What ‘This Is Us’ winning an Emmy for Outstanding Drama would mean for peak TV
This Is Us is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. If the NBC show wins, it could change what peak TV means.
After just one season, This Is Us is already redefining what an Outstanding Drama nominee at the Emmys can look like. The network (!) family (!) drama that aired 18 (!) episodes has a notably heartwarming (and tear-inducing) tone that stands in contrast to essentially every winner this millennium.
In the era of prestige, and now peak, TV — and really, the era of Game of Thrones, significantly left out of the nominations this year — premium cable networks have ruled the Outstanding Drama roost. HBO and AMC have dominated the last decade with wins for Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, all the way back to The Sopranos. (Showtime snuck in with a win for the first season of Homeland in 2012.) The last series on broadcast to win an Emmy for best drama was 24, on FOX, in 2006.
As a side effect of this premium channel run, no show with more than 13 episodes has won an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in 11 years either. Back in the day, a full season was 22 episodes but 13 has become the norm on cable and in streaming shows. (Many critics believe 10 episodes to be the sweet spot for most shows.)
That said, a show that goes for a full network season and still earns a nom displays a consistency not seen in shorter seasons while also flexing different skills. (This Is Us is 18 episodes long — not quite a full 22, but still the more than Better Call Saul, House of Cards, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale and Westworld — their competition.) This wealth of riches may have, in fact, harmed This Is Us as TV Guide believes they may have over-submitted episodes for writing and directing, resulting in no nominations in either category.
The tone and spirit of This Is Us also breaks the mold on what a best drama nominee can be. Going all the way back to 2000, the past winners were Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Homeland, Mad Men, The Sopranos, 24, Lost, and The West Wing. Only The West Wing can hold a candle to the emotional and affecting stories This Is Us produces on a week-to-week basis. And even then, the HBO show was still defined as a political drama — not an explicitly family-centered show. (We’ll make the case for the Bartlet administration as a family elsewhere.)
This Is Us is a positive show. For all the times fans find themselves weeping — which is about 1-3 times per episode — the overriding tone of the show is light and emotive. Even if you find the show to be saccharine and sappy, you won’t deny it’s an objectively different experience to watching Game of Thrones or Mad Men. For better or worse, TV has been especially and literally dark for the last decade-plus.
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If This Is Us wins the Emmy for Outstanding Drama, which in our humble opinion, it absolutely should, it validates a tonal shift in — or at the very least expansion of — what qualifies for prestige and peak TV. This Is Us can show peak TV — well-written, excellently-acted, award-winning long form visual storytelling — does not have to be dark, serious and violent and it doesn’t have to come with a premium subscription.