Emmy Predictions: Best Directing for a Comedy Series

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, July 13th. As always, chime in below in the comments with any thoughts of your own.

Last year’s nominees: The Great (The Great), It’s Comedy or Cabbage (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Marvelous Radio (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Finale, Part 2 (Modern Family), Miakhalifa.mov (Ramy), Happy Ending (Schitt’s Creek), We Love Lucy (Will and Grace)

The top contenders:
Pilot (B Positive)
Pilot (Chad)
December 19 (Cobra Kai)
I’m Nobody! Who Are You? (Dickinson)
Split the Lark (Dickinson)
In Case of Emergency (The Flight Attendant)
Pilot (Generation)
Alf Musik (Girls5eva)
Pilot (Girls5eva)
There Is No Line (Hacks)
Chapter 17. In All the Old Familiar Places (The Kominsky Method)
User One (Made for Love)
Moments in Love, Chapter 4 (Master of None)
Pilot (Mr. Mayor)
Opening Night (Pen15)
Pilot (Rutherford Falls)
Beach (Shrill)
All Sales Final (Superstore)
Biscuits (Ted Lasso)
For the Children (Ted Lasso)
The Hope That Kills You (Ted Lasso)
Make Rebecca Great Again (Ted Lasso)
Rhymes with Broke (Woke)
Zoey’s Extraordinary Goodbye (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist)

Unlike most other categories, not a single one of the shows nominated in this race last year is eligible. There’s exactly one previous nominee, Master of None, though its wins came in the writing category and not here. It’s hard to know exactly where to start but probably good to begin with the shows expected to be frontrunners in the Best Comedy Series race. I don’t see why Ted Lasso couldn’t earn bids for all four of its submitted episodes, which would be the first time since 2003 a show pulled off that feat (“Curb Your Enthusiasm” won one of its four bids that year). Both The Flight Attendant and Hacks chose only one episode, which means they’re likely to be included, while Girls5eva has two installments which might or not be selected. I think that Made for Love stands a good chance, and I think that Pen15 could probably graduate to this category after earning a writing bid last year. Six episodes of The Politician seems excessive considering that the show barely got noticed last year. There are also five episodes of Mythic Quest submitted, and since I don’t watch it, I don’t know if any installments stand a better shot than any others. Beyond that, I’d love to see Dickinson, Shrill, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, but I’m not sure any of them are all that likely.

The predicted nominees: In Case of Emergency (The Flight Attendant), There Is No Line (Hacks), Biscuits (Ted Lasso), For the Children (Ted Lasso), The Hope That Kills You (Ted Lasso), Make Rebecca Great Again (Ted Lasso)

The predicted winner: I’m not sure, but maybe The Flight Attendant?

Next up: Best Writing for a Comedy Series