The 12 Most Shocking 2018 Emmy Snubs

Handmaid’s Tale and Game of Thrones cleaned up, but what happened to Killing Eve, The Good Place, Billions, and Trust?

The 70th Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced this week, and in the age of Peak TV, it was a bloodbath. Favorites like The Handmaid’s Tale, Game of Thrones, and This Is Us cleaned up as expected, while critical darlings like The Americans and Atlanta got plenty of their own deserving recognition.

But in every Emmy season, we must start with the snubs. With so much prestige television, there just isn’t enough room for everyone on the ballot. So after perusing the full list of nominations, which TV shows and actors should be most incensed about their omission?

The Emmy’s don’t come until September 17, but that just means we have two full months to wonder what could have been for the 12 most glaring Emmy nominee omissions below…

Better Things (comedy)

Fine, Better Things isn’t really a comedy, and there certainly isn’t anything funny about being associated with Louis C.K. this year. But Better Things was brilliant and told stories from a women’s perspective that simply aren’t being told elsewhere on television. The celebration of Max’s graduation in the finale filled viewers’ hearts, and the “Eulogy” episode was one of the most moving, heart-wrenching half hours on TV this year. Alas. We’ll have to settle for a deserving Pamela Adlon nomination.

The Good Place (comedy)

Comedy is supposed to be fun, and there’s no show having more fun right now than The Good Place. Good Place is both smart and funny at once, with earned twists, not-so-hidden philosophy lessons, and enough punny restaurants to last several hundred eternities. Any comedy Michael Schur touches turns to gold, and this one keeps getting better and better. Voters gave a nod to Ted Danson, but the show couldn’t grab the big one.

Halt & Catch Fire (drama)

H&CF was AMC’s little show that could, a four-season show that never found an audience before wrapping up with a final season whose quest for a search engine instead found family, friendship, life, and death. All four seasons of Halt were good (don’t listen to the critics of season 1!), but the show got better and better as it turned things over to Donna and Cameron, peaking with the story they told about their friendship and rivalry in the final season. The entire show is on Netflix now. It’s worth the journey — even if Emmy voters never noticed it in time.

Killing Eve (drama)

This may have been the biggest shock omission on the ballot. The Emmy’s have finally started noticing some BBC America, and Killing Eve was a genuine hit, the rare kind of show that had viewers buzzing and talking around the water cooler week-to-week. With brilliant writing from Phoebe Waller-Bridge and outstanding acting from lead actress Sandra Oh, both recognized with nominations, Eve was worth recognizing even in a loaded drama field.

Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor (actor)

It’s tough for a network drama to get anyone talking these days, but The Good Doctor was a rare success that looked set to follow in the steps of This Is Us as the one major network show everyone was watching and talking about. Good Doctor was never going to get (or deserve) a drama nominee, but Highmore was brilliant as Shaun Murphy, the surgical resident with autism and savant abilities. Highmore has come a long way since Charlie Bucket and the cute kid in Finding Neverland, and he did a lot of heavy lifting for the breakout hit.

Emmy Rossum, Shameless (actress)

Rossum turns in one of my personal favorite performances year after year in one of the best guilty pleasures, Showtime’s Shameless. Rossum’s Fiona is one of the most complex and tragic characters on television as she almost, almost escapes the clutches of the Gallagher family but just can’t leave her South Side Chicago self behind. She’ll probably never win, but voters can’t take away her first name.

Frankie Shaw, SMILF (actress)

Shaw was this year’s breakout star and Emmy Rossum part II as SMILF told the story of single mom Bridgette as she balances motherhood, work, dating, and chasing her dreams. Shaw’s performance was layered and fresh, a millennial Better Things and an inside look at just how difficult it can be for a single mother to balance hold it all together from day to day. A refreshing and honest performance but, like Rossum, in a loaded category she never had any chance to break into.

Noah Emmerich & Holly Taylor, The Americans (supporting)

We miss you already, Americans. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys were nominated for the lead acting awards, and The Americans also took home nominations for its finale and for the big one, best drama. But why stop there? Emmerich and Taylor were equally as brilliant and vital as Stan Beeman and Paige Jennings, and those garage and train scenes are still a hauntingly beautiful memory of one of the all-time great series finales. Seriously, just give The Americans all the awards. The slow burn was all worth it.

Lakeith Stanfield, Atlanta (supporting actor)

Remember Teddy Perkins? Of course you do. Well Stanfield was the other guy in the weirdest and most fascinating TV episode of the year, the unassuming and somehow-still-living Darius. Teddy Perkins was a whopper of an episode from the most affecting comedy on television, and it left you thinking for days afterward, whether from the Michael Jackson angle, the TV adaptation of Get Out, or that moment you finally figured out who was playing the eponymous character. Hiro Murai received a deserving nomination for directing this episode, but Stanfield is worth recognizing, too.

Waco (limited series)

Paramount’s six-episode series told the heartbreaking story of the 51-day 1993 standoff between David Koresh’s Branch Davidians and the FBI, the latest in television’s worthwhile obsession with dramatizing all of the weird stuff a millennial generation grew up without understanding in the 90s. Most people know the names Koresh and Waco, but Waco gave us a rare view inside the compound with a look at the women, children, and other would-be followers, all told with details from one of Waco’s few survivors. It was a shocking omission in a fairly light category this year.

Billions (drama, actress, supporting actor)

Sometimes we just need to have a little fun. Peak TV gives us prestige after prestige show, but the real world in 2018 is so dark that sometimes it’s nice to just pop some popcorn and enjoy something ridiculous. Welcome to Billions. It’s a dizzying pace with a story that’s always about 25% too ridiculous, but that’s what makes it so good. Maggie Siff and Asia Kate Dilllon are particular standouts from a loaded cast, and either or both were worth a nomination.

Trust (actor, actress, supporting actor, director)

FX’s Trust was the finest new show on television this spring, and it is absolutely stunning to see it get shut out completely from TV’s biggest awards. Trust told the real-life 1973 story of the Getty family and the staged-then-real abduction of John Paul Getty III, the heir to the throne of the Getty Oil mega empire. Yet another hey-remember-this-bet-you-don’t-so-here’s-the-details show, Trust was loaded with incredible cinematography from the gorgeous mountains of Italy and directed by the outstanding Danny Boyle. It starred a collection of hit movie stars like Donald Sutherland as the acrimonious J. Paul Getty and Hillary Swank as the defiant and dissident mother of John. And if that weren’t enough, Brendan Fraser’s drawling fixer-cum-narrator James Fletcher Gase often stole the show and was certainly worth the recognition all on its own. Instead, like most of the Getty’s, we are left with nothing but memories. A shock and a shame.

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