The Emmy nominees for the best in television over the past year will be announced in Los Angeles on Thursday and the question on everyone’s minds is will Netflix’s original shows get nominations. House of Cards seems like a shoe-in for the major drama categories and the revived Arrested Development might make a run for best comedy.
The first sign that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are open to considering these new shows for Emmys came last month, when House of Card’s Kate Mara was picked to announce the nominees alongside Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, a two-time Emmy winner himself. Mara, who plays journalist Zoe Barnes on the political drama, and Paul will be waking up early in LA at 5:30 a.m. local time to make the announcements.
House of Cards has a chance for multiple nominations, including Best Drama and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey’s acclaimed performance as a Southern politician in Washington. According to the New York Times, if House of Cards is recognized, insiders think that it could be a watershed moment for television, similar to when HBO shows began earning nominations over regular broadcast shows.
Even FX chief John Landgraf, who has criticized Netflix for not releasing official numbers on how many viewers its shows get, told the Times, “It would be the height of bad sportsmanship to seek to keep a show out because it comes from a different distribution system.” FX’s The Americans or Justified could be a casualty if House of Cards is nominated.
“It certainly is a marker of the new era. ... It will send shock waves through the industry,” Tim Brooks, the author of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, told The Associated Press.
If Netflix’s shows get Emmy recognition, it could do a lot to boost the company’s confidence in its own programming. Even though Emmy wins usually don’t equal a rise in viewers, it does help bring in big-name creative people for projects and it is seen as validation in the industry.
CBS is broadcasting the Emmys this year, with How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris hosting. It airs live on Sept. 22.
image: Netflix