Emmys 2023 Snubs and Surprises: Elizabeth Olsen is Out, ‘Jury Duty’ is In

The nominations for the 2023 Emmy Awards were announced today, shadowed by the knowledge that the Screen Actors Guild could be joining the Writers’ Guild of America on the picket lines by midnight if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers can’t produce an fair deal. Nevertheless, the nominations marked a moment of triumph for the teams behind such beloved shows as Succession, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, and The White Lotus, all of which nabbed a slew of honorifics for their casts and crews. However, there were some notable marks of chaos in today’s nominations. Specifically there were some notable Emmy snubs and surprises.

For the first time ever, the leading lady of Netflix’s The Crown — the actress playing Queen Elizabeth II herself — was snubbed by the Academy, while critical darlings Sharon Horgan, Bella Ramsey, and Keri Russell found themselves honored for their breakout hits. On the comedy side of things, Selena Gomez was once again shunned by Emmy voters, but this year they also turned on her Only Murders in the Building co-star Steve Martin. Martin Short was the only series lead to win a nomination.

While it wasn’t wholly shocking to see Daisy Jones & The Six get nominations for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Lead and Supporting Actress considering the amount of money Amazon threw into their campaigns (over the superior Prime Video title Dead Ringers), prognosticators were not anticipating Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi to squeeze into the race.

From Elizabeth Olsen and Harrison Ford failing to earn nominations for their awards-bait performances to Jury Duty elbowing into the comedy competition in a big way, this year’s Emmy nominations were full of surprises. But maybe the biggest shocker this year is the idea that the Emmys might be delayed to November or even as late as January 2024.

Here’s your guide to the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2023 Emmy nominations…

• Biggest Emmy Snubs: Elizabeth Olsen, Lord of the Rings, What We Do in the Shadows, and more…

  What qualifies as an Emmy snub? Well, it’s when a super talented and super famous person fails to nab a nomination for consistently great work. It’s when a show or artist which had been consistently honored before for their consistently great work is suddenly left off the ballots. And, arguably, it’s when a show a network or streamer clearly wanted to sweep nominations comes incredibly short.

  Perhaps the snub that’s gotten TV fans most riled up this morning is Elizabeth Olsen’s for Max’s Love & Death. I personally loathed the limited series, but felt Olsen’s nervy performance as a real life axe murderer was the show’s bright spot. Emmy voters disagreed, gifting the show’s one big nomination to her co-star, Jesse Plemons, in the Supporting Actor category.

  Another similar shocker hit Netflix’s perennial awards-gobbler The Crown. While Elizabeth Debicki eked out a nomination for her other-worldly portrayal of ’90s era Princess Diana, her co-stars, including Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, and most notably Imelda Staunton, were snubbed in favor of Succession and White Lotus actors.

  On the comedy side, Abbott Elementary, Barry, The Bear, and Ted Lasso dominated as expected, but a few performers were left out of key categories. Shrinking‘s Jason Segel seems to have pushed Steve Martin out of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series — an honor he had previously shared with Only Murders co-star Martin Short. Coincidentally, industry insiders had expected Segel’s famous co-star Harrison Ford to earn a Supporting Actor nomination, but it looks like Jury Duty‘s James Marsden was favored this year.

  But one of the most brutal comedy snubs — in this critic’s opinion — was the lack of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. The perennially hilarious and imaginative show had been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series in the past, but missed the cut this year in favor of new fan faves The Bear, Jury Duty, and Wednesday.

  While Nat Geo and Disney+ definitely poured money into the exquisite, but under-watched, A Small Light to no avail, Amazon’s got to be feeling the most prickly today about the gulf between money poured into a project and awards returned on investment. I’m not talking about Dead Ringers — which continues to be underrated by TV fans writ large — but The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. That uber-expensive Tolkien prequel was meant to be a game-changer for Prime Video and has proven to be less popular with Emmy voters (and arguably audiences) than Daisy Jones & The Six was.

  So that’s who’s likely most disappointed with the 2023 Emmy nominations, but who has cause to crow?

• Biggest Emmy Surprises: Jury Duty, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Stars of Welcome to Chippendales

  Much like a snub is when the Emmys fail to recognize shows and talent that folks assumed would breeze to a nomination, a surprise is when an under-the-radar show makes good against all odds. Maybe it’s a show or performance that’s universally loved, but didn’t get the promotional dollars to launch a competitive campaign, or perhaps its a series that got such a lukewarm reaction awards experts didn’t even count it as a contender…those nominations are what we’d call “surprises.”

  For all the money that Amazon poured into misfires like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the book website-turned-tech overlords-turned-TV studio did have one resounding success this year. The scrappy little show Jury Duty, which ran on the ad-supported video-on-demand service Freevee, charmed the proverbial pants off of TV fans and critics alike. (Coincidentally it was just named Decider’s Best TV Show of 2023 [So Far].) It did not make a ton of noise in the FYC space, though. So when the show was honored with nominations for both Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (for James Marsden), it was the epitome of a “feel good” surprise.

  A more “oh, wow, that’s weird” surprise was Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi sneaking into the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category. While it was a hit for the streaming service, Obi-Wan Kenobi never received the groundswell of critical acclaim fellow nominated Star Wars series Andor did. Can the tale of Obi-Wan Kenobi rescuing a pint-sized Princess Leia and facing Darth Vader a decade before the original Star Wars film win the big prize? Probably not, but you’ve got to believe Lucasfilm is feeling more bullish about Ahsoka right now.

  Speaking of Andor, it was heartening as a genre TV fan to see both that excellent series and the equally brilliant House of the Dragon earn Outstanding Drama Series nominations. It’s Succession‘s award to lose, but it’s a pleasant surprise to see Emmy voters celebrate genre shows like Andor, House of the Dragon, and The Last of Us along with The White Lotus and The Crown.

  And perhaps the last great surprise of the day was the love showered on the stars of Hulu’s limited series Welcome to Chippendale’s. The series didn’t get into the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series bracket, but stars Kumail Nanjiani, Annaleigh Ashford, and Murray Bartlett all scored noms. (The second this year for Bartlett, who was already a favorite for his guest turn in The Last of Us.)

  Of course, the biggest surprise of this year’s Emmys has nothing to do with the nominations, but the scheduling of the ceremony itself..

• The Biggest Emmys Shocker in 2023? The Awards Might Not Happen Until 2024

  Not to rain on everyone’s Emmy parade, but the schedule of events might be a little different this year, thanks in huge parts to the WGA and SAG’s fight for a fare contract with the AMPTP. The Writers’ Guild has been on strike since May 2 in the hopes that the wildly wealthy executives who have made a personal killing on the rise of streaming services will come to the table to suss out a new deal that accounts for fair streaming residuals and the right to not be replaced by AI. The contract extension the AMPTP negotiated with SAG over similar demands is set to expire at midnight tonight, July 12. The expectation is that a dual strike would not only upend production schedules, but the Emmys themselves.

  Variety’s Michael Schneider reports that even though the Emmys are still tentatively scheduled for September 18, talks are already in place to push that date back. The Television Academy is hoping for a November 2023 airdate, but Fox, which broadcasts the awards, wants a January 2024 date. This wouldn’t be the first time the Emmys were delayed a few months, but it certainly highlights the tumultuous time Hollywood is facing right now.