6 Burning Questions for Emmy Voting, From ‘Succession’ Dominance to the Comedy Crunch

thewrap.com:

“Succession” to place multiple nominees in the acting categories: Nicholas Braun, Kieran Culkin and Matthew McFadyen have all been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the last two seasons, while last year’s guest categories included four actors and three actresses from the HBO series.The Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series category, meanwhile, has found both Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong nominated for the past two seasons.

But this year, with Cox’s character dying in the third episode, Culkin moved from the supporting into the lead category, where he’ll be vying for a nomination alongside Strong and Cox (who opted to remain in lead even though his character is physically missing from most of the season).All three are considered among the favorites to be nominated – but to have three lead actors nominated for the same show would be unprecedented.

Shows have landed two nominees in the category plenty of times, with “Succession,” “This Is Us,” “Westworld” and “True Detective” combining to do it seven times in the last nine years.

But three nominations in a lead acting category has never been done before in drama; the only time series performers have hogged a lead category to that degree is in Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, where “Golden Girls” did it four times between 1986 and 1989 and “Desperate Housewives” did it once in 2005.The Emmy rules were also changed this year, ending the ability of voters to mark their ballots for an unlimited number of contenders.