The Biggest Snubs And Surprises From The 2020 Emmy Nominations

The 2020 Emmy nominations were announced via livestream on Tuesday, July 28, and as usual, there are plenty of big shockers and surprising omissions from the list. Announced by two-time Emmy nominee Leslie Jones — digitally joined by Emmy winner Laverne Cox, Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany, and Josh Gad — the nominations were full of surprises as the ceremony honored both long-running favorites and freshman comedies and dramas with nominations.

Despite the social-distancing measures that would seem to make the Emmys ceremony an impossibility, television's biggest night is still set for September 20, 2020 on ABC, with veteran host Jimmy Kimmel leading the evening's proceedings. As of this writing, we don't know exactly how this COVID-affected version of the Emmys will even work, but knowing Kimmel, he and ABC have some sort of plan to make sure the yearly tradition continues in some new way. However, before we get to the ceremony, we have to break down the nominations. From brand new genre shows to beloved comedies that came to an end in 2020 to buzzy limited series, here are the biggest snubs and surprises from the 2020 Emmy nominations.

Every year, the Emmy nominations end up leaving talented, deserving performers and shows off their final lists, and every year, television fans cry foul when their favorites don't make the cut. This year is no exception, with plenty of names missing from the list of nominees.

Even as Better Call Saul wraps its critically acclaimed fifth season, stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn somehow couldn't make their way into the acting categories for Drama, leaving plenty of Saul fans stunned (though Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Gus Fring, scored a nod). Meanwhile, Academy Award winner and Emmy nominee Reese Witherspoon, who was eligible for three separate performances this year — on the second season of Big Little Lies, AppleTV+'s The Morning Show, and Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere — was completely shut out, unlike many of her costars on each of those shows. In the comedy categories, Kristen Bell was one of the few actors from The Good Place to miss out on a nomination, while critically acclaimed shows like Better Things didn't make it into any categories whatsoever.

In fact, plenty of Emmy favorites and previous winners, including Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Elisabeth Moss, weren't nominated for Big Little Lies, Mrs. America, or The Handmaid's Tale, respectively. Unbelievably, Netflix's Unbelievable, which rested on the strength of its three leading women — Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever — could only spare a single nomination for Collette, even though the show made it into the Best Limited Series category overall. Ultimately, as old favorites like Westworld and This Is Us were left out of the Best Drama category, it seems that new contenders are overtaking the standards, which led to some pretty happy surprises.

Happily, there were plenty of surprises tucked away in the Emmy nominations as well. Both Schitt's Creek and The Good Place earned nods for Best Comedy Series for their excellent final seasons, alongside well-deserved acting nominations for nearly their entire casts; joining veterans like Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, and Ted Danson among the major acting nominatinos are newcomers like D'Arcy Carden, William Jackson Harper, Dan Levy, and Annie Murphy.

What We Do in the Shadows and Ramy also cracked the big categories, with Shadows earning a surprising but well-earned nod for Best Comedy and Ramy scoring acting nominations for stars Ramy Youssef and Mahershala Ali. Netflix's dark comedy Dead to Me also scored big, with nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and nods for lead actresses Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate.

Freshman Disney+ show The Mandalorian scored a top spot among the noms for Outstanding Drama Series, marking a win for the House of Mouse and Star Wars fans alike. As usual, though, HBO loomed large over the entire list. One of the prestige network's most buzzworthy series, Watchmen, earned an astounding 26 nominations, while the sophomore season of Succession finally cracked the acting categories, doling out nominations for stars Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, and more. Young ingenue Zendaya also made the cut for Outstanding Leading Actress in the drama categories thanks to HBO's Euphoria, an incredibly dark teen drama that gives the Spider-Man starlet a chance to show off her chops.

The 2020 Emmys will air on September 20, 2020, so tune in that evening on ABC to see which of your favorite nominees will take home the gold.