Emmy Nominees Head To Final Campaign Stops; Why Showbiz Docs Rule With Voters – Notes On The Season

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit. There must be something in the air. Although the Primetime Emmys are a few weeks away, you might not be crazy to think they are actually happening this weekend as networks and streamers (mostly streamers) are gathering just about every nominee they can find to put in one place as if it was Emmy night(s) itself. The second annual Televerse, which entices fans to shell out for passes and tickets, will again be taking place at the JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles, a stone’s throw from the Peacock Theater where the actual Emmy show(s) will be taking place over the course of Labor Day weekend (for the formerly called Creative Arts Emmys), and then finally September 14 for the big NBC Primetime show where the final 19 categories will be handed out. The Creative Arts ceremony before that will feature about 80 categories including the controversial move of four Limited Series (writing, directing, supporting), and a Variety category now off the big show and relegated to the one that most viewers don’t see. Watch on Deadline This weekend the Television Academy aims to make it an even playing field, offering up panel after panel after panel after panel of nominated shows and stars (even Harrison Ford is showing up for the Shrinking get-together Saturday). A look at the lineups for the event running Friday-Sunday is a who’s who of who’s nominated, making it appear that if you want to win an Emmy you better show up here — first because all of this is timed to balloting starting August 17 (through August 26). The hope is this event will be big enough to grab the attention of voters. Among the flood of stars and creatives will be groups from the likes of Abbott Elementary, Beef, Dancing With the Stars, Hacks, Love Story, Paradise, Pluribus, Remarkably Bright Creatures, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Shrinking, Survivor, The Bear, The Diplomat, The Pitt, The Traitors, Top Chef, Widow’s Bay, Your Friends & Neighbors, DTF St. Louis, All Her Fault, Miss You Love You, Summer House, Muppet Show and more if all that is not enough. The Academy is trying to entice sales of passes by automatically entering buyers into a pool to win a pair of Emmy tickets each day of the event, but what do they need those for after hanging out with the nominees right now? So far though, free show tickets is as far as the Academy goes since I have not heard of any plans to raffle off actual Emmys, but give it time. It is only the second year for this. Of course Deadline has been doing a similar kind of event for many years, as we did in April with our patented The Contenders Television, and will be jumping into the fray in this season-ending campaign weekend with our own hosted panels and photo ops for The Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio, and you can see them popping up on our site all weekend. It makes sense the Television Academy wanted in on this action as well in their own unique way. After all, the Emmys are their thing, so why not capitalize on it and try to make their own season a little more exciting? Deadline started Contenders by focusing on the movie awards season. But it didn’t take long to realize with all the content out there, the television season, including all the other awards groups like Golden Globes, Critics Choice and SAG-AFTRA, was just as ripe, if not more so. Televerse, however, is looking more to be like a three-day summer camp for the small screen by throwing in practical workshops on directing, editing, musical scoring, and an acting class taught by Henry Winkler(!) There will also be reunions of series including Band of Brothers, Homeland, My So Called Life and Revenge. Not to be outdone this weekend is HBO, competing directly in Hollywood at NYA Studios West with its own specific event, as it has done in the past, featuring panels and mingling for voters all day Sunday with their long list of nominated shows — a few like Hacks, DTF St. Louis and The Pitt doing double duty with Televerse. Over in Anaheim, Disney, the king of this sort of thing, will again be throwing its huge D23 fan event all weekend with an endless list of panels and marketing opportunities that is always mind-boggling to experience. It actually got going Thursday night with an unprecedented Disney Princess concert featuring the originals from a host of animated classics doing their greatest hits, culminating with a group sing on “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Maybe next year Televerse can get all the performers of TV’s greatest theme songs for a similar concert. Just a suggestion. The Television Academy, like D23, did get a jump on it all Thursday night with the annual Television Hall of Fame ceremony honoring new inductees Jean Smart, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Teds Danson and Sarandos, and the late Ed Bradley. Smart is going for a record this Emmy season since a win for Hacks will tie her for most performer wins with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman at eight each. This Hall of Fame honor won’t hurt her chances. Whether Televerse, the HBO extravaganza or any of this actually translates into hardcore votes, well it is tough to say because all this is coming at the tail end of a very loooooong campaign season that has been going on officially since the beginning of the year when FYCs started. These are the shows that are the ones left standing, and with enough in their marketing budgets to give it one last-gasp whirl. The Showbiz Doc Crunch ‘John Candy: I Like Me’ The superb John Candy documentary I Like Me, from director Colin Hanks, has been on the trail for months it seems and will be at Televerse as well making its case. As far as I can tell it is the only one of the five nominees for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special that will be showing off at the Marriott this weekend. But if you ask me, this race, not as high-profile as some others, will be a nail-biter, one where every one of the nominees has a genuine chance to win. What makes it so interesting is the showbiz-centric nature of what makes the final cut here, as opposed to what gets nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars where a docu about a show business personality almost never gets nominated, and rarely even makes the shortlist. If your movie is about Ukraine, Gaza, Putin or an octopus you are in like Flynn at the Oscars. If it is about someone who likely was or maybe still is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, fuggedaboudit, don’t even bother But be sure you submit to the Emmys because they love their own. Clockwise from top left: ‘John Candy: I Like Me’, ‘My Mom Jayne‘, ‘Mr. Scorsese’, ‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ and ‘Marty, Life Is Short’ Netflix/Prime/HBO This year, and it is increasingly common, four of the five nominees are about show business personalities: Jayne Mansfield, Martin Short, Candy and Mel Brooks. The fifth nominee is National Geographic’s Oceans, which likely edged out Ben Stiller’s Stiller & Meara docu for the slot. Over in Docu or Nonfiction Series the frontrunner is Mr. Scorsese. All of these nominees are terrific, really good by the way, and deserve to be in there, but clearly it helps to have a recognizable name when it comes to impressing Emmy voters. I could make a case for each one of them. The Mansfield docu, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, is a fascinating look at the ’50s blonde bombshell through the eyes of her daughter, filmmaker and Emmy-winning star Mariska Hargitay, who also puts herself at the center of her search to get to know her mom who tragically died when Hargitay was just 3. It is a hell of a story and this one won the PGA and Critics Choice awards when it was angling for an Oscar nomination but is no doubt one of the best this year no matter the medium. It may not hurt that Hargitay was also a left-field choice to host the NBC Emmy broadcast, too. ‘Oceans With David Attenborough’ National Geographic/Silverback Films/Photo by Keith Scholey The Martin Short docu is hilarious and heartwarming, a man who has had his share of tragedy but keeps going no matter what, and it comes from Lawrence Kasdan, a director who rarely has ever done TV. Judd Apatow turned out a fun and lively look at the “99 Year Old Man” (he is now 100) Mel Brooks, split it into two parts — and there could have been more . The Candy docu makes you laugh a lot too, but also weep at losing this great star so soon. That leaves Oceans, and the fact it is hosted by another 100 year old, David Attenborough, gives it a real shot. But the fact that it is almost impossible to choose between Short, Brooks, Mansfield and Candy could well make it the winner by default. Oceans are better known than anybody. Good luck all. Hope it is a five-way tie.