WEST HOLLYWOOD – The final round of Emmy voting begins on Monday which means a number of networks and services are doing some last minute events to champion their contenders. On Thursday night Netflix put on an elegant soiree for “The Crown” at the London Hotel with nominees John Lithgow and Peter Morgan on hand. Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series nominee Claire Foy and co-star Matt Smith participated in a Q&A with James Corden at the beginning of June so this was chance for Lithgow, in particular, to make his case to the Television Academy and members of the press on hand.
Also making the rounds was Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. He took a moment to chat about Netflix’s Emmy strategy which was to ignore those who said Emmy voters would only push for one network (or streaming service) show when they voted in the nominating phase. That meant a huge campaign that included a month long pop up FYCSee space on Wilshire Blvd and a multitude of Q&As and events for almost all their shows. It worked as Netflix came this close to knocking HBO from its perch as the king of Emmy nominations and “The Crown” earned 13 of them (sister Drama “Stranger Things” landed 18).
Sarandos also talked about the recently announced Coen Bros. series “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Produced by Annapurna Television, it turns out the Coens had been writing these anthology western tales for the past 17 years with the idea of putting a number of them into a movie. Sarandos said they suggested the Coens add a few more to turn it into a series. He also said the Coens are already into production which may be a surprise to many. The COO said he doesn’t like having subscribers have to wait a long time from the announcement of a series or film to actually watching it on the service. It’s one reason Netflix tends to do more marketing for their series after its debuted (as opposed to pre-release hype) and a movie like Will Smith’s “Bright,” which has had early trailers and been promoted at Comic-Con, is an exception to the rule because of its scheduled holiday release.
Morgan, on the other hand, was much more focused on finishing season two of “The Crown” (it debuts on Dec. 8) but did dish a little about the search for the next Queen Elizabeth II. The third season of the series will take another time jump and the character will be re-cast by a middle aged actress (his words, not mine). Who that is remains to be seen. Morgan says he wants to write about seven episodes of the next season before making that determination. He also noted how they had been looking at actors to follow Smith as Prince Phillip and whoever took the role was going to have the same comedic timing as his predecessor. “The Queen” screenwriter also marveled at how his fellow showrunners are able to work on series for so many consecutive years and raved about Foy’s ability to work such a gruesome schedule the past two seasons.
“The Crown” season one is currently available on Netflix.