‘Reservation Dogs’ creator says show would be Emmy nominated if it had “all-white cast”

Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of FX series Reservation Dogs, has said the show would have been nominated for an Emmy if it featured an “all-white cast”.

The series, co-created with Taika Waititi, follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma following the death of their close friend. When the show launched in 2021, it marked a landmark moment for Native representation, with an almost entirely Indigenous North American cast and crew.

Ahead of the show’s third and final season, which premiered on August 2, Harjo addressed why he believes the show has been consistently snubbed at the Emmys – despite receiving critical acclaim.

“If we would’ve been an all-white cast, we would’ve definitely been nominated for an Emmy after getting called the best show of 2022,” Harjo told IndieWire. “I’m not bitter about that. I’m not upset about that. I didn’t expect it. This is very new, so people don’t know what to do with these shows.

“With ‘Rez Dogs’, I try to show what types of stories we can tell and how diverse those stories are. That’s the main thing that I want to show is we’re not just one-trick ponies. We can tell sprawling great stories in different genres. Part of my goal with this show and others I can help create is to convince executives that they can be successful.”

He added: “I have made independent films for most of my career that have hardly seen the light of day, and I consider them good films – I think a lot of people do – but they don’t get support. So none of this surprises me. Reservation Dogs isn’t lightning in a bottle. It had the support and it had the backing of FX and they let us tell this story and we can keep telling these stories with that support.”

This year’s Emmy Awards have been postponed due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes, after the ceremony was originally scheduled for September.

Succession and The Last Of Us received the most nominations this year, with 27 and 24 respectively. Other big contenders include The White Lotus, Ted Lasso, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Bear and Beef.

Reservation Dogs’ first two seasons are available to stream on Disney+ in the UK, with new episodes landing on Hulu in the US.

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