Emmy Nominations 2016: The Biggest Snubs and Surprises

OK, TV fans, the Emmy nominations were announced this morning, which means it's time for the annual ritual: set your outrage-meter up to 10, fire up your Twitter feed, and start venting about this year's snubs and surprises. Ready... set...

Actually, there's not that much to gripe about this year. The nominations, after all, went pretty much as expected. Still, there will be eyebrows raised in response to the sudden prominence of "The Americans," the Television Academy's rare recognition of a quality genre show in "Mr. Robot," and the unexpected fall from grace of past Emmy fave "Orange Is the New Black." Here's what happened in the top categories.

Drama
First it was a comedy, then it was a drama, but for Season 3, "Orange" is nowhere. Not only did it fail to make the Drama Series nominations, but two-time Supporting Actress winner Uzo Aduba didn't even get nominated this year. Nor did anyone else from the show, even though it did earn one token nod for Best Casting.

The drama series nominations were mostly what you'd expect: last year's winner "Game of Thrones," plus "Better Call Saul," "Downton Abbey," "Homeland," and "House of Cards." But the biggest surprise? "The Americans."

After four seasons, FX's critically-acclaimed series finally got the Emmy love it has long deserved, earning top category nods for its much-praised fourth season, including one for Drama Series and first-time Emmy nominations for stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.
It was also a surprise to see "Mr. Robot" get a Best Drama nod, too, given the Academy's usual disdain for genre-y fare; nonetheless, acclaim for the USA show has been too universal to ignore. Star Rami Malek (above) made the list, too. (Supporting actor Christian Slater got snubbed, though). Also, some pundits were predicting Best Drama honors for Showtime's new drama "Billions" that didn't happen. It also didn't score any in the acting categories.

The Acting Categories
Over in Best Lead Actress in a Drama, Tatiana Maslany was nominated for the second time for her multiple roles in "Orphan Black," but that was the sci-fi drama's only nomination.

Anyone who expected honors for "The Good Wife" in its farewell season, or for its star Julianna Margulies -- well, tough luck.
One nice surprise: first-time nominations for "Game of Thrones" supporting players Maisie Williams (not so faceless after all) and Kit Harington. The Lord of Light brought Jon Snow back for a reason. Another nice surprise: Constance Zimmer for Best Supporting Actress for "UnREAL,' the best Lifetime drama you're not watching.

Comedy
Not many surprises here, though it was good to see Aziz Ansari (above) recognized for the first time, with a Best Actor and Best Series nods for his Netflix show "Master of None." The streaming service's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" also did well, with nods for Best Series, Best Actress (first-time nominee Ellie Kemper), and Best Supporting Actor (returning nominee Tituss Burgess).

HBO's "Silicon Valley" cleaned up as expected, but it was nice to see star Thomas Middleditch earn his first nomination. HBO's "Veep," last year's winner for Comedy Series and Best Actress (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), grabbed even more nominations (17 in all), though the one for supporting actor Matt Walsh was a surprise, as was the snub of Hugh Laurie. And the HBO comedy that limped off the air without you watching it, nursing home saga "Getting On," nonetheless managed to land some surprising recognition for Lead Actress Laurie Metcalf and Supporting Actress Niecy Nash.

ABC's "Black-ish" did even better than last year, with a first-time nomination for Lead Actress Tracee Ellis Ross (as well as Best Series and Best Actor for Anthony Anderson). And it was great to see Louie Anderson earn his first-ever nomination (Supporting Actor) for his hilarious, grounded turn as Zach Galifianakis' mother on "Baskets."

Amazon's "Transparent" did well, as expected, but the online channel's "Mozart in the Jungle," despite much Golden Globes love earlier this year, didn't get nominated in any major categories. (Sorry, fans of classical music and Gael Garcia Bernal's piercing eyes.)

Limited Series and TV Movie
As expected, FX's "The People vs. O.J. Simpson" dominated the field; with 22 nominations, it was the second-most nominated program of the year, behind only 23-time nominee "Game of Thrones."

It also wasn't surprising to see nods for its actors Cuba Gooding Jr., Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance, Sterling K. Brown, and David Schwimmer. John Travolta was nominated, too; the surprise there is that it's the first Emmy nomination of his celebrated four-decade career. (Vance, Gooding, and Brown are first-time nominees as well.)

"American Crime" and Regina King (last year's winner for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series) made the list as expected, but so did lead actresses Felicity Huffman and Lili Taylor, nominations that are a bit of a surprise. The "Roots" reboot made the list, but its cast was snubbed.

HBO usually mops the floor with these categories, but despite multiple nominations for "All the Way," it missed out for mini-series "Show Me a Hero" (sorry, Oscar Isaac fans) and "The Dresser" (despite Emmy-bait stars Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen). The biggest surprise in the Movie category, though, is the inclusion of Bill Murray's trifle of a Netflix holiday special "A Very Murray Christmas."

Reality -- Competition
This category is a gantlet that's hard for newcomers to muscle into, but "American Ninja Warrior" managed to complete the obstacle course this year for the first time in its three years of eligibility. The venerable "Survivor," on the other hand, got voted off the island.

Variety Talk Series
Along with the expected late-night network and cable talk shows, there's the surprising addition of Jerry Seinfeld's web show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." It took the slot that might have gone to the one living-room late-night show that's not there: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Notably, it's also the one potential title in this category that doesn't routinely generate viral videos. (Carpool karaoke master James Corden, who's much more lowbrow show follows Colbert's on CBS, did make the cut.) If the low-rated Colbert doesn't want to go the way of Dick Cavett, he'd better figure out a way to generate some attention-grabbing clips.



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