Fallout’s 16 Emmy nominations show that successful gaming adaptations are no longer a fluke

Prime Video’s Fallout has followed The Last of Us in video-game adaptations making smashing freshman debuts at the Emmys. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences unveiled this year’s nominations on Wednesday, and Amazon’s adaptation of Bethesda’s franchise picked up an impressive 16 nods, including Best Drama, Best Actor – Drama (Walton Goggins) and Best Writing – Drama.

Fallout, which Amazon didn’t wait long to renew for a second season, follows Lucy (Ella Purnell), a vault dweller who ventures above-ground to try to rescue her father in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Walton Goggins scored the series’ only acting nomination for his scene-stealing performance as The Ghoul. Its writing nod went to Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner for the ironically (yet appropriately) titled premiere episode, “The End.”

Only Murders in the Building, Hulu’s popular comedy-mystery series, led all streaming-only series with 21 nominations. They include Best Comedy, two for Best Actor – Comedy (Steve Martin and Martin Short), Best Actress – Comedy (Selena Gomez) and Best Supporting Actress – Comedy (finally, Meryl Streep gets nominated for something!), Best Supporting Actor – Comedy (Paul Rudd), Comedy Guest Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Comedy Guest Actor (Matthew Broderick).

Netflix’s The Crown followed close behind for streaming-only series with 18 noms for its final season, which recounted the passing of Princess Diana and the Royal Family’s transition into the 21st century. It picked up nods for Best Drama, Best Actress – Drama (Imelda Staunton), Best Actor – Drama (Dominic West), two for Best Supporting Actress – Drama (Elizabeth Debicki and Lesley Manville), Best Supporting Actor – Drama (Jonathan Pryce), Guest Actress – Drama (Claire Foy in a memorable return), Directing – Drama (Stephen Daldry for the episode “Sleep, Dearie Sleep”) and Writing – Drama (Peter Morgan and Meriel Sheibani-Clare for “Ritz”).

In other streaming nominations, Amazon Prime’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Apple TV+’s The Morning Show each snagged 16 nods. Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, described as based on a true stalking story by series creator and lead actor Richard Gadd, received 11 nominations.

Netflix had the most total nominations of any platform, with a staggering 107. Among streaming-only ones, Apple TV+ came in second with 70. (In addition to The Morning Show, Apple’s Palm Royale, Lessons in Chemistry and Slow Horses all charted.) Amazon Prime Video landed 37 total noms, Hulu got 26 and Disney+ received 19.

Zooming out from streaming-only to the broader field, FX’s Shogun led all series with 25 nominations, followed by The Bear with 23 (it was a good day for FX) as it broke the record for most nods for a comedy. HBO’s True Detective: Night Country landed 19, a new sketch-comedy show you may have heard of called Saturday Night Live received 17 and HBO’s Hacks got 16.