For me, the Emmy nominations is an opportunity to take that annual look as to how women are faring in the TV business. I’m not talking about the acting categories. There are some great women nominated all of them, always are, always will be. I’m talking about the writing and directing and other categories that are not as visible to the public.
My first glance and second glance at the big nominations for best comedy series and best drama series, shows how far women still have to go. Out of the six series nominated for best drama only ONE — The Good Wife has a female showrunner — Michelle King who runs the show with her husband Robert.
And comedy is no better. Tina Fey is the co-showrunner of 30 Rock. But that’s it. So both in drama and comedy we have female co-showrunners but no individual female showrunners. Let’s just say there are awesome female showrunners running Emmy worthy shows. Jenny Bicks runs The Big C. Liz Brixius runs Nurse Jackie. And Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline run the perennially under appreciated The Middle.
While we can’t seem to get a female solo showrunner, we got a couple of women directing comedies who got nominations: Pamela Fryman, “How I Met Your Mother” — “Subway Wars” (CBS); Gail Mancuso, “Modern Family” — “Slow Down Your Neighbors” (ABC) and Beth McCarthy-Miller, “30 Rock” — “Live Show” (NBC). One woman Patty Jenkins was nominated for directing a drama for the Pilot of The Killing. Laurieann Gibson, was nominated in the Variety, Music or Comedy special for “Lady GaGa Presents The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden”
There are no women nominated in the following categories:
DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES
DIRECTING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
In the writing area, Veena Sud was nominated in the drama category for the Pilot of the Killing, and Maria Jacquemetton was nominated for co-writing an episode of Mad Men and Heidi Thomas was nominated in the miniseries category for “Upstairs Downstairs”, Paula Pell and Emily Spivey, were nominated for the Real Women of SNL in the Writing for a Variety, Musica or comedy Special.
No women were nominated for: WRITING FOR A COMEDY and WRITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
The writing for a variety series always makes me nuts because it is all the late night shows that are full of dudes and very few women. Here’s what I mean:
Colbert Report: 17 writers, 1 woman (Meredith Scardino)
Conan: 18 writers, 1 woman (Laurie Kilmartin)
The Daily Show: 16 writers, 2 women (Hallie Hagland and Jo Miller)
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: 19 writers, 2 women (Morgan Murphy and Amy Ozols)
Saturday Night Live: 27 writers, 7 women (Heather Anne Campbell, Jessica Conrad, Shelly Gossman, Christine Nangle, Paula Pell, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider)
Other nominees:
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Edie Falco — “Nurse Jackie”
Tina Fey — “30 Rock”
Laura Linney — “The Big C”
Melissa McCarthy — “Mike & Molly”
Martha Plimpton — “Raising Hope” (Fox)
Amy Poehler — “Parks And Recreation”
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Connie Britton — “Friday Night Lights”
Kathy Bates — “Harry’s Law”
Julianna Margulies — “The Good Wife”
Mireille Enos — “The Killing”
Mariska Hargitay — “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
Elisabeth Moss — “Mad Men”
ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Taraji P. Henson — “Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story”
Diane Lane — “Cinema Verite”
Jean Marsh — “Upstairs Downstairs”
Elizabeth McGovern — “Downton Abbey”
Kate Winslet — “Mildred Pierce”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch — “Glee”
Julie Bowen — “Modern Family”
Jane Krakowski — “30 Rock”
Betty White — “Hot In Cleveland”
Sofia Vergara — “Modern Family”
Kristen Wiig — “Saturday Night Live”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Kelly Macdonald — “Boardwalk Empire”
Archie Panjabi — “The Good Wife”
Christine Baranski — “The Good Wife”
Margo Martindale — “Justified”
Michelle Forbes — “The Killing”
Christina Hendricks — “Mad Men
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Maggie Smith — “Downton Abbey”
Evan Rachel Wood — “Mildred Pierce”
Melissa Leo — “Mildred Pierce”
Mare Winningham — “Mildred Pierce”
Eileen Atkins — “Upstairs, Downstairs”
GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Kristin Chenoweth — “Glee”
Dot-Marie Jones — “Glee”
Gwyenth Paltrow — “Glee”
Cloris Leachman — “Raising Hope”
Tina Fey — “Saturday Night Live”
Elizabeth Banks — “30 Rock”
GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Mary McDonnell — “The Closer”
Julia Stiles — “Dexter”
Loretta Devine — “Grey’s Anatomy”
Randee Heller — “Mad Men”
Cara Buono — “Mad Men”
Joan Cusack — “Shameless”
Alfre Woodard — “True Blood”
Here is the full list of the technical nominations.
