--- description: Trying to explain the inexplicable title: Why the Emmys Snubbed The Good Wife image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc6d79e14c8b1502/698695e5cd804d653dccb482/481747133.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Was _The Good Wife_ Snubbed by the Emmys?  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Jul 10, 2014 8:08 PM CUT  NEW YORK - MARCH 27: "The Last Call"--Alicia searches for answers as she tries to make sense of Will's death in the aftermath of the courthouse shooting. Meanwhile, Diane delivers the somber news to the partners at Lockhart/Gardner who must decide how to move forward, on THE GOOD WIFE, Sunday, March 30 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured L-R: Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick and Alan Cumming as Eli Gold. Photo is a screen grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) NEW YORK - MARCH 27: "The Last Call"--Alicia searches for answers as she tries to make sense of Will's death in the aftermath of the courthouse shooting. Meanwhile, Diane delivers the somber news to the partners at Lockhart/Gardner who must decide how to move forward, on THE GOOD WIFE, Sunday, March 30 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured L-R: Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick and Alan Cumming as Eli Gold. Photo is a screen grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)CBS/Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Jul 10, 2014 8:08 PM CUT _The Good Wife_ didn’t get snubbed by the Emmys — it got _spurned_. Sure, _The Americans_, Tatiana Maslany from _Orphan Black_ and _Brooklyn Nine-Nine_ all probably deserved nominations too — but those oversights can be rationalized. _The Good Wife’_s missing nomination defies reason: the show had its best season ever this year — removing a main character in a way that no other network show would dare to do and somehow improving after his departure. And yet still, it didn’t get a nominations. Let’s talk about this season of _The Good Wife_. There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the show, stop reading right now and go start watching. You’ll thank me later. Will is dead. Not just dead, but shot. Killing off a likable main character isn’t radical on TV: _Game of Thrones_ beheaded its hero, _House of Cards_ pushed the one person who could stop Frank Underwood in front of a train, _Homeland_ (mercifully) hanged a character that probably should have died in season one. But those shows are on HBO, Netflix and Showtime, all of them prestige dramas backed by cable channels with large checkbooks who pay their writers to take risks. Not so for network TV where main characters are all but guaranteed survival. Even if a main character is killed off, it’s usually on a show (like on _Downton Abbey_ or _Grey’s Anatomy_) in which there are dozens of other characters to fill his or her void. Josh Charles’ departure could have been a death sentence for _The Good Wife_, but the show embraced it wholeheartedly. His death was realistic and messy: Alicia (Julianna Margulies) gets no closure, but rather is left with guilt over her last fight with her ex-lover, confusion about her marriage and a cut-off voicemail. She tries to hunt down an explanation for why Will called her minutes before his death but finds none. It’s heart-wrenching, but she moves on and so does the audience. The power struggle following Will’s demise at his firm, Lockhart Gardner, was more compelling than any storyline on the show in years. Old characters like Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox) were forced to change and grow in Will’s absence, while new, dynamic characters like Finn Polmar (Matthew Goode), the man who tried to save Will, emerged from the tragedy and propelled the show forward. No doubt, the competition for Emmy nominations is fiercer than ever. _Breaking Bad_ had an epic final season, _Game of Thrones_ continued to impress both critics and millions of fans and _True Detective_ featured two outstanding performances. They were all shoo-ins. _Mad Men_, despite feeling stunted because of the mid-season split, cashed in on some of the emotional momentum it’s been building for seven seasons, like Sally’s parting wave to Don and Don and Peggy’s slow dance in the hotel room. But that still leaves room for a _Good Wife_ nomination after an underwhelming season from a flailing _Donwton Abbey_ and an over-hyped _House of Cards_ run. The Emmys have a history of honoring good shows even when the quality dips, as they have done with _Breaking Bad_ or _Mad Men_ in the past, which is why it’s all the more confusing that they didn’t recognize a great year from _The Good Wife_. The most obvious explanation for the oversight is that _The Good Wife_ is on CBS. The shows that were nominated this year hailed exclusively from HBO, AMC, Netflix and PBS. Network television is still considered to be the least prestigious television delivery system, ranking below premium cable channels (HBO), cable channels (AMC), streaming platforms (Netflix) and public television with British prestige (PBS/BBC). The writers of _The Good Wife_ are well aware of this perception: throughout season five last year, Alicia and her daughter watched an exaggerated (and hilarious) version of what looked to be an AMC prestige show featuring inexplicable sex and violence. The show also embarked on a Emmy campaign that called attention to the fact that they have to produce 22 quality episodes every year, not just eight like some of the nominees. Both clever gambits may have rubbed Emmy voters (and other show runners) the wrong way. Another reason is that _The Good Wife_ has dropped some Emmy nominations in recent years as it settled into the same routine. The big dramatics of this year’s firm split and murder were supposed to help it make a comeback. Perhaps these plots were perceived as a gambit for nominations or a trick to get a rise in viewership. While _House of Cards_ could ride on last year’s momentum (the first Netflix show to ever be nominated), _The Good Wife_ had to fight its way back into the Emmys’ good graces. It was rewarded with nods to Christine Baranski, Dylan Baker, Josh Charles and Juilianna Margulies but not for the writers. These are only attempts to explain the inexplicable. In the end, the Emmys are arbitrary and often don’t matter. And if you’re still outraged, take solace in this fact: [you’re not alone. ](https://twitter.com/search?q=the%20good%20wife&src=typd "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/"},"headline":"Why Was The Good Wife Snubbed by the Emmys?","datePublished":"2014-07-10T20:08:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:05:02.489Z","description":"Trying to explain the inexplicable","url":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/","keywords":["Television","emmys"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc6d79e14c8b1502/698695e5cd804d653dccb482/481747133.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc6d79e14c8b1502/698695e5cd804d653dccb482/481747133.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Good Wife","caption":"The Good Wife","creditText":"CBS/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/","name":"Why Was The Good Wife Snubbed by the Emmys?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Netflix and HBO Dominate in Emmy Nominations","description":"Thursday morning the Television Academy released its nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. And according to them, if you want to watch excellent television — you’re going to need a cable box or a Netflix subscription.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WulTAiLP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-10T18:29:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WulTAiLP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/","duration":"PT1M29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2973756/the-good-wife-emmy-snub/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```