DANIEL FIENBERG: Happy Emmy nominations day, Angie! Happy Emmy nominations day to all the nominees! Happy Emmy nominations day to Jason Bateman, who received a special Emmy nomination merely for waking up, in addition to his two acting, one directing and one producing nominations. But mostly, happy Emmy nominations day to Apple TV.
I’ve always said that Apple TV’s output looks better if you focus exclusively on the successes and pretend, like Apple TV does, that the failures or mediocrities simply don’t exist. Remember the Billy Crystal drama Before? Neither does Apple. But I probably need to stop saying it, because holy cow Apple TV had itself an Emmy nominations morning, with 87 nominations across the drama and comedy categories, including series nominations for Pluribus, Slow Horses, Your Friends & Neighbors, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Shrinking and Widow’s Bay.
Yes, Your Friends & Neighbors got an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series and nothing else, a strange anomaly, though far from the day’s strangest anomaly. But Apple had such a successful morning that Pluribus, a show initially promoted entirely as a one-woman showcase for Rhea Seehorn, received four acting nominations, for Seehorn, Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga and even Jeff Hiller, last year’s comedy supporting actor winner, whose total screen time in Pluribus was…minimal.
