The Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday handed out trophies in the Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Drama Series and Limited or Anthology Series categories. They went to FX’s The Bear (casting directors Jeanie Bacharach, Jennifer Rudnicke, Mickie Paskal, and AJ Links), HBO’s The White Lotus (Meredith Tucker, Francesco Vedovati, and Barbara Giordani) and Netflix’s Beef (Charlene Lee and Claire Koonce), respectively
Last year, two of the winners in the casting categories, Succession for drama series and The White Lotus, which competed as a limited series in Season 1, went on to triumph a week later as Outstanding Drama Series and Limited Series winners, respectively. The Casting for a Comedy Series Emmy was won by ABC’s Abbott Elementary while Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso repeated as Comedy Series Emmy winner. The year before, the winners in the three casting categories all went on to triumph in the marquee scripted categories.
The Bear and Beef are leading most odds for Outstanding Comedy Series and Limited Series, respectively.
The White Lotus‘ win in the Casting For Drama Series category is somewhat surprising as the newly-minted drama series went head-to-head with the fourth and final season of HBO’s drama juggernaut Succession, which won the casting category for its second and third seasons in 2020 and 2022 and both times also nabbed Outstanding Drama Series.
Succession still is considered the odds-on favorite in the top drama series field, with The White Lotus running second on many prediction lists. It is possible that the latter’s anthological nature, featuring largely a new cast each season, tipped the scales in its favor in the drama casting category this year.
Casting for a Comedy Series has been a relatively reliable predictor for the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy winner. Before last year, the previous seven shows to take home the Casting For a Comedy Series statuette all went on to also win the Outstanding Comedy Series category a week later.
However, TV Academy tends to show inertia sometimes, sticking with favorites for awhile. Modern Family won Outstanding Comedy Series for five consecutive years; only the first of those wins was proceeded by a Casting For a Comedy Series Emmy as voters moved on to recognize other shows.
Ted Lasso did the same last year with a second consecutive Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy and could extend its streak to three though The Bear’s buzz is quite strong.
Casting for Drama Series has successfully predicted the eventual Outstanding Drama Series winner in six of the last eight years, including the last three years with Succession, The Crown and Succession again.
The winners in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series (and its predecessors, Outstanding Limited Series, Miniseries, Miseries Or Movie) have very closely followed the winners in the corresponding casting category over the last two decades, with only a couple of deviations, including only one in the past 10 years. The White Lotus, The Queen’s Gambit and Watchmen took the long-form casting category the last three years before also winning the Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series during the main telecast.
Succession tops the list of programs with most Emmy nominations this year, 27. The White Lotus is third with 23 nominations; The Bear sixth with 13.
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