The list of nominations for the 76th Primetime and Creative Primetime were declared on the 17th of July, 2024. The nominee list was widely appreciated for its inclusivity in various media reports.
This year’s list is said to have the largest number of people of color (POC) nominated for the Primetime Emmy awards. The number sure is higher than usual, but not in terms of the percentage when compared to overall nominations of white, prominent actors. According to Latina Media’s calculations, this year had a 5% increase in diversity nominations compared to last year, which was 26% of the total nominations. But it still doesn’t compare to 2022, which was at 44% of the total nominations! It is also worth noting that the 74th Emmys (2023) had the highest percentage of wins secured by non-white nominees, which has been the highest till date. Meaning that even if only 26% of the nominees were non-white, the ratio of their wins across the board was higher.
According to Variety, of the 96 acting nominations counted, 30 were for people of color.
Will we get to see a higher win-ratio this year?
As seen in the 2021 Emmys, despite there being POC nominations, the majority of the acting awards were dominated or won by white actors. Since then, we have seen a steady increase in representation of not just nominees, but also winners.
So if this year only 31% of the nominees are non-white, how many of them are openly queer?
Unfortunately, the number is less than 20. Yikes.
Out of the 16 openly queer artists nominated, only 6 of them are people of color. Here’s all the queer folx who have been nominated:
- RuPaul
- Andrew Scott
- Kristen Kish
- Alan Cumming
- Matt Bomer
- Jonathan Bailey
- Richard Gadd
- Jessica Gunning
- Nava Mau
- Jodie Foster
- Kali Ries
- Bowen Yang
- Hannah Einbinder
- Holland Taylor
- Sarah Paulson
- Lily Gladstone
Also read: Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda and the Power of Laughing in the Face of Adversity
Whose awards are these anyway?
Primetime Emmys are an American awards ceremony specifically focused on American television and broadcast. But in the past, we have seen shows like Ripley and The Crown being included, which are technically British. This had me a bit confused, but I learnt that both the shows have American production houses and distributors, i.e Netflix. OTTs are certainly blurring the line for who qualifies for an Emmy at this point.
While reading up, and researching on this, the question that kept popping up in my non-American brain is, why do I care about American media or the work that they appreciate when it is common knowledge that all award functions are rigged to uphold supremacist structures of oppression. Nonetheless, one likes to believe that there’s some integrity left in commercial arts that makes it worth pursuing.
There are about 9-10 different Emmy awards held throughout the year, but it’s only the Primetime Emmy Award ceremony that actually gets mainstream attention, and it’s all for American production, so why bother? In principle, it is in the crumbs that we get. It feels like a personal win because we’re able to access that work and root for it, regardless of having no other affiliation to the work. Plus, we barely speak about inclusivity in Indian creative awards for television and film because we have seen it dismiss good art regularly. No one seems to care about them unless they’re spending New Years’ Eve indoors.
Why do we care so much?
Not to mention, a further disinterest in award ceremonies when something as recognised as the BAFTAs scraping their gender-neutral category. They really think offering a choice to non-binary actors to “pick” which gendered category they want to nominate themselves in would help?
Gender neutral categories, or even nominations of good material is a rare sight in India. So yes, many of us have to navigate this limbo of not-caring and also cheering on for anything that represents us, even if it means validating award ceremonies that leave crumbs for representation. While OTT shows in India have been pushing boundaries of creativity, we hardly see that hard work recognised by national awards. Unless they’re being recognised on international platforms like the Emmys. For instance, Made In Heaven (2019), a show that has some queer representation was recognised by the International Emmys. We can criticize Made In Heaven for its shortcomings, but we can’t ignore the fact that the only reason it was criticized for bad representation was because they at least tried.
Also read: Madness Over ‘Made in Heaven’: Exploring Queerness & Friendship
The International Emmys which will be showcased on 25th November, 2024 will be declaring this years’ nominees in September, so you bet I’ll be keeping an eye on that!
