'Yellowstone' Getting Zero Emmy Nominations is an Absolute Outrage

It's almost getting to the point where awards shows don't want anyone to watch them. Where they go out of their way to make sure the highest quality and most widely popular sources of entertainment with the broadest appeal immediately get disqualified from consideration. And in their place are the obscure, the obtuse, the arcane, and the esoteric, with the narrowest possible audience. 

Now I shouldn't care. Like the vast majority of us, I stopped watching about five Oscars and seven or eight Grammys ago. For all of the reasons I've already mentioned. Plus my general rule against being nagged about my inferiority by millionaires in Blood Diamond necklaces who just climbed out of a Cadillac Escalade. And my growing sense of out-of-touch aging Boomerism. Unless Celebrity A sucker-slaps Celebrity B, I'm sitting this out. 

And this year's Emmy Awards will be no exception, given that they've scheduled it for Monday, September 12th, which is the same night the Buccaneers play the Cowboys. So again, in their effort to make sure no one's watching, NBC is going to demote this one to streaming, knowing it won't put a dent in the ESPN audience expecting to watch Denver at Seattle.

But I have at least one passing interest in the nominations that came out today. And I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that one show that got completely shut out is the victim of the greatest injustice in human history:

Source - Welp, apparently the Emmys hate Westerns.

The stunning lack of nominations for the popular and acclaimed series “Yellowstone” and “1883” were far from the only surprises in Tuesday morning’s Emmy nominations announcement, of course. ...

[But this] was thought to be the year of Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone,” which would then extend to its Paramount+ prequel spinoff “1883” in the limited series category. And yet, the creator Taylor Sheridan’s Western, the most popular scripted series on television (among the networks that publicly release ratings, that is) didn’t receive any nominations. No Kevin Costner for actor, no Kelly Reilly for actress, no Sheridan for anything, and no nominations in below-the-line categories, either. It’s honestly a shock! 

A shock? Absolutely. Also stunning. Astounding. Stupefying. A crime against humanity. Lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous!

I'll admit this might also be just my aforementioned OK Boomerism talking. But how do you completely overlook as show that not only speaks to aging males like me, but also pulls the best ratings on TV? And it's not like we're talking about some lightweight, superficial dreck like Young Sheldon or whatever. This show is an epic, sweeping, well-crafted treatment on the entire mythos of America. On power. Capitalism. War. Heritage. Family. Fatherhood. Manhood. It's right out of the tradition of Duke Wayne and Clint Eastwood and every great Western, but in a setting that's as current as the themes it explores. 

I can't claim to have seen every series nominated, but I've seen most:

… and there are some damned fine examples of TV here that prove the Golden Age that began with The Sopranos continues. But how can Yellowstone get completely ignored and its spinoff series 1883 only gets a couple of mentions in minor categories? I try … I really try, Ringo … to not use the word "woke" ever. Because everything gets seen through that filter and it got tedious a long time ago. But it's hard not to think maybe these shows are too mainstream for Hollywood. Not despite their popularity, but because of it. 

If nothing else, there should have been a Best Drama nomination. Followed by Kevin Costner, who has achieved peak Kevin Costerness, even this late in his career:

And Kelly Reilly, as the pluperfect strong, powerful, independent, sex-positive woman who invents new shits not to give and will do anything to protect her family. In other words, the sort of female character Hollywood pretends to want more of an shoehorns into every intellectual property, but totally ignores when a unique, authentic one is handed to them on a silver platter:

And Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler, the idealized Western throwback man. Strong. Silent. Fearless. A loner who lives by his own moral code. And like the woman he loves, will do anything to protect his (adoptive) family. 

It's possible the entertainment world has just passed me by the way the American West is making the Dutton's Yellowstone Ranch a thing of the past. But still. Taking nothing away from Stranger Things, Succession, Ozark, Better Call Saul or Squid Game, all of which I love, if Yellowstone doesn't make the list, the list is invalid. And I'll be hoping Monday Night Football produces a winner that night instead.