SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Television Academy surprised Sheryl Lee Ralph with an Emmy nomination today. The "Abbott Elementary" actress was onstage with actor Tony Hale presenting the nominees for the TV awards when Academy chair Cris Abrego stepped in.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SPECIAL, "75TH PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS")
CRIS ABREGO: You have been nominated for best supporting actress in a comedy series.
TONY HALE: Hey.
ABREGO: Your third nomination. Well-earned, well-deserved.
SHERYL LEE RALPH: Hey, hey, hey.
ABREGO: Congratulations. Congratulations.
RALPH: Oh, yes. Honey, that never gets old, never gets old. Yes.
HALE: That's awesome.
ABREGO: Well-earned, well-deserved. Congratulations.
DETROW: Her show "Abbott Elementary" was nominated for best comedy series. And the more serious show, "The Bear," which is somehow also part of the comedy category, set the record with 23 nominations. NPR pop culture correspondent Linda Holmes is here to talk about it all. Hey, Linda.
LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So let's just start with that. Why is "The Bear" a comedy? What is going on here?
HOLMES: Well, yeah, if I ran the world, that would be a drama. But, you know, drama versus comedy is always a gray area. One really welcome nomination, for example, was for "Reservation Dogs," the Hulu show about Indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma. That's also nominated as a comedy series, and it's also somewhere in between. So, you know, these things, it's always...
DETROW: Much like life.
HOLMES: Yeah, much like life. Exactly. But, yeah, it's a very big year for "The Bear." You know, Jeremy Allen White, who plays the main character, he was nominated. Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Sydney and Richie, they were nominated - along with Lionel Boyce, who plays Marcus, and Liza Colon-Zayas, who plays Tina. So I was delighted by all that.
DETROW: So 23 nominations for "The Bear." But "Shogun" actually got a few more, 25.
HOLMES: Right. "Shogun" is the FX show. It's set in feudal Japan, based on a novel by James Clavell. You might remember another TV adaptation of that book from the '80s, but this is a completely new one. It got 25 nominations in a wide variety of drama categories. Anna Sawai, who plays the translator, Mariko, she has a lead actress nomination. Hiroyuki Sanada has won on the actors' side. I think they're both good bets to win. They're both fabulous in that show.
DETROW: They are, to the point where it really wasn't much of a surprise...
HOLMES: No.
DETROW: ...That "Shogun" did so well. Anything you were surprised in the drama world?
HOLMES: Well, Idris Elba was nominated for "Hijack," where he plays a corporate negotiator who gets wrapped up in a hostage situation on a plane. I don't know if I expected that. He is certainly the best thing about it. The show "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which is about married spies, was one of my favorites of the last year. It got a bunch of nominations that I think were very well-deserved. I wasn't sure people would recognize how good it was, and they absolutely did.
I was surprised by the volume of nominations for "The Morning Show" on Apple with Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. I was glad, you know, they're nominated, but so are some of the supporting actresses this year, Karen Pittman and Greta Lee and Holland Taylor, who all play women who work at this cable news network, as well as Nicole Beharie, who is new to the show this year. They're all terrific. Those nominations were very good news.
DETROW: OK, "Baby Reindeer." The Netflix hit became a saga in itself. There was all sorts of real-world legal action and other drama. So were you surprised when you heard that name today?
HOLMES: I wasn't. That show has been racking up a lot of recognition. It wasn't a surprise. I'm sure it will do well. My favorite in the limited series category where that's competing is "Ripley," which is also on Netflix, which was a fresh adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Andrew Scott and Dakota Fanning were nominated for that. That's my personal favorite. I love it. It's gorgeous. I hope everybody will watch it.
DETROW: So when do we find out who won?
HOLMES: Well, these Emmys are in September. I should say first that if you're thinking we just had the Emmys, you're not wrong. They did have a ceremony in January. That was last year's Emmys. They had been delayed by the writers' and actors' strikes last summer. This year's will be September 15 on ABC. And that's sort of why we're having them so close together. So again, September 15 on ABC. You'll find out, you know, which of these terrific shows gets its big moment. It's going to be "The Bear" and "Shogun," I think.
DETROW: Don't even watch. That's NPR's Linda Holmes, host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. You can hear Linda and her cohosts with more Emmy coverage there. Linda, nice to talk to you.
HOLMES: Nice to talk to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHYGIRL AND TINASHE SONG, "HEAVEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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