After seeing much needed improvements in diverse Emmy nominations over the past two years, Tuesday's announcements was a disappointing return to a lily white pool.
Only 24 people of color were nominated for acting awards this year, a dramatic fall from last year's record 38 and even 2017's 27 nominees.
The cast of Ava DuVernay's "When They See Us" took care of a large proportion of the diverse nominations, including lead actor in a limited series or movie for Jharrel Jerome, lead actress for Niecy Nash and Aunjanue Ellis, supporting actress for Marsha Stephanie Blake and supporting actor for John Leguizamo, Michael K. Williams and Asante Blackk.
Mahershala Ali earned his second Emmy nod, this time for "True Detective," while Billy Porter ("Pose"), Benicio del Toro ("Escape from Dannemora") and Kumail Nanjiani ("The Twilight Zone") earned their first nominations.
Sandra Oh, who last year became the first Asian woman to be nominated for lead actress, landed her second nod for "Killing Eve," as well as outstanding guest actress in a comedy for hosting "Saturday Night Live."
Viola Davis was also nominated for outstanding lead actress in a drama for "How To Get Away With Murder."
Two of the six actors nominated for lead in a comedy _ Don Cheadle ("Black Monday") and Anthony Anderson ("black-ish") _ are black, while Sterling K. Brown was nominated alongside Porter for lead actor in a drama for NBC tearjerker "This Is Us."
In reality show categories, RuPaul was nominated for "Drag Race" and Marie Kondo for "Tidying Up."
But actors of color were excluded completely from multiple categories, including lead actress in a comedy, supporting actress in a drama and supporting actor and actress in a comedy. Last year, both frequent favorite Tracee Ellis Ross ("black-ish") and Issa Rae ("Insecure") were nominated for lead actress in a comedy, although Rachel Brosnahan went home golden for her role on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."
All seven comedy series nominated for best show were led by white actors.
LGBTQ representation fared slightly better, including Porter, Laverne Cox ("Orange is the New Black"), Kate McKinnon ("Saturday Night Live") and Hannah Gadsby ("Nanette").
