The Succession series, a dark and grating chronicle of a powerful family that is torn apart to take control of a media empire, arrived on Wednesday July 12 at the top of the Emmy Award nominations, announced the day before a probable strike of actors who could cripple Hollywood. Highly acclaimed by critics, the drama’s final season was nominated in twenty-seven categories for this television equivalent of the Oscars. An auspicious harvest for HBO’s flagship program, which has already been voted “best drama series” twice.
She will face the post-apocalyptic road-movie The Last of Us and The White Lotus, whose second season follows the neuroses of wealthy vacationers in Sicily. Also produced by HBO, these two series respectively garnered twenty-four and twenty-three nominations. On the comedy side, Ted Lasso, who follows the adventures of an American football coach parachuted into an English football team, takes pole position with twenty-one nominations.
For mini-series, two Netflix productions stand out with thirteen nominations each: Relentless, a game of slaughter in Los Angeles between two rather pissed off Asian motorists, and Monster – The story of Jeffrey Dahmer, based on the story. of a famous American serial killer.
“Fair Solution”
Announced live on television, this year’s nominations take place against a backdrop of great uncertainty: screenwriters have been on strike for more than two months in Hollywood and actors could join this social movement as early as Wednesday evening at midnight, Los Angeles time. . A comedians’ strike would mean a boycott by all Hollywood stars of the 75th Emmy Awards, originally scheduled for September 18.
Succession stars Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong, all three nominated for Best Actor in a Drama Series and members of the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, would not step on the red carpet, in solidarity with the 160,000 members of the guild, just like their female counterpart Sarah Snook, tipped as a favorite to win the award for best actress.
Faced with this prospect, the production is already considering postponing the event to November, or even to next year, according to the American press. “We hope that the ongoing negotiations (…) will quickly lead to an equitable solution,” said Frank Scherma, president of the Emmy Voters Academy.
Federal mediators
The talks seem to have got off to a bad start, however, despite last-minute mediation by federal government mediators, called to the rescue by some bosses of studios and streaming platforms. If SAG-AFTRA has consented to this mediation, it seems to remain on a war footing. The organization denounced a “cynical scheme” by employers in a statement on Tuesday evening, “aiming to obtain an extension” while studios and platforms “have had more than enough time to reach a fair agreement”.
Like the screenwriters, the actors are demanding better compensation to fight inflation and guarantees against potential upheavals linked to artificial intelligence, such as voice cloning. They are protesting in particular against the drop, linked to streaming, of their so-called “residual” remuneration, that which results from each rerun of a film or series. Important during a television broadcast because they are based on the advertising model, these fees are much lower for streaming platforms, which do not communicate their audience figures and pay a flat rate, regardless of the popularity of the program.