New Hits Westworld, Atlanta and This Is Us Shake Up Golden Globe TV Nominations

While HBO surged back ahead of the streaming services in this year's Golden Globe nominations, the biggest TV story was the influx of new shows—including This Is Us, Westworld and Atlanta— that shook up this year's categories. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association always nominates several new shows each year, this year's freshman class represented four out of the five shows named for best drama series: Netflix's The Crown and Stranger Things, NBC's This Is Us and HBO's Westworld. Game of Thrones was the only returning drama nominee. The best musical or comedy lineup included two newbies—FX's Atlanta and ABC's Black-ish, which broke into the category in its second year—with returning nominees Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent and Veep. This Is Us, broadcast's biggest hit of the fall, landed three nominations in all, with Mandy Moore and Chrissy Metz, both as supporting actresses. Westworld also got recognition for Evan Rachel Wood (best actress in a drama series) and Thandie Newton (supporting actress), while The Crown received nominations for Claire Foy (best actress in a drama series) and John Lithgow (supporting actor). The other new shows receiving Globes recognition included Amazon's Goliath (Billy Bob Thornton, best actor in a drama series), HBO's Insecure (Isae Rae, best actress in a comedy/musical series) and Divorce (Sarah Jessica Parker, best actress in a comedy/musical series) and Epix's Graves (Nick Nolte, best actor in a comedy/musical series). FX's hit miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story had the most TV Globe nominations overall, with five, followed by another miniseries, The Night Manger, with four nominations. The Crown, The Night Of, This Is Us and Westworld had three apiece. HBO led all networks with 14 nominations, followed by FX, with 9. ABC, Amazon, AMC and Netflix followed with five nominations each. (Last year, Netflix was on top with eight nominations.) NBC, which was the only broadcast network shut out of Globe nominations last year, even though it televises the awards, rode This Is Us to a big comeback: three nominations, including its first drama series nomination since Heroes in 2006. Still, broadcasters once again brought up the rear, behind cable and streaming networks. The CW had two nominations, but Fox and CBS, both of which were nominated last year, couldn't manage a single nomination, putting them behind even Epix—the premium cable network that tried its hand at original scripted series for the first time this fall—which landed a surprise nomination for Graves. The TV categories included the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's usual eclectic mix of big names (Thornton, Parker and Winona Ryder, for Stranger Things) and headscratchers (Nolte, whom no one outside of Epix expected to be recognized today). As usual, while many in Hollywood are debating who should have been nominated and snubbed, ultimately the Golden Globes don't mean much to the industry. Most of the HFPA's 90-some members are made up of freelancers and hangers-on who seem to be dazzled by celebrity (the Los Angeles Times once called the Globes a "con on the viewing public"). However, Hollywood plays along for one night each year for the lavish, high-rated ceremony, which drew 18.5 million viewers to NBC in January. The network hopes first-time host Jimmy Fallon will drive those numbers even higher on Jan. 8. A complete list of Golden Globe nominees can be found here.

Convergent TV

New Hits Westworld, Atlanta and This Is Us Shake Up Golden Globe TV Nominations

HBO leads the pack; CBS and Fox are shut out

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch