Philly’s Kevin Hart, Tina Fey, Leslie Odom Jr. among Emmy nominees. ‘Watchman’ leads with two dozen.
The series, which captured America’s unease as it faces racial clashes amid a pandemic, was nominated as best limited series and received bids for cast members including Regina King and Jeremy Irons.
LOS ANGELES — Watchmen, cloaked in superhero mythology and grounded in real-world racism, received a leading 26 nominations Tuesday for the prime-time Emmy Awards.
The HBO series, which captured America’s deep unease as it faces racial and political clashes amid a pandemic, was nominated as best limited series and received bids for cast members including Regina King and Jeremy Irons.
King was part of a vanguard of actors of color who showed that TV academy voters took heed of the social climate.
“Zendaya!” exclaimed Emmy announcement host Leslie Jones, her gleeful reaction to the Euphoria star’s nomination as best actress in a drama. “This is a great day,” Jones added.
She was part of a socially distanced, virtual release of nominees that was online, not on television as is usual. But nothing is usual during a coronavirus era that has brought Hollywood production to a virtual standstill and is making the Emmys and other awards grasp for alternatives.
The strong showing by Netflix’s Ozark helped the streaming service achieve a record-setting 160 nominations that bested onetime perennial leader HBO, which received 107 nods.
Streaming newcomer Apple TV+ earned attention in its first season with Jennifer Aniston’s best drama actress bid for The Morning Show. Another streaming newbie, Disney+, saw its Star Wars franchise spinoff, The Mandalorian, claim a best drama nomination among its hefty 15 total nods.
The Amazon comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the second most-nominated series with 20, followed by Netflix’s Ozark with 18.
Among the nominees with ties to Philadelphia was East Oak Lane’s Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), star of Apple TV+‘s animated series Central Park, who was nominated for outstanding character voice-over performance. Also nominated in that category: sometime Media resident Wanda Sykes, for Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers. Sykes is also nominated as guest actress in a comedy series for playing Moms Mabley in Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Philadelphia’s Holland Taylor, a graduate of the Westtown School, scored her seventh nomination. She was nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie for Netflix’s Hollywood. She won for a supporting role in The Practice in 1999.
Netflix’s Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up, a six-part series starring and produced by the George Washington High School grad, was nominated for outstanding unstructured reality program.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, an interactive Netflix movie cowritten by Upper Darby’s Tina Fey, who also cocreated Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, was nominated for outstanding TV movie.
Malvern’s Adam McKay is an executive producer of both Netflix’s Dead to Me, nominated for outstanding comedy, and HBO’s Succession, nominated for outstanding drama.
And Sterling K. Brown is nominated for playing Randall Pearson, a fictional member of Philadelphia City Council, in NBC’s This Is Us.
On Sunday, Temple grad and trustee Tamron Hall won her first Daytime Emmy Award, for outstanding informative talk show, then gave what may be the world’s most charming “virtual acceptance speech” on Instagram, wearing a bathrobe.
Diversity was especially notable in the Emmy comedy categories after being nearly absent last year.
“This year, we are also bearing witness to one of the greatest fights for social justice in history. And it is our duty to use this medium for change,” Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy, said at the outset of the presentation.
Ramy, which finds nuanced humor in a young Muslim American’s crisis of identity and faith, earned a best actor bid for its star and co-creator, Ramy Youssef. Issa Rae returned to the best comedy actress category for her series Insecure, which earned a best comedy bid.
Schitt’s Creek, the quirky little show that went without Emmy recognition until last year, received 15 nominations for its final season, including for best comedy series and lead acting nods for Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.
The Good Place, also at an end, earned a best comedy bid and, for Ted Danson, a best comedy actor nomination.
The farewell was less fond for other shows that wrapped last season, with no major bids for Modern Family, Homeland, or Silicon Valley.
But the late Fred Willard received a nod for his Modern Family guest appearance. A posthumous nomination also went to director Lynn Shelton, for the limited series Little Fires Everywhere.
Joining Jones on Tuesday were presenters Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), Josh Gad (Frozen) and Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black). Cox, Gad, and Maslany appeared by video feeds.
Among the honorees whose nomination collided with current events: Brad Pitt earned a nod for a guest appearance playing Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday Night Live.
The nominees for best comedy series are: Curb Your Enthusiasm; Dead to Me; The Good Place; Insecure; The Kominsky Method; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Schitt’s Creek; What We Do in the Shadows.
The nominees for best drama series are: Better Call Saul; The Crown; Killing Eve; The Handmaid’s Tale; The Mandalorian; Ozark; Stranger Things; Succession.
In addition to Watchmen, the nominees for best limited series are: Little Fires Everywhere; Mrs. America; Unbelievable; Unorthodox.
The nominees for drama series actress are: Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show; Olivia Colman, The Crown; Jodie Comer, Killing Eve; Laura Linney, Ozark; Sandra Oh, Killing Eve; Zendaya, Euphoria.
The nominees for drama series actor are: Jason Bateman, Ozark; Sterling K. Brown, This is Us; Billy Porter, Pose; Jeremy Strong, Succession; Brian Cox, Succession; Steve Carell, The Morning Show.
The nominees for lead actor in a comedy series are: Anthony Anderson, black-ish; Don Cheadle, Black Monday; Ted Danson, The Good Place; Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method; Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek; Ramy Youssef, Ramy.
The nominees for lead actress in a comedy series are: Christina Applegate, Dead to Me; Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me; Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek; Issa Rae, Insecure; Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish.
The nominees for best TV movie are: American Son; Bad Education; Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: These Old Bones; El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend.
A high-energy Jones kicked off Tuesday’s announcement by appearing on a virtual set and joking that she was told there would be many others on set to announce the nominees, but instead she was locked in a studio with only a cameraman.
The Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be presented Sept. 20 on ABC.
Staff writer Ellen Gray contributed to this article.