For the third year in a row, this year’s Primetime Emmy nominations are the most diverse ever across acting awards. The Television Academy announced the full list of nominees in a live-streamed ceremony Thursday morning, which revealed that 16 people of color were nominated across the nine major acting categories, comprising 28.6 percent of nominees. This represents a 3 percent increase over last year’s nominees, and much more over previous years: Just 21.9 percent of nominees were actors of color in 2015, and 9.7 percent were in 2014.
Comedy was the most diverse category for actors this year, with actors of color making up 30 percent of all acting nominees, a feat helped along by well-received second seasons of ABC’s black-ish and Netflix’s Master of None, and the debut of FX’s Atlanta. Moreover, E! reports that the Outstanding Comedy category—for best comedic television show—has never before included so many shows with predominantly non-white casts: The last time the Emmys came close was in 1970, when The Cosby Show and Room 222 were nominated in the category.
Drama was a runner-up for most diverse genre, with actors of color representing 26 percent of all acting nominations, thanks to the work of performers like Viola Davis in ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder and Sterling K. Brown in NBC’s This Is Us. The Limited Series or Movie category had the least diverse pool, with 12.5 percent nominees of color.
Overall, NBC’s Saturday Night Live and HBO’s Westworld were the biggest winners of Thursday’s announcement, with 22 nominations each. HBO had the most nominations of any network (110) with Netflix as a runner-up (91). The Emmys ceremony will air at 5 p.m. PST on September 17th on CBS, and will be hosted by Stephen Colbert.
Nominated celebs issued various enjoyable reactions, but perhaps the most memorable was Leslie Jones’, who posted a gym selfie, and credited her nomination as providing further inspiration for her workout.
Oh Shit!! A EMMY NOM?! I really got to get fine now lmao!! Wish my parents was here to see this!! CHEAH!! So grateful!! pic.twitter.com/aAlEyS9ru1
— Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) July 13, 2017
