The White Lotus‘ next destination is… the incredibly competitive drama series race at this year’s Emmys.
Having racked up 20 Emmy Award nominations with its first season and gone on to lead that year’s TV pack with 10 wins, the dramedy is being made to exit the Limited Series race, due to the ongoing arc involving Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya.
Instead, our sister site Variety reports, The White Lotus has chosen to have Season 2 compete as a drama.
As the Television Academy ruled in December 2021, a limited series must truly be limited, meaning “the story arc must be completely resolved within its season, with no on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.”
The Emmys first began policing the Limited Series gamesmanship on a case-by-case basis in 2019, when it ruled that FX’s American Horror Story, after seven seasons of occasionally dangling threads and reoccurring characters, had to move to the drama series race. Similarly, HBO’s Big Little Lies switched from limited (when it truly thought it was a one-season show) to drama after it conjured up a second season.
This year’s drama series races at the Emmys promise to be especially brutal, with The White Lotus Season 2 now competing against the likes of Succession Season 4, The Crown Season 5, The Mandalorian Season 3, Yellowjackets Season 2, Andor, The Last of Us, House of the Dragon and the back half of Better Call Saul‘s farewell run.
