The 2024 Emmys will be held on Sunday night, and while don’t yet know who the night’s big winners will be, it’s a safe bet that the folks responsible for the FX series The Bear and Shogun will have much to smile about.
The Bear leads all comedies (we’ll set aside, for now, the debate over whether the series can properly be considered a comedy) with 23 nominations.
While Shogun has the most nods among dramas, with a whopping 25.
The Bear is now the most-nominated sitcom in history.
And you’d have to go back to the early days of The Sopranos to find another instance in which a new drama earned as much acclaim as Shogun.
These shows have a chance to make history on Sunday night, and they’re both easy to root for.
Unlike past award season juggernauts like Game of Thrones, these shows are both underdog series that were never expected to make this big a splash.
And the most surprising thing about the success of both The Bear and Shogun is that your average American cable subscriber can watch them for free.
Yes, after years of domination by premium cable and streaming outlets, the Emmys are making way for a more basic platform — as in basic cable.
Now, FX — the little channel that could — is not the most nominated network of the year.
That title belongs to Netflix, with an astonishing 107 noms.
But FX follows close behind with 93 nominations — and the network managed that feat with a much smaller content library.
While Netflix and CEO Reed Hastings prefer to throw a whole lot of pilots at the wall and see what sticks, FX and chairman John Landgraf take a different approach.
The current FX business model is to go all-in with big risks on a handful of innovative shows.
In addition to Shogun and The Bear, the network received nominations for Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, Fargo, and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
Other acclaimed FX shows that released new episodes in the past year include The Old Man, The Veil, and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
If that slate of shows proves anything, it’s that FX is not afraid of taking risks — and clearly, the network’s boldness is paying off.
It’s a situation that brings to mind the industry-redefining approach that HBO adopted in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
For our younger readers who may not have any memory of those years, HBO’s bread and butter used to be boxing matches between lesser-known fighters and movies that had wrapped their theatrical runs several months prior.
It wasn’t until the days of Sex and the City, The Larry Sanders Show, and The Sopranos that the network came to be known for original programming.
During those same years, FX (branded as “Fox gone cable” at the time) was mostly a repository for reruns of its parent network’s shows The X-Files, Married…With Children) with the occasional baseball or NASCAR broadcast thrown in.
Now, the basic cable channel seems to have taken a page from HBO’s playbook. And the results have exceeded even the most optimistic predictions.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the idea of FX reigning over award season would’ve seemed absurd.
But in 2024 the network managed to locate the sweet spot between critical and commercial appeal like no other network.
Not since the years when The Wire, Deadwood, The Sopranos, and SATC were all airing on HBO has one platform delivered so much high-brow fare that also appealed to the masses.
And with the exception of Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows, all of FX’s heavy hitters are expected to return for multiple more seasons.
If FX brings home dozens of Emmys on Sunday — as many have predicted — then the whole industry might be put on alert.
It’s the sort of development that might lead to more risk-taking, more innovative shows, and an end to the cancel-happy approach to programming that’s currently in vogue.
And that means FX’s wins might really be a victory for fans of compelling television.
What do you think, TV fanatics? Has FX picked up HBO’s mantle?
Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts.