‘Succession’ vs. ‘The Bear’ vs. ‘Jury Duty’: Golden Globes’ Supporting Actor Categories May Hold the Future to TV Awards’ Genre Conundrum
The prophecy may now come to pass: There’s a good chance Jeremy Allen White wins a Golden Globe Award for Season 2 of “The Bear,” a week before he wins an Emmy… for Season 1 of “The Bear.” Ditto the show’s Ayo Edibiri (who could win a lead female actor Globe for the show’s sophomore episodes, and then a supporting actress Emmy for its freshman run) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
And so goes the most unusual TV awards season ever, where a delayed Primetime Emmys — with its June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023, eligibility window — falls smack into a Globes, Critics’ Choice and guild awards season with a January to December, 2023 time frame.
More from Variety
The Hollywood strikes also may have had an impact on the even more limited-than-usual showing for broadcast networks at the Globes. ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” was the sole broadcast nominee, and even it saw its fortunes drop to just two nods: Best comedy and best female actor in a comedy (Quinta Brunson).
Interestingly, despite the difference in eligibility dates, the Globes’ comedy nominations were identical to the upcoming Emmys: “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “The Bear,” “Jury Duty,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Ted Lasso.” The only difference is the Globes nominates six (as of this year!), while the Emmys nominates eight, which is why the Emmys also included “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Wednesday.”
In drama, the difference was clearer: “1923,” “The Diplomat” and “The Morning Show” were unique to the Globes, while “The Crown,” “The Last of Us” and “Succession” are shared between the two.
The Globes traditionally likes to get to new TV projects first before the Emmys has a chance to honor those shows — but this year that was limited mostly to a handful of limited/anthology series: Netflix’s “All the Light We Cannot See,” FX’s latest season of “Fargo,” Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers” and Apple TV+’s “Lessons in Chemistry.”
There were a few fresh acting nominees, including “The Curse” star Emma Stone in drama female actor, and “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” star David Oyelowo in limited series/anthology best actor. Actually, in nominating “1923” (as well as star Helen Mirren) and Oyelowo, Globes voters acknowledged the Taylor Sheridan universe in ways that the Emmys have not. Similarly, while Emmy voters stubbornly refuse to nominate “Only Murders in the Building” star Selena Gomez, that at least has not been the case for the past two years with the Globes.
Mostly, this was a rather predictable year when it came to Globes noms. Don’t get me wrong, these are solid choices — “Jury Duty” continues to be a gift, and although shows like “Poker Face” and “Shrinking” deserve more love, it’s nice to at least see some representation. And I can’t argue with the Globes rubber stamping the continued dominance of “Succession” in its final season, with nine noms total.
That “Succession” haul included nods for best drama, as well as for stars Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgard, J. Smith-Cameron, Sarah Snook and Jeremy Strong. Not only did that make “Succession” the most nominated series in Globes history, but it propelled the combo of HBO and Max to a total 17 nominations. Other HBO/Max nods included “The Last of Us” and “Barry.”
Netflix was next with 15, including drama nods for “The Diplomat” and “The Crown” — which becomes the first long-running series to earn noms for every season of its show. Netflix also earned limited/anthology nods for “Beef” and “All the Light We Cannot See.”
Of course, really driving Netflix was the new stand-up comedy on TV field, which included five of the six nominations: “Ricky Gervais: Armageddon,” “Trevor Noah: Where Was I,” “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” ”Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact” and “Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer.” (The one exception: HBO’s “Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love.”)
Globes execs and producers on Monday morning were excited about the star power of the category — although it remains to be seen how many of them will show up, given that they’ve presumably almost all passed on hosting the show. And it brings up a larger question of why the Globes went with such a specific, unusual category in TV when there are so many fields the Globes avoids (like reality TV, or writing).
Even the “best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on television” and “best performance by a male actor in a supporting role on television” fields are all grouped together in television, rather than getting their own categories by genre.
I would have in past years laughed at the absurdity of mixing genres (and I did, back when it made no sense). But here’s a reality check: Whereas it used to feel odd for drama and comedy to mix it up in supporting… the lines between genres are so blurred that it feels pretty normal now. Why, of course Meryl Streep, Hannah Waddingham, J. Smith-Cameron, Christina Ricci, Elizabeth Debicki and Abby Elliott should be competing against each other!
And arguably, Billy Crudup, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck and Alexander Skarsgard are just as funny (or dramatic) as James Marsden and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. It no longer feels odd for these shows to be competing against each other; why shouldn’t “The Bear” compete with “Yellowjackets”?
Maybe this is a reminder that all awards shows should drop the genres and just go with best acting. (And as I’ve written before, perhaps the gender distinctions need to be eliminated as well.) And then we’ll have room for… more standup comedy awards? OK, maybe not.
(Variety parent PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.)
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
