After a television season celebrated for diversity and exciting newcomers, the 2015 Emmy Award nominations ... look a lot like last year. And the year before that.
While several brand-new shows made a splash and offered more surprises than usual for Hollywood's most predictable award show, it was lots of standard fare for the Television Academy. HBO's hugely popular fantasy epic Game of Thrones racked up 24 nominations, the most of any show. FX's perennial hit American Horror Story: Freak Show landed close behind with 19 nods. ABC's Modern Family and HBO's Veep remain comedy favorites. The final season of AMC's sleek, exhausting Mad Men was rewarded with 11 nominations, tying Netflix favorite House of Cards and Amazon's groundbreaking new series Transparent, which stars Jeffrey Tambor as a transgender woman.
Transparent was one of the freshman shows that made an impressive showing, along with Better Call Saul. AMC's Breaking Bad prequel was met with critical praise but less-than-glowing reviews from viewers, and therefore raised a few eyebrows when it landed in the fiercely competitive best drama category. Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the Tina Fey comedy originally slated for NBC, landed seven nods, mostly in the acting categories. And PBS's new Wolf Hall garnered an impressive eight nominations.
But what about the slate of diverse shows that caused some serious reflection in the TV industry this past year as buzzy shows like Empire, Jane the Virgin, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat and How to Get Away With Murder took off? Empire star Taraji P. Henson got her expected drama actress nomination, joined by Viola Davis of How to Get Away With Murder, marking the first time two black women have ever been nominated in the category. Anthony Anderson got a comedy actor nod for Black-ish. Otherwise, the shows were largely shut out, and many fans were not pleased that Henson's hip-hop drama - which shattered ratings records - was snubbed for best drama.