‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Keeps Hulu in the Emmy Race

By Danielle Turchiano

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “The Handmaid’s Tale” kept Hulu in the Emmy conversation, and it is still proving to be the reason the streamer is dominating some major awards discussions.

scored 27 nominations from the Television Academy for the 70th annual primetime television awards, up from 18 last year, with 20 of those nominations for “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The series scored key nods in categories including drama series, lead actress in a drama (Elisabeth Moss), supporting actress in a drama (Alexis Bledel, Ann Dowd, Yvonne Strahovski), supporting actor in a drama (Joseph Fiennes), guest actress in a drama (Kelly Jenrette, Cherry Jones, Samira Wiley), drama series directing (Kari Skogland), and drama series writing (Bruce Miller).

The streamer’s historical limited series, “The Looming Tower,” on the other hand, picked up four nominations, including Jeff Daniels for lead actor in a limited series or movie, casting, directing (Craig Zisk), and supporting actor in a limited series or movie (Michael Stuhlbarg).

“I Love You, America With Sarah Silverman” also picked up a variety sketch series nom for Hulu.

Last year, after “The Handmaid’s Tale” helped Hulu break into the Emmy race in its biggest way yet, Craig Erwich, head of content at the streamer, revealed to Variety that their strategy of looking for shows that have “a big world, feel relevant and feel like television events” had paid off. While he certainly put “The Handmaid’s Tale” in that category, he also tipped then that “” would “be of that ilk as well.”

While that rang true to a degree, “The Looming Tower” did not break into the limited series race.

In 2017, “The Handmaid’s Tale” received 13 Emmy nominations in key categories including drama series, lead drama actress (Elisabeth Moss), supporting drama actress (Ann Dowd and Samira Wiley), guest drama actress (Alexis Bledel), drama writing, and drama directing. It ultimately won eight statues, including all of the aforementioned categories.

You can find the full list of 2018 Emmy noms here .