‘Outlander’ season 3, and playing the earliest long-game ever with awards shows

Sure, “Outlander” season 3 is not going to be premiering until September, and we haven’t seen either a teaser or a trailer for it yet. Sure, it hasn’t even begun filming in South Africa yet. Sure, we’re writing this while halfway through a second cup of coffee, thinking about how majestic the photo above is and how it makes us want to be a Scottish adventurer for a few seconds before realizing that it’d be cold and possibly dangerous and we don’t possess the ability to time-travel through the stones.

Let’s all get WAY ahead of ourselves for a minute and talk awards shows! Why? 1) It’s fun, and 2) we might as well start the campaign early for something that we assume is going to be awesome. 3) We’ve had a lot of coffee … but didn’t we already say that? Let’s move on.

First, a bold prediction from one Jamie Fraser.

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Specifically, we’re writing this through the recent lens of the show being confirmed for a September premiere — think of this article as your primer to figuring out precisely how this premiere will impact the awards-show races.

The Emmys – Big impact here, given that there is NO Emmy campaign to be had this year … unless someone finds a way to chronicle Sam Heughan at craft services and turns it into a TV movie. Typically the submission date is at the end of May; even if the show premiered this summer, odds are that it would’ve been too late for this and would’ve missed it.

The Golden Globes – Nothing will change here! Actually, the late start for the season could help it just in the event that you’ve got some voters out there who have a supreme case of tunnel-vision and are only focuses on what a show has done for them lately. If “Outlander” is the last thing in their mind when they are casting their votes in the fall, this premiere date may benefit it massively.

People’s Choice Awards – Hey, this is totally up to the fans. Telling “Outlander” fans to support the show is a completely unnecessarily thing to do. It’s like telling Jamie to be a badass. You know it’s going to happen so why even bother asking? “Outlander” fans are some of the most supportive people out there.

Critics’ Choice TV Awards – They’re the best one of the bunch in our mind … and yes, we may be somewhat biased but we still think that they do the best job of being in-tune of what’s genuinely good on TV. This should remain unaffected so there’s nothing to worry about here.

CarterMatt Awards – Hey, let’s shamelessly self-promote!

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For those who are curious, nothing will change there. We base nominations on personal preferences and reader enthusiasm over the calendar year. (Did we already mention that “Outlander” is the reigning Show of the Year here? Do we even NEED to mention that at this point? Probably not.)

The Shimmering Whisky Awards – This isn’t actually a thing, but we could really use some whisky right now. Yes, it may be 10:00 in the morning when we’re writing this — no judgment!

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In the end, there’s not too much to worry about for “Outlander” this year with awards unless you’re super bummed-out over the Emmys. If you DO want to continue to support the awards-show effort this year, here’s our SUGGESTION: Custom hashtags. More so than tweeting at various organizations, finding fun, creative ways to get voters’ attention is the way to go. Show off your creativity and your sense of humor! That’s a part of what makes this fandom fun.

Now, we’re going to settle down and start to ponder over some future “Outlander” pieces. Until next time! The Droughtlander shall wage on, but we’ll continue to have more updates.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, predictions, and suggestions below! Be a part of the discussion and the fun with us! Meanwhile, head over here to visit our archive of past “Outlander” stories. (Photo: Starz.)