Jun 29, 2021

2021 Daytime Emmy Nominations: Disney and Netflix will dominate as New streamers Enter the Field

The nominations for the 48th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), have been announced across the children's & animation and lifestyle categories. There are 18 animation-specific categories.

Netflix has the most nominations in the animation categories of any single broadcaster or streamer, with 19 in total. It has a good spread: ten different productions across 12 categories, including three of the contenders for best children's animated series (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Hilda, and Tales of Arcadia: Wizards).

Disney Channel comes next, with 16 nominations. Half of those are for Elena of Avalor, which stars Disney's first Hispanic princess, and which won three awards last year. It is the most-nominated show in these categories this year. When we combine the nominations for Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Disney+, the House of Mouse has 28 in all. In other words, the company dominates this year, as it has done in the past.

The playing field is more crowded this year, with three major streamers making their debuts in these categories: HBO Max (eight nominations), Disney+ (seven), and Peacock (two). New platforms they may be, but their content is tried and tested: of their 17 nominations, 16 are accounted for by spin-offs from well-established franchises, including HBO Max's Looney Tunes Cartoons, Disney+'s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Peacock's Madagascar: A Little Wild.

In all, streamers took 51 nominations, against 43 for linear broadcasters and other platforms.

Tress MacNeille, who returned to voice Dot in Hulu's Animaniacs reboot more than two decades after the original series ended, is nominated for her performance - a feat she never managed the first time round. Her competitors include Eric Bauza, the current voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (in Looney Tunes Cartoons), and regular nominee Tom Kenny, who voices the eponymous character in Spongebob Squarepants.

Another notable nominee: Baba Yaga, a high-profile vr and theatrical experience from Baobab Studios. The project has four nominations, including best special-class daytime animated program.

For the full list of nominees, head to the Emmys' website. The children's & animation ceremony will be live-streamed on the Emmy OTT platform on Saturday, July 17 at 8 p.m ET.

Images at top, left to right: “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,” “Elena of Avalor,” “Animaniacs”