The crowd-pleasing and acclaimed Abbott Elementary made a splashy debut in its first year, earning seven nominations, including a best comedy nod and a lead acting bid for its creator, Quinta Brunson. The recognition for the ABC show was a rare bright spot for broadcast networks, which were otherwise shut out of the comedy and drama series races.

The other nominees for best comedy series are Barry, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Only Murders in the Building, Ted Lasso and What We Do in the Shadows.

Best drama series nominees include Better Call Saul, Euphoria, Severance, Stranger Things and Yellowjackets.

The modern vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and Yellowjackets, a combined thriller and coming-of-age saga that’s created a major buzz, showed that Emmy voters have both a sense of humour and adventure. Controversy apparently left them unfazed: Dave Chappelle: The Closer, which drew criticism for its transgender mockery, has picked up a pre-recorded variety special nomination.

Only Murders in the Building, a cheery crime romp headed by the charmingly unlikely trio of Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short, has earned best comedy actor bids for its veteran stars but left Gomez off the acting list.

While Squid Game has followed in the footsteps of 2020 Oscar darling Parasite, also made in South Korea, Pachinko, a sweeping and much-lauded South Korean family drama, failed to garner any Emmy nods.

Emmy rules allow for a non-English language show with a US production partner to compete, but it took the rise of streaming services to make it happen. The Emmys were once dominated by broadcast and later cable shows made primarily for North America, but streamers target that market and a wide swath of others — and are finding that shows made in Asia, Europe and elsewhere can carry worldwide.

The longstanding lack of shows with any dialogue other than English is demonstrated by NBC’s 1980 miniseries Shōgun, based on the James Clavell novel about early 17th-century Japan. The bilingual production by a US studio was groundbreaking but not a trend-setter when it won the best limited series Emmy and acting nods.

Squid Game boosted rare Asian representation with its five acting nominations, including a lead actor bid for Lee Jung-jae and supporting actress nod for Jung Ho-yeon. The show already had proved a groundbreaker at this year’s Screen Actors Guild, where Lee and Jung received the first guild acting trophies for a non-English language show.

The series was such “a phenomenon that it would have been really odd if it hadn’t done well” with Emmy voters, said Eric Deggans, television critic for National Public Radio. The impressive number of acting nods it received indicates the academy “valued the performances they were delivering as well as the impact of the entire show”.

Other performers of Asian descent received nominations, including Sandra Oh for Killing Eve and Bowen Yang for Saturday Night Live. But there were missed opportunities for Black actors, including the stars of Black-ish, and for series recognition of Black-led shows Atlanta and Insecure, said Deggans.

Voters also missed the chance to salute the well-reviewed Native American comedy Reservation Dogs and another series with Native characters and culture, Rutherford Falls, and there’s scant Latino representation in the nominations.

The other nominees for best comedy series actress besides Brunson and Rae are Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant, Elle Fanning, The Great, and last year’s winner, Jean Smart for Hacks.

Other nominees for actor in a comedy series include Bill Hader, Barry; Nicholas Hoult, The Great, Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso, and Martin Short and Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building.

For drama series actor, the field also includes Jason Bateman, Ozark, Brian Cox, Succession, Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul, Adam Scott, Severance, and Jeremy Strong, Succession.

The other best drama series actress nominees are Jodie Comer, Killing Eve, Laura Linney, Ozark, Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets, and Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show.

The limited series nominees are Dopesick, The Dropout, Inventing Anna, The White Lotus, Pam & Tommy.

The nominees for variety talk series are The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The Emmy ceremony is set for September 12 with a host yet to be announced.

AP.