“We are months away from the Emmy nominations for 2019, but that’s not stopping me, and Rob, from making our super-duper early predictions” proclaims senior editor Marcus James Dixon about his early thoughts on the coveted Best Drama Series category at this year’s Emmys. He recently joined fellow senior editor Rob Licuria to size up the field of contenders in the wide open drama race. “Normally with the Emmys, as we all know, we see what was nominated last year and we put them all in, because they love their reruns,” Licuria agrees, as they both agonize over which shows are most likely to make the cut with only four months to go before Emmy nominations are announced on July 12. Watch our video chat below.
Of the seven series nominated for Best Drama Series at last year’s Emmys, defending champ “Game of Thrones” and NBC’s “This is Us” are the only contenders that are definitely eligible for this year’s prize. If “The Crown” premieres on Netflix this season, it would also likely return to the line-up as well.
That leaves four vacant slots, with “The Americans” having left the airwaves and previous champ “The Handmaid’s Tale,” plus “Stranger Things” and “Westworld” not airing episodes within the eligibility period, making them ineligible for Emmys this year.
According to our racetrack odds, the series that we expect to be in the hunt for the top drama prize include a possible first-time nom for BBC America with its breakout hit “Killing Eve,” Amazon’s “Homecoming,” Netflix’s “Ozark,” the return of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” prequel “Better Call Saul,” FX’s “Pose,” HBO’s “Succession” and a number of other shows vying for attention in an extremely crowded field of “peak TV” dramas.
“Only two are guaranteed, ‘Game of Thrones’ and maybe ‘This is Us’ and then there’s one maybe with ‘The Crown’? This is huge for this category!” Dixon declares. “It’s kind of unprecedented,” Licuria agrees. “When I was doing my predictions, I was struggling! I’m not used to this,” he says, adding that “more than half of the category is gone!”
PREDICT the Emmys now; change them until July 16
Be sure to make your Emmy predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their TV shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until just before nominations are announced on July 16. And join in the fun debate over the 2019 Emmy taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
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