Game of Thrones Emmy Competition and Biased Prognostication 

Or alternatively titled, “A guy that only watches Game of Thrones boldly predicts the winners of the 68

The off-season is dark and full of TV shows I know nothing about.

Who better to run through the Emmy nominations and give half-ass, uneducated predictions about who has the best odds of winning? The certified village idiot. That’s who.

The ceremony will be held on Sunday, September 18, 2016. So get your tuxes rented, Sers. And ladies, pull out that dusty prom dress. It’s time to walk the carpet…

: This primary objective of this post is to provoke discussion on the nominees of the 68

Annual Primetime Emmy Awards as they relate to Game of Thrones and NOT to give any merit whatsoever to my biased winning predictions. Good folks who have time to watch more telly than myself are abundantly more qualified to do so. If you are one of those people, then by all means, please give your opinion in the comments below. I am interested to read what you have to say.

Let’s be honest… awards mean different things to different people, especially those of us in the viewing public. I personally appreciate the recognition of great acting on a great production with great writing accompanied with great direction. But many don’t give a rip, which is their right. To each his/her own.

Does it mean that I pick my viewing pleasures by way of Emmy nominees? Unabashedly NO. Too many good shows have been overlooked through the years to let the Emmys decide what is blasted on the new H.D. L.G. of House O.Z.

Besides that, have you ever stopped watching a show just because it didn’t win an Emmy or because it was snubbed altogether? I would hope not. Virtually all of the selected nominees are likely worthy of something and the ceremony should be more of a celebration of great television rather than a concentration on who won and who lost.

That being said, it would be ludicrous for us not to root for the home team. And so we shall…

By the way, if you are unrefined on how Emmy voting is handled these days, I would suggest checking out this piece of reality. Probably the most interesting bit of info from the piece are the changes made just last year in an attempt to increase voter participation.

After becoming more in tune with the new procedure, perhaps I am qualified. Hell, we all are.

One more thing: This post is probably a great opportunity to recommend existing shows to watch now that we are devoid of the only show that matters. Knock yourselves out! Netflix’s 

is good stuff, especially if you are even mildly interested in sci-fi and are embroiled in some odd search of 80’s nostalgia. And thus far, HBO’s

won the award for Season 5 for what was a less-than-stellar season, Thrones S6 has to be the undeniable favorite if for no other reason than the previous accolade vote (coupled with the fact that it was arguably much better).

is fantastic as well. I’ve been a fan of Rami Malek ever since his crushing portrayal of King Ahkmenrah in the coveted

trilogy. OK… I’m kidding about that one. What I meant to say, was his portrayal of Merriel “Snafu” Shelton in

Even better, it put Christian Slater back on television.

is on my personal radar for no other reason than word of mouth. I heard it was pretty damn compelling.

has the upper hand (of the queens) and Emmy voters would be foolish to uncrown a previous winner after the series was even better than the previous winning season. And they won’t.

Biased Conjecture: When two of the six are nominated for the same show, then you are ahead of the curve right out of the gate. Homeland has a history of carrying its own weight in terms of noms and statues, and is always a fly in the punch at the GoT party.

who is coming off of a series finale. Emmy voters have been known to give a farewell sympathy vote if nothing more than to show appreciation for the body of work. And we already know who is going to win Best Drama.

But considering the strong GoT eps that are nominated, an upset seems to be highly unlikely.

Biased Conjecture: Once again, the men of GoT have a decided advantage as it pertains to the other men of drama from various shows.

However, I’m not as certain about this one as I’d like to be.

Dinklage is a past winner and is obviously someone the voters cannot ignore. But I’m not sure that Peter had enough variable scenes during the course of Season 6 to display his vast array of acting chops to warrant a win.

Kit is a pleasant surprise and deserves the accolades of a nomination. Argue what you will about Harington’s ability, but no one can take away the guy’s passion and dedication to doing his best representation of the character. Even Cogman tweeted his congrats calling Kit the “hardest working sonofabitch I know.”

Making the odds even better would have been the inclusion of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. But the nominating Gods weren’t smiling on Jaime for some unknown, nonsensical reason.

That being said, the competition in the category is just too fierce for the hometown heroes. I haven’t seen Banks in

and the guy literally kills it as Mike. And what little I’ve seen of Kelly in

Biased Conjecture: Speaking of advantage, good Lord. Three of the six are from our backyard. And two of them are queens.

Emilia is always solid, so long as she is given more to work with than the monotone “break the wheel” dialogue. And Season 6 gave her a lot more to work with.

Maisie is a bit of a surprise nominee in the eyes of many (blind or not). 

has given us the opportunity to see her progress from being a scared little girl back when Ned lost his head to a semi-trained assassin in the demise of Walder Frey. It’s definitely nice to see her recognized.

But this year seems pretty much a lock for Lena. After losing to Anna Gunn in 2014 and Uzo Aduba in 2015, voters won’t miss this opportunity to give the Queen her crown. No one knows how long Cersei will sit on the iron throne (and correspondingly, how long she will be alive in Season 7). Considering GoT won’t be in contention for the Emmy’s next year, this will be the final opportunity for voters to bend the knee for a while. As it relates to GoT, maybe ever.

Biased Conjecture: Dammit… “The Door” deserves to win something.

winning a handful of statues is pretty much a mathematical certainty. At what point do voters change their vote to avoid making the ceremony a GoT love fest?

And God forbid another entity having good writers and being recognized. Blasphemy!

Penny Dreadful “And They Were Enemies”

Biased Conjecture: I can honestly tell you that I haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of the opposing nominees. But I can promise you this: If BotB doesn’t win, I will immediately view the top award getter while conceding that I don’t have a damn clue what’s going on in the rest of the series. In other words, if it beats

Biased Conjecture: Never tell me the odds, especially if they aren’t in my favor.

returns serve with three nominations in the category all of which are pretty stellar judging from past performances. I’m a huge Reg E. Cathey fan from basically everything I’ve ever seen him in. Plus, he is a returning champion. Sparks and Ali are no slouches either and supposedly had more of a role in

Max portrayed the Three-Eyed rooted vision man better than anyone could have ask for and definitely deserves the nom. I’m just not sure it was enough of a role to unseat the current title holder or one of his co’s.

Enough of my banter! Here are the rest of the categories. Speculate as you see fit.

Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary or Fantasy Program (One Hour or more)

Game of Thrones “Blood of my Blood, The Broken Man, No One”

House of Cards “Chapter41, Chapter 47, Chapter 48”

Penny Dreadful “Fresh Hell, Evil Spirits in Heavenly Places, And Hell Itself My Only Foe”

OUTSTANDING STUNT COORDINATION FOR A DRAMA SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE – 2016

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (NON-PROSTHETIC) – 2016

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR) – 2016

OUTSTANDING PROSTHETIC MAKEUP FOR A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL – 2016

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES – 2016

OUTSTANDING COSTUMES FOR A PERIOD/FANTASY SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE – 2016

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”

The Late Late Show With James Corden

That’s a wrap for me today, guys and gals! Hope you are all having a grand off-season. Don’t be bashful on recommendations for viewing during the current dead period. Life leaves a man little time, and there is too much good TV out there to waste it on crap.

Until next time, happy viewing and may there always be peace in your realm. -Oz

Have you already read all the books and/or don\'t care about spoilers? You can reveal/hide all the spoilers in the comments with the click of the buttons below.

Place the spoiler remarks inside this short code:

Remove the extra spaces between the word spoiler and the brackets, and the front slash and brackets before publishing your comment.

Now, being serious. I mostly agree with your predictions, though the love Mr. Robot gets from the critics kind of puzzles me, tbh. It’s basically Fight Club with some technobabble. Which isn’t to say it can’t be fun, just that there are better shows that could take its spot.

I agree that S6 should win, considering it’s better than 5, and that one took the award home. An award for Miguel Sapochnik is a no-brainer as well.

As for supporting actors, me says Jonathan Banks is going to win this time. I don’t hate Kit, but his range is quite limited in comparison (you’re right, Nikolaj should’ve been nominated instead) and Peter didn’t have much to do this time. In fact, I was rather surprised when he won for S5.

Lena should win, Emilia has no chance, and Maisie’s nomination should’ve come sooner (seems a bit unfair that when she finally gets the nom, she has to compete against Lena).

As for writing…I think it’ll go to The Americans, but I won’t bitch if D&D win again (I can already savor the delicious tears from a certain group of people if that happens).

Supporting Actor is hard. I would think Banks would be a favorite, but I thought that last year, and his incredible performance was overlooked and instead the statue went to Dinklage in his weakest season. I think there are enough voters who watch Better Call Saul to get Banks a nomination, but not enough to get him a win.

I would argue that Harington deserves it this year more than Dinklage. And his nomination indicates that his performance did not go unnoticed by voters. And unlike Banks, I think enough voters have seen Harington’s performance that he could get it. But a known quantity like Dinklage always has an edge over a newbie. Plus, some don’t like Jon Snow as a character, whereas everyone likes Tyrion. If Dinklage beat Banks last year, I think he can beat him this year. I’d give the edge to Dinklage.

(Btw, not sure why people think NCW should have been nominated this year. He’s good but he spent the first half of the season following Cersei around. He had one great episode but I hardly think he was snubbed. Kit, by comparison, performed well and had a big season).

(Btw, not sure why people think NCW should have been nominated this year. He’s good but he spent the first half of the season following Cersei around. He had one great episode but I hardly think he was snubbed. Kit, by comparison, performed well and had a big season).

Well, yeah, but by that same logic Peter spent almost the whole season telling bad jokes with Grey Worm and Missandei. He only started to shine when Dany came back and he could start counseling her…in eps 9 and 10. Regardless, he shone the brightest in S4 during the trial scene. As for Maisie, she had far better scenes with the Hound than in the entirety of the dull mess that was the House of Black and White, but there you go.

I love Lena… But my heart wants for Maisie to win 😜😜😜😜😜

why some people always have to brag about Kits range, and dont mention other actors who clearly arent better than him on the show “cough” Emilia Clarke “cough´”. To say that NCW should have been nominated over him? Then why can Emilia get nominated like almost every season? Its just unfair. Dinklage is a great actor, but honestly, last years win was strange and Nikolaj should have gotten the nomination over him.

Other than that, Mr Robot is really popular atm and could sweep some emmys too.

I tried to watch Mr.Robot but didn’t like it. Not my cup of tea I guess. Now when it comes to Thrones I predict that it will win everything in the technical categories (apart from the costume award, which should go to Outlander). I also think Lena will finally win, while Kit has a relatively strong chance. It truly was Jon’s season and Kit may be rewarded for his wonderful and excellent performance. They should also hand an Emmy to Miguel Sapochnik like right now. I’m not sure about Writing and Best Drama. Perhaps Mr.Robot will win the former and The Americans the latter? I seriously don’t know. Thrones deserves every award it’s nominated for though and I’m kinda biased since I’ve only watched Mr.Robot, Outlander and BCS. It will be a fun evening, that’s for sure.

Von Sydow’s name alone may win him the guest category (it probably got him the nomination), as that’s been known to happen there. Last year, Margo Martindale won Guest Actress for

The Americans for a single scene where nothing particularly significant happened, and she’s nominated again this year for another unmemorable appearance (she was an indispensable part of the show’s first two seasons, and justly nominated for them, but hasn’t done anything all that important since).

I actually do think a Harington win could happen, because of all the emphasis on “The Battle of the Bastards” in relation to the show.

It seems like Headey should win — but then, I thought she was the one win they’d get last year even if they didn’t win anything else, and we saw how that turned out.

I’m kind of an awards junkie, so I love these things. My predictions:

I think Thrones has this in the bag to be honest. Its main threat is Mr. Robot and possibly The Americans, but seeing as it won last year, and still has a ton of momentum (and nominations) I’d bet strongly on it. However, I’d argue The Americans

Another easy win for Thrones. I really don’t think there’s any competition here actually. This is probably Downton’s most likely shot at a win, but that show has long been a filler at the Emmys, and if Mad Men couldn’t win much in its final year, Downton certainly wont. Thrones deserves this, too.

Tough. I think Kit has a very strong shot at winning this, due to all the attention his character got before and during the season. I think his biggest threat is Banks, who is still yet to win an Emmy. However, I’m going for Kit. And, due to Banks and Dinklage having little to do in their seasons, I’d say he

I feel like this is the category the show won’t win in. It’s either going to Mr. Robot or The Americans, with the former having a slightly better shot. I’m rooting for Americans, though.

I’ve finally caught up on Mr Robot, it’s definitely worth the time. I’m disappointed they overlooked The Knick, maybe because it is a Cinemax show and doesn’t get many views, but I would rank that show on par with all of the nominated dramas, I am afraid they are not going to make the 3rd season, Ive heard nothing about a premiere this fall.

Oh and that picture of Dink is not from 2011, that is from the last Emmys.

NCW had one good episode and he should be over kit who shows huge progress since season 1?i mean come on….episode 8 was jaime’s but he pretty much play the good sidekick for cercei all this season…and episode 8 was problably the worst ep of the season…and while peter dicklage is great actor his character didn’t do much this season if not making jokes…his biggest was talking to a CGI dragon…

I think Thrones has this in the bag to be honest. Its main threat is Mr. Robot and possibly The Americans, but seeing as it won last year, and still has a ton of momentum (and nominations) I’d bet strongly on it. However, I’d argue The Americans

Honestly, no hate of any kind towards The Americans. It’s a really fine show, and if it wins, I won’t complain. However -I also won’t be able to help but to cringe knowing that S5 won and S6 didn’t. And I’m not among the people who hated S5. But it was objectively weaker than S6.

Check out the definition of objective mate. Some people thought it was weaker than season 6, others thought it was stronger.

Well, I’m not necessarily saying that Dinklage is the most deserving nominee either (although he had some great moments outside telling bad jokes with GW and Missandei). Just that NCW wasn’t snubbed, given that he didn’t have much to do for most of this season. If he had been nominated I would have been fine with that, I just am not surprised or disappointed that he wasn’t. I would have been disappointed, though, if Harington wasn’t nominated, especially of someone else from GoT was.

I would like to see Kit Harington win just so I get to watch all the hipsters at the AV Club explode in righteous anger! He’s no great actor, but he’s also not all that bad and the Emmy noms are not exactly about the ‘best’ these days. And I tend to have no value for opinions where folks denigrate Harington and Emilia Clarke’s acting and then go on to advocate an Emmy nomination for Sophie Turner. She is as bad as or even worse than either of them.

But I foresee either Jonathan Banks or Peter Dinklage to win. Peter submitted ‘No One’ as his episode, and that has no Kit Harington, while Harington submitted ‘BoB’ an episode that does have Dinklage. So Emmy voters get a double whammy of Dinklage’s acting prowess. As for the women, I foresee a Lena win.

Yeah, when I saw Martindale in Guest I struggled to remember what material she even had this year. Nominations like that remind me that it can be very hard to predict winners at these things. So much of nominating and deciding the winners comes from habit. It’s why I’m so unsure about Kit’s chances against repeat nominees like Dinklage and Banks (tho you bring up a good point about BotB getting so much attention and improving his chances).

A Variety of New Roles Being Cast for Game of Thrones Season 7! ( 145 )

Kit Harington, Lena Headey and Emilia Clarke on their characters, after season 6 ( 125 )

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on the future of Westeros ( 114 )

Sophie Turner says she\'s received her season 7 scripts ( 103 )

Game of Thrones Emmy Competition and Biased Prognostication

Game of Thrones set to film in Trujillo Castle in November

Details from Spain about new Game of Thrones locations and extras casting

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on the future of Westeros

Hodor Targaryen on Game of Thrones Emmy Competition and Biased Prognostication

SerNoName on Game of Thrones Emmy Competition and Biased Prognostication

Kidney Pie on Game of Thrones Emmy Competition and Biased Prognostication