- I'm Tiffany Taylor for the Hollywood Reporter News,
and I am sitting down with THR's awards columnist
Scott Feinberg to talk all things Emmy's.
(upbeat music)
Now this year some of your favorite programs and stars
might be nominated in categories you wouldn't expect.
But luckily, Scott's an expert,
so he's going to break it down for us.
So, let's talk about this Variety Special
Prerecorded category, right?
- That's right, it's a mouthful,
but it does include a lot of things
that people are loving this year.
That includes everything from James Corden's special
with Paul McCartney where he goes back
through his old haunts as he was coming up,
and just everybody loved that, it was great.
Corden is a TV academy favorite.
He may be the guy to beat in that category.
But weirdly enough, he's up against Beyonce
for "Homecoming," her film that was shot
at Coachella a year ago, and now goes back
and pieces together how that all came to be.
There's also in that category Bruce Springsteen
for the film version of what he did on Broadway,
"Springsteen on Broadway."
Really, the thing that these all share in common
is that they were specials
that were prerecorded, not aired live.
That also means that they include
all of the standup specials
that you might have enjoyed this year,
from Ellen DeGeneres' to Hannah Gadsby's
to Adam Sandler's and on and on and on.
So there is more true variety in this category
than just about anything else you can imagine.
And weirdly, the Variety Special Prerecorded category
this year also includes "Rent Live,"
because "Rent Live" did not air live.
There was the injury of the star heading into the show,
so they aired the dress rehearsal for the very most part.
♪ 525,600 minutes ♪
♪ How do you measure ♪
♪ Measure a year ♪
- So moving over to Variety Special Live,
who could we see in that category?
- Well, this year one of the big contenders
is something that aired on ABC in May
called Live in Front of a Studio Audience
Norman Lear's "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons,"
for which Norman Lear, the great producer
and creator of TV in the '70s,
united with Jimmy Kimmel of ABC and a host of modern actors
to reenact basically word-for-word episodes
of these two beloved Norman Lear sitcoms from the '70s.
That made a big dent in terms of social media buzz.
Everybody wanted to see it, and it appeals of course
to both older viewers who remember the original episodes
and younger viewers who were tuning in
to see people like Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson
do what they did on that show,
so that's gonna be a big contender in that category.
- Now another fan favorite that is gonna pop up
in kind of a random category
or one you wouldn't expect is "Black Mirror."
We obviously know it's an anthology series,
but this year it's competing for TV movie?
- Well, actually for the last few years, it has,
only because there is not a specific category
for episodic anthology series.
So, there are anthology series where it's something like
"American Horror Story," where in years' past
you're seeing different seasons
with a lot of the same actors,
but doing a completely different storyline by the season.
Then there are shows like "Black Mirror"
where each episode is a completely different story
with different actors.
So what has been decided is that
if there are anthology series,
like "American Horror Story," where there are continuations
of characters from season to season,
they are no longer gonna be considered limited series,
but drama series, so this is the first time
you'll see that for an "American Horror Story,"
that will be this year for the first time,
and also The Sinner and a few others.
They've ruled those are gonna be drama series this year.
Then limited series will still be something
like "True Detective," where, yes,
we've seen other seasons of "True Detective,"
but not with this storyline or these actors,
where this year you have Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff,
and then you get to the "Black Mirror"s of it all,
where for the last two years a "Black Mirror" episode
has won best TV movie, even though it's not
in anyone's mind a TV movie,
because TV movies are defined as 70 minutes or longer.
So because there's nowhere specific
for a "Black Mirror" or any other episodic anthology series
collectively to compete as a series,
they instead submit their best episode
that's over 70 minutes.
- We're gonna be a hit factory,
like Motown, but for computer games.
You heard it here first.
- So as you said, it's kind of a complicated map
to navigate, but luckily, Scott, you always show us the way.
So for everything Emmy's, you can go to Scott's blog
at THR.com/therace.