'The Handmaid's Tale' season 2 receives 11 surprising nominations at Emmys 2019 despite last 3 episodes being ineligible
The second season of 'The Handmaid's Tale' has received 11 nominations in different individual categories this year. 'The Handmaid's Tale' season 2 episodes titled, 'Holly', 'Post-partum' and 'The Word,' all of which aired on or after June 27, 2018, were submitted under individual categories such as Guest Actor in a Drama Series - Bradley Whitford (Commander Lawrence) and Cherry Jones (June's mother Holly Maddox); Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Costumes, Editing and Music Composition.
Director Daina Reid was also nominated for the episode titled 'Holly' in the category Best Directing for a Drama Series; while Bruce Miller and Kira Snyder were nominated for Best Writing in the Drama Category. The last three episodes of 'The Handmaid's Tale' season 2 couldn't be submitted for the Emmy's in 2018.
However, that doesn't stop a show from submitting for individual categories and that's where the hanging episode rule comes into play. This rule makes things a lot more efficient with the academy letting in shows with hanging episodes be in contention if six episodes or more aired before May 31.
According to a report in Deadline, the 'Hanging Episodes clarification' was provided in 2010 when it was stated, "If an ongoing series has enough episodes in the current eligibility year to qualify as a series and has one or more episodes that are part of the series season that fall into the subsequent eligibility year, the 'hanging episodes' that are in a contiguous rollout on the same distribution platform join in eligibility the already-qualified-as-eligible episodes of the series."
The deadline, which was initially strictly followed as shows aired between June 1 of the prior year to May 31 of the current year has become a lot laxer. Meaning, shows which have the season finale scheduled to be aired in June can also submit for consideration. The academy members are, however, given access to the episodes by May 31.
The Emmy nominations saw HBO getting 137 nods in comparison to Netflix's 117. This is followed by NBC, which received 58 nods. Fox network, which will be airing the Emmy's this year has received only 18 nods according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. With shows such as 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'Fleabag,' Amazon Prime Video received 47 nods.