The Television Academy has announced the nominees for the 2023 Emmy Awards. Jay-Z received a nod for co-directing Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show, which was nominated in four other categories including Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Tim Robinson got two nominations, one as an actor in I Think You Should Leave (he won the category last year) and again for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama Or Variety Series. And Daisy Jones & the Six, the series loosely inspired by the tumultuous years of Fleetwood Mac, picked up nine nominations including Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series and Outstanding Music Supervision.
The main ceremony is scheduled for September 18, after Creative Arts Emmys for technical achievements go out on September 9 and 10.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has nine nominations, including one for Outstanding Television Movie and two for Yankovic himself for the script and the music and lyrics. (Ed Sheeran, Max Martin, and Foy Vance are also up for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics for contributing “A Beautiful Game” to Ted Lasso.) Moonage Daydream is nominated five times and Brett Morgan three, for directing, editing, and writing the Bowie film. Donald Glover’s Swarm got three nods, including one for Glover’s writing. And Kid Cudi’s Netflix show Entergalactic is in the running for Outstanding Animated Program.
Nicholas Britell (Succession) and Danny Elfman (Wednesday) got nods for both their main-title theme tunes and original scores, and Britell’s score for the Star Wars show Andor is also in the mix. Succession leads the pack overall with 27 nominations, including a record three in the lead actor category, for Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, and Brian Cox. (Sarah Snook is nominated as a lead actress.) The Last of Us and The White Lotus follow with 24 and 23 nods, respectively.
The Weeknd himself isn’t nominated, but his HBO special Live at Sofi Stadium got two nods, for lighting design/direction and technical direction/camerawork. Elton John’s Disney special was also nommed in the latter category, as well as for sound mixing and for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas got two nominations, including for Outstanding Television Movie. Lizzo: Live in Concert is nominated for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), and the Love, Lizzo doc got a nod for sound editing, as did Paramount’s coverage of the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. FX’s Tupac doc Dear Mama, meanwhile, is up for two awards including Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series. And Gorillaz Presents, the augmented-reality app that brought giant cartoon avatars of the band to Times Square and Piccadilly Circus, earned nominations for Nexus Studios, Google, and Eleven Management.
This year’s Emmy nominations come two and a half months into the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike, which has disrupted production of late-night talk shows and some other productions in progress. The SAG-AFTRA union, representing performers, indicated that it was ready to join the WGA in striking in order to pressure the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers into meeting workers’ demands.
