Game of Thrones dominated the Primetime Emmy Awards for eight glorious years, so when House of the Dragon launched last year, you could practically hear the other producers groaning in despair. It definitely seemed like their chances at the awards season had shrunk to nothing. Contrary to expectations, that hasn’t been the case.
Nominations for the 75th Emmy Awards were announced on Wednesday. Unfortunately, while House of the Dragon scored eight nominations, only one came from a major drama category: Outstanding Drama Series. The remaining nominations were all in production-related categories, including:
- Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour)
- Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (One Hour)
- Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
- Outstanding Period And/Or Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic)
- Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup
- Outstanding Drama Series
- Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie
Surprisingly, the HBO prequel series was completely overlooked in the acting categories, despite stellar performances from Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D’Arcy.
Interestingly, while Emma D’Arcy had previously expressed their dissatisfaction with the Emmy’s absence of gender-neutral categories, non-binary actor Bella Ramsey scored an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for their role in The Last of Us.
In contrast, Game of Thrones’ debut season earned 13 Emmy nods and scored two wins, notably Peter Dinklage, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actor award. Throughout its epic run, the show racked up a record 161 nominations and an impressive 59 wins in the Drama Series category. Furthermore, in all eight seasons, the show never missed an actor nomination at the Emmy Awards.
Fortunately, HBO struck gold with the final season of Succession. The satirical dramedy dominated the nominations, scoring an incredible 27 nominations, and its talented cast secured 14 acting nominations, tying its own previous record. Not only that, but Succession also made history by being the first show to receive three nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Similarly, The Last of Us made history by becoming the first-ever live-action video game adaptation to snag nominations in major Emmy categories, with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey both receiving well-deserved nominations in the lead acting categories.
So, while House of the Dragon might not have necessarily been as big of a hit at the awards season, it might not be to a fault of its own. Rather, you could argue that the show simply premiered around the same time as other arguably better shows came out. Of course, good luck telling that to pundits, who insist that Game of Thrones remains a far better show than its predecessor, despite the numbers saying otherwise.
It remains to be seen if the future seasons of House of the Dragon will fare better. However, it wouldn’t surprise us if this latest development encouraged HBO to delay the ongoing production of Season 2 and lengthen the process for Seasons 3 and 4 (and maybe even Season 5) if only to give the production team more time to come up with a better and more polished product.
