Emmys: HBO Still Dominates But Why Underdog Surprises Like Viral Sensation ‘Jury Duty’ Help Make Them Still Relevant – Analysis

deadline.com:

Every now and then the Emmys will surprise us just by having a surprise. Too often the same people from the same shows turn up year after year, and with the 75th Emmy Awards that is certainly the case, but also this year my fellow Emmy voters (Full Disclosure: I am a longtime member and former Governor of the Writers branch) proved they could cut through the clutter and the imposing mountain of content to make way for some newbies and deserving shows that might have been hard to find.

Chief among these, and the most heartening surprise of the morning might not be just because Amazon/Freevee’s hybrid comedy/reality series Jury Duty landed a slot in the uber-competitve Best Comedy Series category over more hyped new contenders like Apple TV +’s Shrinking and Peacock’s Poker Face among others left at the gate, but that it scored 4 key nominations overall including Writing, Supporting Actor James Marsden playing James Marsden, and Casting of a comedy series.

This sensational show snuck on Amazon’s commercial secondary Freevee service and soon became a viral sensation catching the streamer off guard, so much so that during Emmy campaign period they actually also quickly pivoted and made it available on the main Amazon Prime Video platform with a warning that it would only be there a limited time.

As of this morning if you watch Jury Duty on Prime Video it says it will be “leaving” in 30 hours. Hey Amazon, you might want to consider extending the run as final Emmy voting goes on to August 28th and you can bet a lot of voters, looking to check this show out now that it has crashed the Emmys likely have no idea exactly what Freevee is.