Emmys Ignore ‘Yellowstone’ (Again!), Praise Obama's, ‘1619 Project’
What’s a show gotta do to get some Emmy love?
The Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” is easily one of the most popular and consequential shows of the modern era. It’s already spawned “1883,” “1923,” the upcoming “6666” and a project to be headlined by Matthew McConaughey.
The show reaffirmed Kevin Costner’s superstar status and made co-creator Taylor Sheridan a household name. Sheridan is now one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, whose empires stretches from feature films ("Hell or High Water") to other streaming smashes ("Tulsa King").
Yet the beloved series has but one Emmy nomination, for Production Design, to its name after four and a half smash seasons (the rest of season 5 will air later in 2023). That includes a big goose egg following the most recent Emmy announcements.
Other buzz-worthy shows like HBO’s “The Last of Us” snared dozens of nominations earlier this week despite garnering fewer viewers than the Paramount series.
Why?
Are Emmy voters holding the show’s conservative fan base against it? The show isn’t overtly right-of-center but its themes of rugged individualism and relatively woke-free storytelling earned it a sizable Heartland following. Sheridan has denied any partisan angle influencing the story, but viewers flock to his saga all the same.
The Emmy Awards have long catered to the left. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images).
Could its populist appeal make it less worthy in the eyes of Emmy voters? Perhaps.
Sheridan and company could boost its chances at future nominations with one easy move. Cast former President Barack Obama as a secondary character in the sprawling Dutton saga. Or just let the Netflix personality narrate an episode or two.
Obama's Receive Plenty Of Emmy Attention
Obama snagged another Emmy nomination, his second, this month for his narration on the Netflix docuseries “Working.” The four-part series take a left-leaning look at the working class today, from service workers to heads of innovative companies. And, of course, there’s a side helping of income inequality served up throughout.
He wasn’t the only nominee named Obama, though.
Emmy voters also praised Michelle Obama’s Netflix special “The Light We Carry” — a chat with the former First Lady and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
Is it suspicious that Emmy voters in liberal La La Land foisted praise on two key Democratic figures with modest entertainment skills? If you don’t think so, you probably thought the prison cameras in Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell actually malfunctioned at the worst time possible.
It's also part of an obvious pattern.
Modern awards shows routinely shower progressives with awards, dating back to Al Gore’s Oscar-winning 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth.”
“Vice,” far-left filmmaker Adam McKay’s anti-GOP screed, earned mediocre reviews in 2019. It still snagged nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell) and Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams).
McKay's 2021 follow-up project, "Don't Look Up," similarly snagged four Oscar nominations, including the coveted Best Picture honor.
Heck, even the Razzies – handed out to the worst films of a given year – routinely mock the few conservatives allowed to make movies.
Emmy Nominations Offer Few Surprises
The Obamas weren’t the only beneficiaries of potentially partisan Emmy nods. Hulu’s “1619 Project,” based on the factually wobbly work of Nikole Hannah-Jones, snagged three nominations - Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Program.
The docuseries reflected the far-Left values of its creator as well as that of both Hulu and parent company Disney.
It’s likely the combined viewers of “1619 Project,” “Working” and “The Light We Carry” can’t compete with how many eyeballs greet “Yellowstone” across media platforms. Emmy awards shouldn’t be popularity contests, but both critics and audiences have rallied around the modern-day western since its inception.
That's not enough to pry a few Emmy nominations away from the industry's preferred "winners."