Emmy Nominations 2024: 5 Key Takeaways About ‘Slow Horses,’ ‘Scavengers Reign,’ and More

To say these past five years have been a rollercoaster for the television industry would be an understatement. Through a global pandemic and a full work stoppage as the WGA and SAG struck for fair wages, we have seen the amount of TV shows vastly expand and contract, making each annual set of Emmy nominations feel fresh (even if some shows still win every year.)

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Barely giving us a chance to breathe after the postponed 2023 Emmys happened just this January, the 2024 Primetime Emmy nominations tell a whole new, post-strike story where some of the shows that have been on the nominations bubble for years finally popped. Meanwhile new series, which usually have a premium on awards nominations, did not fare as well as expected.

Given how the Emmys are an award given by industry peers, the nominations can tell us a lot about what shows and performers other creatives are following, and how the industry feels about this transitional time where more shows are going back into production, but which of them becomes a hit feels even more unpredictable.

Below we dive into five key takeaways from the 2024 Emmy nominations, including nomination curveballs and canceled shows that could now be revived.

1. Voters Finally Did Their Homework

As previously stated, Emmy voters have not been keen on catching up on shows in the past. It is much easier to show consideration to one eight-episode season than it is to catch up with viewers on Season 3 of an hour-long drama, even if it seems like everyone is watching the show now. But looking at the Outstanding Drama Series category specifically, which experienced the biggest dearth of contenders post-strike (only one of the previous year’s nominees was even eligible this year,) it is fascinating to see “Slow Horses” Season 3, “The Morning Show” Season 3, and “The Gilded Age” Season 2 make the cut.

With the latter, it is easy to say that it was served by HBO’s vast array of Emmy-nominated dramas — from “House of the Dragon” to “Succession” to “The Last of Us”— all being out of production, making it the network’s priority. It is also not a shock either that “The Morning Show” made it in, as it has been such a big Emmys player that it would surprise more people to know it had never got a series nomination before. But “Slow Horses” is the one that really went from zero to 100, having never been nominated for anything until this year, despite the love it received from the start from the winter TV awards.

2. Netflix Has Growing Pains

For only the second time since it began making original programming Netflix has been shut out of the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Other disappointments include “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA” not receiving an Outstanding Talk Series nomination, and “Squid Game: The Challenge” not receiving an Outstanding Reality Competition Program. Despite that, the streaming service still got 107 nominations (the most of any one network/platform.)

Taking in the full picture, one could describe Netflix as a canary in the coalmine. Though it is often the first streaming service to make it into different Emmy categories, it has not been the first streaming service to win two out of three of the main primetime series categories (in fact, Netflix has yet to win Outstanding Comedy Series). It can be lonely in the front opening doors, but something like Peacock’s “The Traitors” becoming a frontrunner for the reality competition category does not happen without “Nailed It!” getting a surprise nomination in 2019. One can only hope Netflix stays committed to expanding the definition of a streaming series with projects like “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA,” even if later series from other platforms end up winning the award first. Netflix finds a way to win eventually, as seen with “The Crown” Season 4 in 2021.

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3. Dearly Departed Shows Got Their Due

Though the biggest example may be the critically beloved “Reservation Dogs” finally receiving an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination for its third and final season, there are plenty of examples this year of dearly departed series that managed to grab at least one more Emmy nomination before saying their final goodbyes. For instance, “Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty” not only got a nomination for Outstanding Directing For a Drama Series for its second and last season, but Tracy Letts made it into Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series on behalf of the HBO drama that had previously struggled to break into the Emmys race (which likely contributed in small part to the show’s cancellation).

“The Other Two” also received another comedy writing nomination, despite ending over a year ago, but there was one canceled Max show that’s nomination has caused even more of a stir. Though “Scavengers Reign” technically aired its first season on the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned platform to much critical acclaim, its campaign for an Outstanding Animated Program nomination (a major uphill battle for a canceled show) got a major boost from the show being moved to Netflix, and becoming a hit, all while nomination voting was occurring. Given the honor, there is now even more hope that Netflix will take over the show rights and greenlight a second season of “Scavengers Reign,” so that the show can continue to be recognized by the TV Academy for years to come. (Take the pickup of “Ripley” as an example, which has been a mutual win for Netflix and the show’s studio Paramount, receiving 13 nominations.)

4. Some Categories Went Bigger Than Expected

Usually it is not worth it to go so inside baseball, but awards pundits were in for a surprise across the board when the Outstanding Lead Actor and Lead Actress in a Comedy Series categories had six nominees instead of five. Not to bore anyone with minute details of the math, but the number of nomination slots are usually proportional to the amount of submissions the category received. Last year, both those categories had five nominees, and given the state of the TV post-strikes, it is easy to make the assumption that less comedies were produced this season, meaning at the very least the same number of nomination slots. But nope, both categories fit in an extra actor, leading to some exciting, long-time-coming nominations for people like “What We Do in the Shadows” star Matt Berry and “Only Murders in the Building” star Selena Gomez.

5. Leading to Diversity Ups and Downs

As the Emmys embrace diversity and inclusion more and more every year, the biggest improvement this time was more nominees from an Indigenous background than ever before. This includes “Under the Bridge” star Lily Gladstone and “True Detective: Night Country” star Kali Reis both being nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, which is a first.

Elsewhere “Shōgun” became the second series not in English to receive an Outstanding Drama Series nomination, continuing the momentum for more international series to be recognized at the Primetime Emmys, rather than being held for the International Emmys. That said, it does feel like women tend to get the short shrift in general, when it comes to diversity. There still is only one Latina who has won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. (Gomez is the fourth to be nominated.) “Griselda” star Sofia Vergara is only the second Latina to be nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series. Together “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” star Maya Erskine and “Shōgun” star Anna Sawai are the second and third Asian women nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Supporting and Guest Actress were the only two major Drama categories where “Shōgun” did not receive nominations, despite submitting stars for both.

As exciting as it is to be the first, second, or third to receive an honor, it is even more heartening for the wins to start happening enough to where someone’s identity is not the first thing brought up in a discussion about the merit of their work.