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Westworld, Stranger Things lead 2017 Emmy nominations

It’s all about new shows

Stranger Things - boys and Eleven in radio room
Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) in the first season of Stranger Things.
Netflix
Samit Sarkar (he/him) is Polygon’s deputy managing editor. He has more than 15 years of experience covering video games, movies, television, and technology.

The past year was a great one for new television series, especially genre shows like Stranger Things, Westworld and The Handmaid’s Tale — all of which are well-represented in the nominations for the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards.

Leading the list was HBO’s Westworld, which debuted last fall on HBO with the most-watched first season for an original series in the network’s history. The cerebral, futuristic thriller pulled in 22 nominations — tied with NBC’s Saturday Night Live for the most of any show this year — including Outstanding Drama Series and all four drama acting categories:

  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Anthony Hopkins (as Dr. Robert Ford)
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Evan Rachel Wood (as Dolores Abernathy)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Jeffrey Wright (as Bernard Lowe)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Thandie Newton (as Maeve Millay)

As an HBO series and one of the new darlings of prestige television, Westworld was pretty much guaranteed to get plenty of Emmy nods. But one show that was an out-of-nowhere hit last summer also received a perhaps surprising number of nominations today: Netflix’s Stranger Things, a pulpy sci-fi series that is up for Best Drama alongside Westworld.

Stranger Things scored a whopping 18 nominations, good for second place alongside FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan. Among the premier categories, David Harbour — who plays the gruff but dedicated Hawkins police chief, Jim Hopper — is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, while 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown is up for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the show’s breakout star, Eleven. And Shannon Purser received a surprise nod in the Outstanding Guest Actress field for playing everybody’s favorite character, Barb.

Westworld - Dolores in Sweetwater
Evan Rachel Wood is nominated for Best Lead Actress, Drama, for her performance as Dolores Abernathy in Westworld.
John P. Johnson/HBO

Those were far from the only freshman shows to dominate this year’s list of nominees. Both The Crown, Netflix’s biographical series about Queen Elizabeth II, and The Handmaid’s Tale, the Hulu show based on Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed dystopian novel, picked up 13 nominations including Best Drama. NBC’s ensemble tearjerker This Is Us, the most popular new show on television, notched 11. And on the comedy side, FX’s critical darling Atlanta came in with six nods.

Of course, plenty of returning series were showered with nominations as well, like HBO’s Veep (17), FX’s Fargo (16), HBO’s Silicon Valley (10), AMC’s Better Call Saul (nine) and Netflix’s Master of None (eight). Speaking of Netflix, the streaming service was second only to HBO in total number of nominations by platform, with 91 to HBO’s 111.

In case you’re wondering why the juggernaut that is Game of Thrones is missing entirely from this year’s nominations, they cover shows that aired between June 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017. The bulk of Game of Thrones’ sixth season aired before that window, and the seventh season doesn’t debut until this Sunday, July 16. So season six was eligible for last year’s Emmys, while season seven will be eligible for next year’s awards.

The 69th annual Emmy Awards will air on CBS live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 17, starting at 5 p.m. PT. Stephen Colbert will host the show. You can see the list of nominees for some of the top Emmy categories below, and the full list on the Emmy website.

Correction: HBO has since announced that it received 111 nominations, not 110. We’ve edited the article to reflect this.

Outstanding Drama Series
Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
House of Cards (Netflix)
Stranger Things (Netflix)
This Is Us (NBC)
Westworld (HBO)

Outstanding Comedy Series
Atlanta (FX)
Black-ish (ABC)
Master of None (Netflix)
Modern Family (ABC)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
Veep (HBO)

Outstanding Limited Series
Big Little Lies (HBO)
Fargo (FX)
Feud: Bette and Joan (FX)
Genius (National Geographic)
The Night Of (HBO)

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race (CBS)
American Ninja Warrior (NBC)
Project Runway (Lifetime)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)

Outstanding Variety Talk Series
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (TBS)
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver HBO)
The Late Late Show With James Corden CBS)
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS)
Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings, The Americans (FX)
Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, Better Call Saul (AMC)
Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood, House of Cards (Netflix)
Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan, Ray Donovan (Showtime)
Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson, This Is Us (NBC)
Milo Ventimiglia as Jack Pearson, This Is Us (NBC)
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, The Americans (FX)
Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, The Crown (Netflix)
Elisabeth Moss as Offred, The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, House of Cards (Netflix)
Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)
Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy, Westworld (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, Better Call Saul (AMC)
John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, The Crown (Netflix)
Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, Homeland (Showtime)
Michael Kelly as Doug Stamper, House of Cards (Netflix)
David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Stranger Things (Netflix)
Ron Cephas Jones as William Hill, This Is Us (NBC)
Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, Westworld (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Samira Wiley as Moira, The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Uzo Aduba as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Stranger Things (Netflix)
Chrissy Metz as Kate Pearson, This Is Us (NBC)
Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay, Westworld (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Donald Glover as Earnest “Earn” Marks, Atlanta (FX)
Zach Galifianakis as Chip Baskets / Dale Baskets, Baskets (FX)
Anthony Anderson as Andre Johnson, Black-ish (ABC)
Aziz Ansari as Dev Shah, Master of None (Netflix)
William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, Shameless (Showtime)
Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman, Transparent (Amazon)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Pamela Adlon as Sam Fox, Better Things (FX)
Tracee Ellis Ross as Rainbow Johnson, Black-ish (ABC)
Jane Fonda as Grace Hanson, Grace and Frankie (Netflix)
Lily Tomlin as Frankie Bergstein, Grace and Frankie (Netflix)
Allison Janney as Bonnie, Mom (CBS)
Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, Veep (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Louie Anderson as Christine Baskets, Baskets (FX)
Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Modern Family (ABC)
Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
Tony Hale as Gary Walsh, Veep (HBO)
Matt Walsh as Mike McLintock, Veep (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Vanessa Bayer as Various Characters, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Leslie Jones as Various Characters, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Kate McKinnon as Various Characters, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Kathryn Hahn as Raquel Fein, Transparent (Amazon)
Judith Light as Shelly Pfefferman, Transparent (Amazon)
Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer, Veep (HBO)

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