‘The Walking Dead’ Finally Gets Its Emmy Moment — Sorta — and Other Trivia From 2023’s Nominations

Remember AMCs The Walking Dead? You know, the biggest series on TV at one time. Most-watched basic cable show in history, and I can guarantee that will never be topped. But yet, an Emmy dud. The series (which will live on via a frenzy of spin-offs) ended its run last November after 11 seasons and its still ignored by TV Academy voters, failing to pick up a single nomination on Wednesday.

And yet this may have been the most successful year at the Emmys ever for The Walking Dead. Thats because two of the franchises most beloved actors, Steven Yeun and Jon Bernthal, picked up their first-ever Emmy nominations. Granted, its not for The Walking Dead Yeun is nominated in lead limited/anthology actor for Beef and Bernthal is a comedy guest actor nominee for The Bear (which is about Chicagos Beef restaurant) but at least its a belated victory for two actors that made a name for themselves by fighting zombies.

Its actually a year of finally acknowledging several overdue TV staples: How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel finally gets a comedy actor nod for Shrinking, Shameless star Jeremy Allen White gets one for The Bear, James Marsden gets one for playing himself on Jury Duty, Parks and Recreation staple Audrey Plaza is finally recognized (but for The White Lotus), Fringe star Anna Torv gets one for The Last Of Us. And in the most delayed instance, A Different World icon Jasmine Guy gets her first Emmy nomination, for a short titled The Chronicles of Jessica Wu.

It was a bit of a thin year for Emmy trivia no new records for comedy series (although Ted Lasso came close, with 21, one shy of 30 Rocks record of 22 in 2009) or drama (Succession, with 27, is a few shy of the Game of Thrones count of 32 in 2019). But there were a few morsels: Paris Barclay became the first Black director to be nominated in drama (NYPD Blue), comedy (Glee) and now limited (Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story). Amazon Freevees Jury Duty marks the first major series nomination for a free AVOD service. And The Last of Us pulled off the record for new youngest guest actor nominee, for 10-year-old Keivonn Montreal Woodard.

Here is a roundup of a few more odd, unusual and just plain unique but mostly trivial takeaways from this years nominations:

GAME THE EMMYS: Its Year One of the new game show Emmy alignment, in which both daytime and primetime gamers are now a part of the Primetime Emmys, shifting to L.A.-based TV Academy oversight from its previous home at the New York-based National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences Daytime Emmys. So, confusion was likely to happen, and it has: In both the outstanding game show and outstanding game show host categories, shows including Jeopardy!, Family Feud and Wheel of Fortune are nominated but credited to ABC.

So, are these just for the primetime versions? Not quite. Insiders have confirmed that ABC, Sony (which produces Wheel and Jeopardy!) and Fremantle (which produces Family Feud) submitted those shows daytime and primetime runs jointly, all in one. That way, a primetime Celebrity Family Feud wouldnt compete with the daytime Family Feud. But its still unclear why only ABC was credited for those shows, rather than both ABC and syndication since the daytime runs of those three shows are syndicated. (The prime access versions of Wheel and Jeopardy! run on ABC-owned stations in major markets, which is why theyre so identified as ABC gamers but theyre still syndicated.)

The Price Is Right airs on CBS in daytime and in primetime, which is why theres less of an issue of that show being submitted as one franchise under the Eye network. The only other shows nominated in the two categories, NBCs Password and Thats My Jam, are only in primetime. Variety asked the TV Academy why Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud werent jointly credited to ABC and syndication, and was told that just as FX shows on Hulu are credited to FX, despite only airing on Hulu the org no longer validates network claims. Tracking was done one way tracked by submitter. The interpretation of who owns what nomination is up to the individual entity to claim, a spokesperson said.

CLASH OF THE TITANS: Whats the more impressive faceoff? Carol Burnett vs. Norman Lear in a National Treasure battle royale? Theyre up for variety special (pre-recorded), with NBCs Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love and ABCs Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music Laughter. At least they both still have their laughter. Meanwhile, in variety special (live), Rihannas Super Bowl Halftime Show is up against Elton Johns farewell from Dodger Stadium. In the character voice-over performance category, Mel Brooks (History of the World, Part II) is up against another legend, Julie Andrews (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). And then theres the faceoff between the countrys two greatest human beings: Dolly Parton (with her NBC movie Dolly Partons Mountain Magic Christmas) vs. Weird Al Yankovic (Rokus Weird: The Al Yankovic Story) in TV movie.

MAKING MUSIC: Speaking of Parton, Yankovic, Rihanna and John, other musicians in the hunt for Emmys include the late Notorious B.I.G. (for Gunpowder Skys Facebook/Meta Horizon Worlds The Notorious B.I.G. Skys the Limit: A VR Concert Experience Kid Cudi (Netflixs Entergalactic Gorillaz (Googles Gorillaz Presents The Weeknd (Maxs The Weeknd Live at SoFi Stadium Danny Elfman (Wednesday and Ed Sheeran, whos among the nominees for the Ted Lasso song A Beautiful Game. (Among Sheerans competitors in that category: Yankovic, for the tune Now You Know.) Lizzo, meanwhile, has two different programs nominated: Lizzo: Live in Concert and Love, Lizzo. See more about this years music-related nominees here.

GENRE FLUID: We talk a lot about whether comedy or drama classifications even matter now, in an age of dramatic half-hours landing comedy nominations. In some categories, however, the competition is already mixed. Outstanding cinematography for a series (half hour), for example, has Atlanta, Barry, How I Met Your Father, Only Murders In the Building and Schmigadoon! as well as The Mandalorian competing against each other. And in the cinematography for hour-long shows, Wednesday (considered a comedy) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are up against the likes of The Crown and House of the Dragon. Another interesting one: Outstanding contemporary costumes for a series has Emily in Paris, The Last of Us, Only Murders in the Building, Succession, Wednesday and The White Lotus all competing against each other. And contemporary hairstyling is where you can see Abbott Elementary, Emily in Paris and Ted Lasso battle The Last of Us, P-Valley and The White Lotus.

EXTRA APPLE BITES: Not only does Apple TV+ boast a wide array of Emmy noms for programs like Ted Lasso, Bad Sisters and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, but Apple itself also landed four nominations in the outstanding commercial category. That included one for Apple TV+ (Call Me with Timothee Chalamet), as well as one for AirPods (Quiet the Noise) and two more for the company, The Greatest Accessibility and R.I.P. Leon. Theyre up against spots from Dove, The Farmers Dog and Squarespace. Apple TV+ included those four noms in its tally of 54 (even the TV Academy classifies commercials as having no network affiliation, and doesnt list those four under Apple TV+).

ROYAL CLASH: When it comes to the outstanding period costumes for a series category, pick your Queen: Elizabeth II (The Crown), Catherine the Great (The Great) or Charlotte (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story).

DRAGONS vs. RINGS: Despite the ballyhooed debate over HBOs House of the Dragon vs. Prime Videos The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the two shows are only competing in a handful of categories: Outstanding fantasy/sci-fi costumes, prosthetic makeup, sound editing for a comedy or drama series (one hour) and special visual effects in a season or a movie.

BATTLE OF THE FINALES: The directing and writing categories often lean toward series pilots and finales, and this year the directing for a comedy series category is particularly rife with them: The series enders for Barry, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Ted Lasso (maybe?) are all in the mix.

MOONLIGHTING: Perhaps they didnt get a nom for the role theyre known for. But some Emmy contenders are still celebrating nods for their other gig. Among them: Shrinking star Christa Miller is Emmy nominated in music supervision for her work on Ted Lasso, while Yellowjackets star Juliette Lewis has a supporting actress in a limited series nod for Welcome to Chippendales.

OVERACHIEVERS: Theres no one else quite like Pedro Pascal, nominated for lead actor in a drama (The Last of Us), guest actor in a comedy (Saturday Night Live) and narrator (Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World). Plenty of people are dominated multiple times for acting/directing/writing, etc. But other performers with multiple nods in front of the camera include Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets and The Last of Us), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary and Saturday Night Live), Ali Wong (Beef and Tuca Bertie), Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Family Guy) and Murray Bartlett (Welcome to Chippendales and The Last of Us).

OUTSTANDING EPK? The Emmys category for outstanding short form nonfiction or reality series is more a showcase for promotional videos than actual original content: House of the Dragon: Inside the Episode, The Last of Us: Inside the Episode, Saturday Night Live: Behind the Sketch, Succession: Controlling the Narrative and The White Lotus: Unpacking the Episode. Maybe send this category to Promax the annual event for TV marketers instead.

GOLDBAMA: Barack and Michelle Obama both have reason to attend this years Emmys. President Obama is nominated in outstanding narrator, for Working: What We Do All Day, while Michelle Obamas The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama Oprah Winfrey is nominated in outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special.

CENTURY MARK: We have our first triple-digit nominee. Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels has hit 100 lifetime noms (and that number could jump to 102 once all production credits are in). That pushes him further ahead of second-place Sheila Nevins (77). Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live only received nine nominations this year, tied with 2022 and down from 21 in 2021. But that extended its lifetime nominations tally to 324, pushing it even further ahead of second place Game of Thrones (161).

CANCELED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Call Me Kat for outstanding picture editing for a multi-camera comedy series; Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies for outstanding choreography for scripted programming (two noms); The L Word: Generation Q in outstanding original music and lyrics; The Nevers in outstanding special visual effects in a single episode; Perry Mason in production design for a narrative period or fantasy program (one hour or more) and period costumes for a series. And then theres the most recognized canceled series: CNNs Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, which received four noms, including hosted nonfiction series or special.

EMMY UPSTART: But hold on. That Emmy nomination for The Nevers didnt go to HBO/Max, where the show originally aired. When Warner Bros. TV programmed the remaining unseen episodes of The Nevers on a FAST channel, they did it on Tubi. And because the episode nominated for outstanding special visual effects in a single episode was a previously unaired episode only seen on a Warner Bros. fast channel on Tubi, that means Tubi got credit for the nomination. And hence, Tubi has landed its first Emmy nod.