It’s easy to say “acting awards don’t matter,” because in some ways that’s true. A great performance does not need a golden statue for validation just as a trophy can’t improve a lesser performance. But that doesn’t mean it’s not nice to win, or, at the very least, get nominated. Who doesn’t want to be recognized for their work? For too long, the Television Academy has been ignoring some of the its own medium’s best. Intentional or not, there’s a built-in bias against genre TV. But that shouldn’t be the case after 2024. Shows like The Penguin, Agatha All Along, Dune: Prophecy, and House of the Dragon featured some of the absolute best acting to appear on the small screen this year. And that should be reflected in next year’s Emmy nominations.
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How hard is it for actors on genre shows to get close to an Emmy? Game of Thrones (59) is only behind Saturday Night Live (87) for the most Emmys wins by a single show. That doesn’t actually convey the HBO fantasy’s series domination at TV’s premier awards event, though. It only ran for eight seasons and 73 episodes. SNL has racked up its wins over 40 seasons and 930+ (and counting) episodes. And yet, despite universal acclaim for the entire ensemble, only Peter Dinklage ever took home an acting Emmy for Game of Thrones.
Think about what his four wins represent. They are the only times arguably the most successful show in history—a global phenomenon everyone agreed in the moment featured one of the finest casts ever assembled—ever earned the highest award for a television performer. And Game of Thrones‘ actual recognition was even worse than that. The show’s final season got a flood of nominations for the cast. It was as though the Academy tried to fix its major oversight at the last possible second.
Marvel Studios
Things haven’t improved much for genre TV since. It’s not that a fantasy, sci-fi, horror or superhero actors never earn nominations. It’s that it’s surprising when they do. And even then it seems to require something extra special for them to break through. It’s not enough to just be great or one of the year’s best. It helps to be a great actor playing a memorable, unique character like Walton Goggins’ the Ghoul on Fallout. Being on a successful prestige TV show also helps. It did for Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey on The Last of Us. Something like HBO’s Watchmen, another prestige series based on a beloved IP, is the exception that proves the rule. But if you’re just doing great work on a show considered niche, silly, or not as “serious,” you probably have no shot.
That’s why, when traditional shows like Succession and The Bear are monopolizing acting nominations, there’s no room for Tom Hiddleston’s incredible performance as the God of Mischief in either season of Loki or Elizabeth Olsen’s on WandaVision. Just as What We Do in the Shadows, an all-time great comedy, has earned just one measly acting nod (Matt Berry in 2024). The Boys also has zero Emmy acting nominations, despite its amazing ensemble led by Antony Starr who’s been giving an historically great performance during the show’s run. (Starr did get a recent Best Actor in a Drama Series for the Critics Choice Award.) And, somehow, there hasn’t been room at the Emmys for a single cast member from any of Mike Flanagan’s shows, which consistently overflow with amazing acting.
HBO
It’s absurd we know someone like The Wheel of Times‘ Madeleine Madden or Gen V‘s Jaz Sinclair have no shot at a nomination even when they are the best part of a big budget show from the studio owned by Amazon. Same for The Rings of Power‘s Charlie Vickers who is making Sauron—best known as a giant eye—one of the most complex villains in TV history. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and 2024 could finally help change the status quo that refuses to treat genre TV like every other show.
The Penguin and Agatha All Along weren’t just two of the best superhero shows of 2024. They were among the best shows of any kind this year. And a big reason why is they got world class performances from stars and supporting actors alike. Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti were both outrageously good on The Penguin, two tremendous performers at the absolute peak of their powers in incredible roles. The same was true of Kathryn Hahn on Agatha All Along. The show asked her to do everything in-between the silliest of comedy to the saddest of drama and she excelled at all of it.
HBO
Meanwhile no one gave a better, more heartbreaking, layered supporting performance this year than Deirdre O’Connell as Oz Cobb’s mom. But some people did match her, like Patti LuPone as Lilia the Divinations witch in Agatha All Along. And the rest of her coven—Sasheer Zamata, Joe Locke, Ali Ahn, and Aubrey Plaza— were just as good.
And that’s just two genre shows worth of Emmy-worthy performances. House of the Dragon and Dune: Prophecy also had performances as good as anything that aired on TV this year. For all of its issues in season two, House of the Dragon didn’t have to worry about acting. Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Needham, Bethany Antonia, and Tom Glynn-Carney all turned in memorable, stellar performances. Same for Emily Watson and Olivia Williams, who delivered some of the best work of their long careers on Dune: Prophecy. Each mastered challenging roles requiring the kind of depth and nuance that can only be given after years developing their craft. In lesser hands, the show would not have worked.
Max
Whether any or all of them are getting Emmy nominations next year won’t matter in the most important ways. It won’t change how good they were. It also won’t change how we feel about their performances. But if we’re going to bother recognizing TV’s greatest performers, let’s actually do that. And in 2024, it was more obvious than ever genre is home to some of TV’s best acting performances.
Editor’s Note: Dune: Prophecy is a Legendary Entertainment production. Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He demands the Academy nominate Cristin Milioti for The Penguin. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
