The Morning Show on Sunday became the first Apple TV+ original to score an award nomination. While the award nomination is from the Critics Choice Association – which isn’t huge – in the entertainment industry, every nomination helps.
The nomination is for Billy Crudrup for Best Supporting Actor. In the series, Crudrup plays newly appointed news head Cory Ellison. (He’s my favorite character in the show, as you never quite know what will spring from the characters mouth next.)
Crudrup, told GQ he had to “dig through every word” to get into the role of the brash character.
What is fun for me is the intricacy of the mind that Kerry [Ehrin, The Morning Show’s show runner] has written about in Cory. So, the exploratory work, and the mining that goes into trying to understand what makes a person think that that’s a reasonable way to be in the world—and even a delightful way to be in the world—is fascinating to me, because it feels quite foreign. But Cory thinks faster than I do, he speaks faster than I do, he has wildly ornate interpretations of other people’s behavior and what it means to him.
In order to chart all of that, it’s a ton of text work for me. I have to really dig through every word, every sentence, every stage direction, so that when I’m actually on set, it’s the expression of a shit-ton of work that I’m trying to make it seem as though there’s no work at all. So, I’m mostly filled with flop sweat and covered with powder so that nobody sees it.
Overall, the critics’ reaction to The Morning Show has been lukewarm at best, while viewers have a higher opinion of the show. Review aggregation website Metacritic, The Morning Show has a Metascore from critics of 59 out of 100. However, users give it an average score of 7.4 out of 10.
While rival streaming service dominate yesterday’s nominations, it should be noted they have been around quite a bit longer, and offer a huge amount of shows.
The Critics Choice nominations were dominated by Netflix, with 61 nominations for its movies and TV shows. 14 of those nominations were for The Irishman, which scored nominations for awards like Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.
Other streaming services receiving nominations include Amazon Prime Video with 14, Hulu with seven, and CBS All Access receiving four.
Apple TV+ could be up for more award nominations this week. Golden Globes nominations will be announced later today.