Big Mouth,” which returns Oct. 28. For “Little Big Boy,” Kroll shot the special in June at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C.“I could be wrong, but I don’t know if people think of me really as a stand up, because I’ve been doing sketch and animation and acting and the writing stuff,” said Kroll, who beyond “Big Mouth” and his voicework is perhaps best known for “The League” and “The Kroll Show,” as well as playing the geriatric Gil Faizon, opposite John Mulaney, in the “Oh, Hello” sketches that eventually turned into a Broadway show (also taped for Netflix).

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 LargeNominated for 11 Emmys overall, “Brian’s Song” was so popular, and so successful, that it helped put the ABC “Movie of the Week,” as the franchise was called, front and center — cementing the TV movie as a network staple. The “movie of the week” idea was so groundbreaking that the entire industry continued to call TV movies “MOWs” long after ABC had ditched the name.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“Better Call Saul” ended Monday night with an ending very different than the way that “Breaking Bad” concluded. No shootout, just Jimmy McGill behind bars. But as Jimmy and ex-wife Kim Wexler reconnect, in many ways it’s also a much more hopeful conclusion.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t watched the series finale of “Better Call Saul,” Season 6 Episode 13, “Saul Gone.”In the end, Jimmy McGill unbroke bad. Just when it looked like Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) had finessed his way into a sweet plea agreement — just seven years at the most country club-like of correctional facilities (low-security FCI Butner Low, which even has a golfing program!) — he reversed course and confessed all, in Monday night’s series finale of AMC’s “Better Call Saul.”It was a finale rife with references to regret, time machines and how there’s “no shame in going back and changing your path,” as Chuck McGill (played by Michael McKean, who returns in a flashback) tells his younger brother.

Better Call Saul showrunner Peter Gould has opened up about bringing Breaking Bad’s Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jessie Pinkman (Aaron Paul) back to the show in a new interview.After the two actors were confirmed to appear in the Breaking Bad spin-off’s final season earlier this year, Paul and Cranston finally made their debut during a flashback sequence in the latest episode, titled Breaking Bad.Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gould was asked about what it was like bringing back the two characters and the “dangers” on doing that after a long time away.Gould explained: “The danger was that we were going to be eating the seed corn. If people are only watching the show to see callbacks to a previous show, I don’t think we’re doing our job.“We were pretty disciplined in the beginning about not bringing back a lot of Breaking Bad characters until we really established our world.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeHBO’s “The White Lotus” and Apple TV+’s “Severance” led the HCA TV Awards’ two-night ceremony, winning five awards each in the broadcast/cable and streaming awards, respectively.“The White Lotus” won for best writing in a broadcast or cable limited, anthology series or movie; best directing in a broadcast or cable limited, anthology series or movie; best supporting actor in a broadcast or cable limited, anthology series or movie; best supporting actress in a broadcast or cable limited, anthology series or movie; and best broadcast network or cable limited or anthology series. “Severance” landed awards for best streaming series, drama; best writing in a streaming series, drama; best supporting actor in a streaming series, drama; best directing in a streaming series, drama; and best actress in a streaming series, drama.

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.

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.

The Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe is coming to end, according to co-showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould.

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.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeGame shows are heading to the Primetime Emmys. As part of the ongoing Emmy realignment between the Television Academy (the West Coast org formerly known as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) and the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the two sides will migrate game show categories from the Daytime Emmys to the Primetime Emmys beginning next year.The decision comes as, previously announced, the two orgs have agreed to award many programming categories by genre instead of daypart.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeIt came down to the wire — the Emmys are next month, after all — but NBC and the Television Academy have finally found a host for this year’s ceremony: “Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson.Thompson, the longest-running cast member in “SNL” history, was named after a lengthy search by NBC, the Academy and Emmys producers Done+Dusted and Reggie Hudlin to find an A-list name that might shake things up. It turns out, the A-lister was in their own backyard.