Emmys Snubs and Surprises: Harrison Ford and Elizabeth Olsen Shut Out, ‘Jury Duty’ and ‘Daisy Jones’ Land Big Noms

VARIETY On one level, the biggest snub for this year’s Emmy nominations is that the looming actors strike has robbed this day of its usual joy. The writers strike, in effect since early May, has already severely curtailed celebrating the best and brightest of the 2022-23 TV season. And now, with SAG-AFTRA almost certainly joining the WGA on the picket line in a matter of hours, there’s an air of doom over what should be a happy event.

On another, less existential level, what does Harrison Ford have to do to get an Emmy nomination?! The Emmys’ diamond anniversary brought widely expected nominations for previous Emmy favorites like “Succession,” “The White Lotus,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Ted Lasso.” A new shift in rules that capped the number of names voters could submit per category was expected to keep those shows from total domination of the acting categories — but they all still managed to overwhelm the supporting and guest actor categories, along with newly crowned Emmy favorite, “The Last of Us.”

Still, there were some welcome surprise nominations, especially for under-the-radar gems like “Jury Duty,” “Bad Sisters,” and, uh, “The Diplomat.” But even in the waning days of peak TV, there were still several shows and performances that were shockingly passed over for recognition: Elizabeth Olsen hacked up her friend in that laundry room in “Love & Death” and she gets nothing?!

Here is Variety’s assessment of the biggest surprises among the nominees for the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
“1923” and ”Yellowstone” miss major nods — including for Harrison Ford!

During last year’s Emmy nominations, one of the day’s headlines was that “Yellowstone” and “1883,” Taylor Sheridan’s popular Westerns about the Dutton family, were almost entirely shut out. This year, “Yellowstone” is in a precarious place: It’s been announced that Season 5 will be its last — because star Kevin Costner wants out — but it’s unclear when Part 2 of that season will even be filmed. But Paramount+ drama series prequel “1923” was star-studded, with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford leading the way on the show, which was quickly renewed for a second season. Yet, even with the continued popularity of the (albeit troubled) “Yellowstone” mothership, and the major stars of “1923,” Academy voters continue to shun Sheridan’s “Yellowstone”-a-verse (not what it’s called — until today!) It’s also worth noting that Ford was also not nominated in comedy supporting actor for “Shrinking,” where he was thought to be an early favorite to win.

Limited series goes bananas: “Love & Death” and “Black Bird” miss, while “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” “Daisy Jones & the Six” and … “Obi-Wan Kenobi” make it in

A powerhouse category over the last few years, limited series this year was a far more fluid beast, which is likely why there were some major upsets this year. HBO’s “Love & Death” — the second limited series about the real-life axe murderer Candy Montgomery, following 2022’s “Candy” with Jessica Biel — suffered the most, with only a single nomination, for Jesse Plemons for supporting actor. Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser both earned acting nods for Apple TV+’s prison drama “Black Bird,” but the show missed for series.

On the flip side, Amazon Prime Video’s folk rock series “Daisy Jones & the Six” was a major nominee with nine nominations, including for limited series and lead actress for Riley Keough. FX’s “Fleishman Is in Trouble” also cleaned up with seven nods, including for limited series, lead actress (Lizzy Caplan) and supporting actress (Claire Danes)

But the biggest shock was the inclusion of Disney+’s “Star Wars” series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which debuted over a year ago and was tepidly received by many fans. Along with four below-the-line nominations, the show still managed to pick up a series nod, echoing the surprise nomination for “The Mandalorian” in drama series in 2020. The Force is indeed strong with this show.
Brian Cox — and Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin! — are all nominated for lead actor for “Succession”