Want an Emmy? Choose your show carefully

Let’s say you want to get an Emmy nomination for acting.
Talent and training help, I suppose. Still, choose your show carefully.
The Emmy nominations, announced this week, include 26 names for supporting and guest roles in a drama. Twelve of them were for “The Pitt” on HBO Max.
Supporting roles? “Pitt” has half of them — four of the seven actresses, that includes last year’s winner, Katherine LaNasa (shown here with Noah Wyle), plus Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif and Sepideh Moafi. It also includes hree of the seven actors — Shawn Hatosy, who won last year in a guest role, plus Patrick Ball and Gerran Howell.
“Pitt” also has three of the six actresses in a guest role (Brittany Allen, Tai Anderson and Tina Ivlev) and two of the six actors (Jeff Kober and Ernest Harden Jr.). It includes only one lead actor (NWyle, last year’s winner), because … well, there’s only one lead role.
Nominations are like that, bunching some place and ignoring others.
Consider, for instance, all the nods for best comdy series, drama series and movie or mini-series, plus the actors in them. That list gives you 116 nominations; only four went to broadcast network shows.
All four were for ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” for best comedy, actress (Quinta Brunson), supporting actress (Janelle James) and supporting actor (Tyler James Williams). Add up all the other broadcast networks — CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, PBS — and you have zero.
Overall, “Pitt” leads with 25 nominations and another HBO Max show, the final season of “Hacks,” has 24. In the comedy categories, “Hacks” is nominated for best actress (Jean Smart, going for her fifth Emmy in the role and eighth overall) and supporting actress (Hannah Einbinder, who won last year) … plus four of the six guest actresses.
And some people seem to be everywhere: Kaitlin Olson stars in two series — “High Performance” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — but also was nominated for her “Hacks” guest role.
That was her only nod, but some people got two — Colmon Domingo for “Euphoria” and his great work in “The Four Seasons”; Matthew Rhys for “Widow’s Bay” and “The Beast in Me”; and Laure Metcalf in “Hacks” and “Monster: The Ed Gein Story.”
Other interesting acting nominations include:
— The late Rob Reiner as a guest actor in “The Bear.” That puts him against, among others, Michael J. Fox in “Shrinking.”‘
— Jamie Lee Curtis as a guest actress in “The Bear.” Since that show airs in the summer, its nominations are for last season.
— Sarah Pidgeon a relative newcomer, finding herself in imposing company. She’s up for best actress in a movie or miniseries, for her subtly perfect performance as Carolyn Bessette, the wife of John Kennedy Jr. That category puts her against Sally Field, Claire Danes, Sarah Snook and Carey Mulligan.
— Lisa Kudrow, for a 20-year span of nominations in one role. “The Comeback” only had three seasons, but each brought her a nod for best actress in a comedy — in 2006, 2015 and 2026.
This time, Kudrow was also nominated for writing. That gives her 17 Emmy nominations and only one win, for “Friends,” 28 years ago. Maybe she should have auditioned for “Hacks” or “The Pitt.”