We’ll be updating this article throughout the season, along with all of our predictions, so be sure to keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2023 Emmy race. Nomination voting will run June 15-26, with nominees official at the Emmys announced Wednesday, July 12. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be presented on two consecutive nights on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10, with a curated presentation of the ceremonies airing on FXX at a later date. Finally, the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, September 18 and will air live on FOX at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
The state of the breed
It’s a shame to see the potential of the new Outstanding Scripted Variety Series category brought to seemingly wasted. Shows like “Schmigadoon” on Apple TV+ and “Documentary Now!” on IFC was denied entry in the category this year, which means there’s no room for musicals (which almost never get love in the Outstanding Comedy Series category) or shows where the sketch lasts a whole episode (“Documentary Now!” was pushed into Outstanding Limited Series or Anthology Contention).
Sure, it’s nice that there’s supposedly more room for some of the shows keeping sketch comedy alive, like “History of the World: Part II” (Hulu) and “Ziwe” (Showtime), but those two series are already over. . What’s next for this category outside of perennial nominees “A Black Lady Sketch Show” (HBO), “Saturday Night Live” (NBC), and now HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (moved from Talk Series category ) competing against each other every year, indefinitely?
Even though the show has previously won the former Outstanding Variety Sketch Series Emmy, Paramount+’s reboot of “Inside Amy Schumer” is still a welcome addition to this race that is in desperate need of a shake-up. “Sherman’s Showcase” (IFC) and “Random Acts of Flyness” (HBO) would also be inspired choices. The amount of programs submitted determines the number of possible nominees, so hopefully the TV Academy will soon ease its restrictions on which programs qualify for this category, in order to highlight other great programs that don’t fit the mold of what is. traditionally honored at prime time Emmys.
Current contenders (in alphabetical order):
“A Black Lady Sketch Show” (HBO)
“The Amber Ruffin Show” (Peacock)
“History of the World: Part II” (Hulu)
“Inside Amy Schumer” (Paramount+)
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (HBO)
“Random Acts of Flyness” (HBO)
“Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
“Sherman’s Showcase” (IFC)
“Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News” (Comedy Central)
“Ziwe” (show time)
Other category predictions:
Outstanding animation programme
Outstanding speech series
Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
To see IndieWire’s full set of predictions for the 75th Emmy Awards click here.
Last year’s winner: “Saturday Night Live”
Still eligible: YES.
Hot Series: “Saturday Night Live” has a five-year winning streak right now, benefiting from the split that happened in the Variety Series category in 2015 (it became the Variety Talk and Variety Sketch categories). However, when this split first occurred, it was Comedy Central that had the initial streak with ‘Inside Amy Schumer’ winning in 2015 and ‘Key & Peele’ winning in 2016, hence the long NBC’s late-night variety series Can’t Beat It.
Notable ineligible series: “Murderville” (Season 2 was ineligible); “I think you should leave” (submitted as a series in short form)
