Emmys season is in full swing and Orange Is the New Black’s Uzo Aduba and So You Think You Can Dance’s Cat Deeley are set to announce the nominations for the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards Thursday.
To get you ready for the big reveal, B&C gives you seven things to watch.
1. Emmy voters have a lot of choices this year with 145 dramas, nearly 80 comedies and 24 limited series. The bounty of good content has lead to expanded categories. The outstanding drama and comedy categories now have seven nominations each and a maximum of nine in the event of ties. The major acting categories are also super sized to six with a max of eight in the case of ties.
2. After controversy last year over who could submit to drama, comedy and limited series categories, the Television Academy made an effort to tighten its definitions. To enter as a drama, a series must be roughly 60 minutes in length, while comedies need to be about 30 minutes. The Academy also scrubbed the word miniseries from its vocabulary, instead using the term limited series, which the org defines as a program of two or more episodes that has a total running time of at least 150 minutes.
3. HBO has taken the prize for most nominations in recent years and with standouts Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, Olive Kitteridge and more, the premium cabler is likely to walk away with the title again.
4. If ABC’s Modern Family is nominated for outstanding comedy series, it has the potential to break two records: for most statues won in the category and the most total wins of any show. The laugher currently has five wins, tying it with Frasier.
5. With AMC’s Breaking Bad ineligible, the net’s popular series Mad Men now has its chance to shine in the drama category. Emmy junkies will be on the lookout for an outstanding drama series nod for the show as well as an outstanding actor in a drama series nomination for Jon Hamm.
6. Netflix more than doubled its nominations last year, leading the digital pack with 31. While the streamer might not pass that number in 2015, expect to see more digital series nominated this year.
7. Sketch comedies are on their own this year. Separated from outstanding talk series, shows like NBC’s Saturday Night Live, IFC’s Comedy Bang! Bang! and Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer and Key & Peele have increased in number.
