It’s been a “Bear” of a morning. As was widely expected, FX’s “The Bear” set a nominations record for a comedy series Wednesday morning by scoring 23 bids to break the record of 22 set by “30 Rock” in 2009. The 23 was 13 more than the series scored in 2023 – when it wound up winning 10 at the strike-delayed Emmys earlier this year, including Best Comedy Series, the most by any series in its first season. Now that it came close to doubling its nomination total in Season 2, the question is whether it has a realistic chance of tying or breaking the wins record for any series in a single season. That number is 12, achieved by “Game of Thrones” in three different seasons (2015, 2016 and 2019).
In drama, “Shogun” also more than met expectations for the stylish and powerful reboot with 25 nominations, missing by only two the first-year record for a drama series of 27 set by “NYPD Blue” in 1994.
Indeed, between “The Bear” and Shogun” and the comedies “Reservation Dogs” and “What We Do in the Shadows,” it’s a record-setting year for FX Networks. Along with 15 noms for its limited series “Fargo” and strong showings for both “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” (10) and “Welcome to Wrexham” (6), FX landed 93 nominations, obliterating its own record of 56 in 2016 when it had the eventual limited series winner, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
But it speaks to the level of “Bear” dominance that many were expecting the show to pull in even more nominations than it did. Mind you, it earned noms for its principals Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (all of whom won trophies for Season 1) as well as for first-time nominees Liza Colon-Zayas and Lionel Boyce in supporting and five different comedy guest nominees: Jon Bernthal, Bob Odenkirk, Will Poulter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman. But both Oliver Platt and Matty Matheson had been tapped for supporting comedy actor, only to miss the cut. Ditto Abby Elliott for supporting actress and Sarah Paulson and John Mulaney in guest actress and actor, respectively.
Does the record total of bids immediately thrust “The Bear” to the front as the heavy favorite to make it two in a row in Best Comedy? Probably. But “Hacks” (a 16-time nominee this time) will also garner plenty of support, and it’s perhaps more than a bit ironic that “The Bear” would bust the nomination record for a comedy series in “30 Rock” that was never perceived as anything less than a straight-up comedy. A lot of folks continue to quibble with the categorization of “Bear” in the same genre.
Too, while voters were casting their ballots for Season 1 of “The Bear” last summer at the same time that its wildly popular second season was wowing the masses, there hasn’t been quite the same buzz surrounding its third season that dropped at the end of June. It might be an exaggeration to call the somewhat more muted response to the series a backlash, but it’s undeniable that the heat surrounding the series has somewhat cooled.
Still, 23 nominations is 23 nominations, and it’s a hugely impressive total that includes writing and directing bids as well as an abundance of attention in technical categories. One other comedy had challenged that “30 Rock” record of late, namely “Ted Lasso’s” 21 nominations last year. And “Saturday Night Live,” while technically a sketch show and not a recurring comedy, snared 22 nominations in 2017. “SNL” owns the most nominations for a single program in Emmy history with a whopping total of 341 over the course of nearly a half-century (padding its total with 17 more this year).
The 76th Emmy Awards will be handed out in a live ceremony September 15 from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE and broadcast live on ABC at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
PREDICT the 2024 Emmy winners through September 15
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