Last year I posted 2 blogs asking the question “Is Broadcast TV Dead”. I looked at the fact that little or no broadcast TV shows were nominated for other Golden Globes or Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Today the Emmy nominations were announced. Here are the results.
Streaming 66 nominations. Premium Cable 30 nominations. Basic Cable 20 nominations. Broadcast TV 30 nominations.
Although that looks better than the Golden Globe Awards or the Screen Actors Guild Awards for which I previously reported, the Emmy awards have many more categories including guest actors and actresses as well as reality shows. Broadcast TV earned 18 of its 30 nominations in those categories. Keep in mind that streaming and premium services generally do not produce reality or competition shows. Broadcast TV was completely shut out from Made-For-TV Movies and Limited Series.
Broadcast shows were led by SNL 8, The Good Place 5, This Is Us 3, black-ish 2, How to Get Away with Murder 1, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Modern Family 1, other reality competition shows 4, variety shows 2.
NBC crushed the competition with 20 nominations, ABC had 6 and CBS and Fox had one each.
Showtime got a nomination for Don Cheadle as Lead Actor in a Comedy for “Black Monday” however all 31 other premium cable nominations went to HBO. Cinemax no longer produces original programming. Starz, The Movie Channel, and Epix were shut out.
Netflix crushed streaming competition with 36 out of 66 nominations. Hulu had 13. Amazon Prime had 10, eight of which were for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. Disney+ add 2 for “The Mandalorian”. Apple TV+ had 5 for “The Morning Show”.
On basic cable, Pop TV had 5 nominations for Canadian produced show “Schitt’s Creek”. BBC America had 3 all for “Killing Eve”. FX 2, Bravo 3, VH1 had 2, Comedy Central 2, TBS 1.
I counted at least 4 series which were nominated in their final year: “The Good Place”, “Modern Family”, “Schitt’s Creek”, and “How to Get Away with Murder”.
TV ratings and award nominations do not seem to show any correlation. For example hit reality series “America’s Got Talent” did not get nominated. On the other hand most of you have ever heard of Pop TV and “Schitt’s Creek” yet it got 5 nominations.
Here is a link to the complete list of nominees provided by TV Line.
https://tvline.com/2020/07/28/2020-emmy-nominations-list-awards/
Here is a table I created summarizing the breakdown between streaming, premium cable, basic cable, and broadcast TV
| Category | Streaming | Premium | Basic | Broadcast |
| Outstanding Drama | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Lead Actor Drama | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Lead Actress Drama | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Supporting Actress Drama | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Supporting Actor Drama | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Guest Actress Drama | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Guess Actor Drama | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Outstanding Comedy | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Lead Actress Comedy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Lead Actor Comedy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Supporting Actress Comedy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Supporting Actor Comedy | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Guest Actress Comedy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Guess Actor Comedy | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Limited Series | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Made-For-TV Movie | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lead Actress Limited Series or Movie | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lead Actor Limited Series or Movie | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Supporting Actress Limited Series or Movie | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Supporting Actor Limited Series or Movie | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Reality Show Host | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Reality Competition Show | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Variety Sketch Series | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Variety Talk Series | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Totals | 66 | 32 | 20 | 28 |
So we ask again “Is broadcast dead?” The answer is “Probably not but it’s not looking good.” HBO and Netflix continue to broaden their nominations with Netflix surpassing HBO for the first time 36-31. If you want to watch the top award-winning TV shows you are going to have to pay for it.