While the most recent round of Emmy nominations were announced last Thursday, people are already looking ahead to the 2017 Emmys, namely, what will happen with Game of Thrones. The ever-popular HBO show, which recently said season seven will premiere in summer 2017, won’t be eligible for any nominations for the 2017 Emmy Awards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In fact, Game of Thrones, which once again had the most nominations of any show this year, was barely able to be nominated for an Emmy this year. To be nominated for an Emmy, a drama or a comedy series had to air at least six episodes between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016. Game of Thrones aired their sixth episode on May 29 of this year.
Because of that rule, other shows may have their chance to be nominated for an Emmy next year, similar to how USA’s Mr. Robot was nominated for six Emmys and FX’s The Americans was also nominated for the first time this year because of no nomination for Mad Men or Orange is the New Black.
Game of Thrones has been a perennial favorite for the Emmy voters the last few years and is the current holder of the Outstanding Drama Series and has been nominated for the award every year the show has been on the air. It’s also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series again this year.
The lack of a Game of Thrones nomination may affect the number of nominations HBO gets in the 2017 Emmys. This year, the cable network giant was nominated for 94, once again making it the most nominated network. However, the number is down from last year, when HBO was nominated for 126 Emmys (the network won 43 Emmys last year).
As for what HBO could submit in place of Game of Thrones, there’s only few options that the network has. Westworld, which premieres in the fall, could be one of them, but other than that, there’s not much at this moment the network has that can get them as many nominations as they’ve been used to the last few years.
So, perhaps, winter is coming for HBO.
The 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards will air on ABC on Sept. 18 with Jimmy Kimmel serving as the host.