If you felt that 2013 seems like a big year for Netflix in terms of its original programming so far, with the debut of House of Cards, the return of Arrested Development and the success of Hemlock Grove, last week's announcement of the nominees for the 65th annual Primetime Emmy Awards proved that you're not alone. Each of those three series garnered nods in multiple categories, including the biggies -- Lead Actor, Lead Actress and Outstanding Directing. Oh, and House of Cards is up for Outstanding Drama Series, as well.
Overall, Netflix-original series got fourteen nominations, with House of Cards leading the way with nine nominations all by itself (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music). Arrested Development got three nods (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Musical Composition for a Series), followed by two for Hemlock Grove (Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music and Outstanding Visual Effects).
Of course, the scale of Netflix's nomination success pales next to something like HBO -- 108 nominations across the board, including an Outstanding Drama Series nod for Game of Thrones -- or even traditional broadcast networks (ABC and CBS both got 53 nominations apiece), but still: Nearly every single one of Netflix's commissioned original series eligible were recognized in some category Emmy nominations. That's an amazing boost for Netflix's credibility -- especially the avalanche of nominations for House of Cards, which would be impressive no matter which network it aired on -- and it underscores not only the company's commitment to quality programming, but also the acceptance of the audience and the television industry for what Netflix is doing.
If Netflix's luck holds and it manages to score some high-profile wins, that good news may hopefully be enough to turn around investor faith in the company: Despite subscriber growth in the last financial quarter, Netflix shares dropped 9 points, or 3.6 percent in the past 24-hour period of trading following the company's Q2 financial report.
The problem, apparently, was that not enough new subscribers signed up during the quarter. After adding two million new subscribers in the previous quarter, the company only had 630,000 net new subscribers this time around, a number described by one analyst quoted by USA Today as "utterly disappointing" (It didn't help that DVD subscribers dropped by around 500,000 in the same period).
During the video cast to announce quarterly earnings this week, CEO Reed Hastings also told investors that Arrested Development's launch was "not tremendously significant in the short-term" when it came to subscription numbers. That's not the kind of thing that investors would want to hear (although it might explain why Netflix has been so reticent to reveal specific numbers for shows like House of Cards or Arrested Development), especially as it could be read as a sign that the mass audience hasn't really engaged with the idea of Netflix as a content generator just yet. There may be a television revolution happening right now, but it appears that some people just haven't managed to get on board yet. And if investors and subscribers aren't convinced, all the Emmy nominations in the world might not be enough to keep the original content program alive in the long term.
The 65th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 22.
