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Primetime Emmy Awards 2018: 7 things to look out for

Primetime Emmy Awards 2018: 7 things to look out for

Will Game of Thrones sweep all before it? Will Donald Glover have the last laugh? Will The Handmaid’s Tale repeat last year’s success?

The Primetime Emmy Awards will shower statuettes on the stars of this golden age of television on Monday.

Here are the frontrunners and some of the possible stories that could emerge on the night.

1. Game of Thrones is back

After Game of Thrones won best drama series in 2015 and 2016, last year’s Emmys were a Thrones-free zone. But season seven is eligible this year – and when the nominations were announced, the show was the frontrunner, with 22 nominations.

Game of Thrones – 22
Saturday Night Live – 21
Westworld – 21
The Handmaid’s Tale – 20
The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – 18
Atlanta – 16
Game of Thrones won 12 Emmys a year in 2015 and 2016 – tying with itself for the record for the most Emmys won by a series in a single season.

Because the Emmys have a total of 122 categories, the less high profile awards were actually given out last weekend at the Creative Arts Emmys, with 26 left to be awarded on Monday.

Game of Thrones won seven of the 15 Emmys it was up for last weekend. It’s up for another seven on Monday – including for Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage.

Because of double nominations in two categories, Game of Thrones can’t break its own record, though – the maximum it can now win is 12.

2. Netflix officially rules television

Just five years after its first Primetime Emmy nomination, Netflix achieved its latest milestone in the battle for our eyeballs by earning a total of 112 Emmy nominations this year, more than any other outlet.

That’s the first time a streaming service has topped the list.

Those nominations are spread across 40 shows, including The Crown, Stranger Things, Godless and Glow.

HBO, which has come top for the past 17 years, is now second with 108.

3. Allison Janney goes for golden double

Allison Janney could score a prestigious double if she manages to win best lead actress in a comedy series for her role in CBS’s sitcom Mom, in which she plays Anna Faris’s… mom.

It would come six months after she won her first Oscar for best supporting actress for playing figure skater Tonya Hardin’s mom in I, Tonya.

Janney actually won two Emmys in a row for her role in Mom in 2014 and ’15, for for best supporting actress in a comedy series. But she’s since been bumped up to lead status.

4. The Fonz to finally get his day?
Henry Winkler was nominated for three Primetime Emmys in a row for playing the super-cool Fonz in Happy Days in the 1970s. He lost every time.

Now aged 72, he’s nominated again – this time for playing a decidedly uncool acting coach who winds up teaching Bill Hader’s hitman in HBO’s Barry.

He’s up against the likes of Alec Baldwin and Tony Shalhoub in the supporting actor in a comedy series category. But Winkler is favourite for a long overdue win.

Game of Thrones leads Emmy nominations
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5. Sandra Oh could make history

After five unsuccessful nominations for best supporting actress in a drama for her role in Grey’s Anatomy, Sandra Oh could become the first Asian winner in the lead actress category.

She’s nominated for playing MI5 officer Eve Polastri in Killing Eve – which has also earned Phoebe Waller-Bridge (of Fleabag fame) a writing nomination.

The BBC spy drama that’s already a US hit
British viewers may have caught the first episode of Killing Eve on BBC One on Saturday (and may even have binged on the whole lot on iPlayer) – it was made by BBC America, so was shown in the US first.

But Sandra is up against stiff competition – Elisabeth Moss is thought to be the frontrunner to repeat her 2017 success in that category.

6. The Brits in the running

Claire Foy is also up against Sandra and Elisabeth in that category, and it is the last chance to reward her for playing Queen Elizabeth in Netflix’s The Crown.

Another Brit who’s bowing out is Wales’ own Matthew Rhys, who is tipped to win best lead actor in a drama for the final series of The Americans.

In the supporting actress drama category, The Crown’s Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) is up against fellow Brits Thandie Newton (Westworld), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), among others.

Matt Smith, another Crown star, is among the supporting actor contenders, as is countryman Joseph Fiennes for his role in The Handmaid’s Tale.

Elsewhere, Benedict Cumberbatch is up for best actor in a limited series for Patrick Melrose, while ex-Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery is up for the equivalent award for her role in Godless.

7. Will Donald Glover have the last laugh?

In the comedy categories, the multi-tasking Donald Glover is nominated for best actor, writer and director for Atlanta, and is also nominated for the overall best comedy prize as one of the show’s executive producers.

He won two Emmys last year – so can he beat that tally?

He was also nominated this year for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for hosting Saturday Night Live – that was one of the awards that was handed out last weekend.

He lost that, but won’t mind too much because it went to Katt Williams – for Atlanta.

The FX show’s main competition in the comedy categories is likely to come from Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

8. The ‘putting up with Roseanne’ award

Roseanne’s short-lived TV comeback was nominated for two Emmys – outstanding multi-camera picture editing for a comedy series (which it lost to Will & Grace); and best supporting actress in a comedy for Laurie Metcalf.

Metcalf, who plays Roseanne’s sister Jackie, won this award for three years in a row in the early 1990s.

She’s also won two Tony Awards in the past two years and was nominated for an Oscar this year for her role in Lady Bird.

Could she be given a reward from the Emmys for working with Roseanne?

“When Charlie Sheen went on his meltdown for Two and a Half Men, Jon Cryer got an award,” said David Allen on the Dual Redundancy podcast’s Emmy prediction edition.

“It was like, ‘You put up with that? Here’s a pat on the back, buddy’ And we all know about the Roseanne stories.”

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