How the Absentia US premiere date impacts Stana Katic awards consideration

We’re still waiting on an Absentia US premiere date, and as a result of that you’ve probably noticed a crawl in coverage as of late. Rest assured that more will be coming, but we want to keep things on pace here at CarterMatt with what’s happening in North America with the show. Therefore, it’s hard to push forward with too much coverage without getting into spoilers. We don’t even know any spoilers beyond the premiere and hope it stays that way.

There is still one topic that we want to discuss today, and it revolves around some of the praise that viewers who have seen the show are giving to Stana Katic for her performance as Emily Byrne. The acclaim for her performance is pretty widespread, but what impact does that have on US awards shows? It’s interesting given that the show has yet to even air in America.

Pending some sort of dramatic, enormous surprise, the odds do seem high that Katic will be eligible for the upcoming 2018 Emmys. All Absentia has to do to make that happen is premiere by the end of the spring and that feels like it will be close to a sure thing. However, where things could get a little more questionable is with the upcoming Golden Globes. Unless a premiere date for the upcoming season is announced soon or voters for the Hollywood Foreign Press start to get blocks of episodes for voting in the weeks to come, Katic could be off the table for that.

Without seeing much of the show beyond the first episode it still remains to be seen just how much buzz there would be for Stana in the awards circuit; we do think she is off to a great start in the premiere, but it’s often hard to predict the decisions of the awards-show viewer. They often go for such things as period pieces or shows that air on prestige networks like an HBO or a Netflix.

There are also questions regarding how Absentia would be categorized — would it be submitted as a limited series or a drama? There could end up being a second season of the show but if the story for season 1 has a defined beginning, middle, and end, there’s a case that you could claim this is a limited series in its own right.

Our personal hope is that Absentia would come on the air soon enough so that Stana could be at least within the awards-show discussion for the Globes this year; unfortunately, we’re still living at a time when there are more questions than answers when it comes to when the show premieres. Right now we believe the priority for Sony, more so than awards, is to get the show watched by as many people as possible. We’re confident that they’ve found the right US home, but it may not be one able to broadcast the show until late this year or early 2018. You have to imagine that they’re not going to announce the home at this point and start airing the episodes a few days later. They’ll want to take the time to promote it.

Your thoughts

What do you think about Stana’s awards-show odds over the next year or so? Share in the comments!

Also, take a look at the link here for some of the latest Absentia news or like us on Facebook to get news on this and other shows we cover at CarterMatt. (Photo: Sony.)