The big-budget epic Shōgun is set to become a historic winner at this weekend’s Emmy awards, a ceremony that itself is also making history.
It’s the second Emmys in the same year, an unprecedented and expensive challenge for the industry, a traffic jam necessitated by last year’s dual strikes, which led to a postponement.
January’s rescheduled Emmys saw major wins for The Bear and the final season of Succession but without the presence of the latter, all eyes are on whatever the next major drama contender will be.
Leading the nominations is Shōgun with 25, the long-gestating historical epic becoming the first Japanese-language show to receive a nomination for best drama series and only the second non-English-language show after Squid Game. At last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, where technical and some smaller acting awards are handed out, the show picked up 14 awards, the most any show has won during that ceremony.
“It’s completely surreal to imagine that this show, after the past five, six years, is a show that so many people got recognized for,” co-creator Justin Marks told the Hollywood Reporter. “Because we were just trying to survive it, all of us together, and trying to figure out how to make it – there wasn’t really a mold for this.”
The series is favourite to win more awards this Sunday, which could see historic wins for actors at a ceremony that has not tended to award performers of Asian descent. In January, the Beef star Ali Wong became the first woman of Asian descent to ever win a lead Emmy.
The TV academy still has work to do with gender parity after a report from the Women’s Media Center showed that women are still underrepresented in non-acting categories, receiving just 34% of this year’s nominations.
The breakout Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, about Richard Gadd’s alleged experience with a stalker, is also expected to triumph in its limited series categories with 11 nominations. The ceremony comes in the same week as the announcement of a defamation trial date set to start in May 2025. The streamer is being sued for $170m after the inspiration for Gadd’s stalker, Fiona Harvey, has claimed the show is pushing “the biggest lie in television history”.
After taking home a total of 10 awards for its first season, the restaurant-based hit The Bear is also expected to dominate the comedy categories again, beating out Only Murders in the Building and Abbott Elementary. Last weekend saw it winning seven, including one for Jamie Lee Curtis as guest star. “I’m the luckiest girl in the world,” she said of her first Emmy.
The producers of this weekend’s awards have promised a continuation of this January’s upbeat theme, staying away from mean-spiritedness and snark. They have recruited the father-son duo, and Schitt’s Creek co-stars, Eugene and Dan Levy as “relatable” hosts.
“For two Canadians who won our Emmys in a literal quarantine tent, the idea of being asked to host this year in an actual theater was incentive enough,” they said in a statement.
The evening will also see major reunions onstage for the casts of shows including Happy Days, The West Wing and Saturday Night Live, celebrating its 50th year.
The producers are also hoping for an uptick in viewers after the most recent telecast attracted an audience of just 4.3 million, a new low for the awards show.