Last year, we turned to TV for comfort. Emmy voters followed suit

The Television Academy announced its nominations for the 73rd Emmy Awards on Tuesday, and much of it resembled a giant bowl of mac and cheese.

Figuratively, of course.

In a year where reality provided more drama, tragedy, ire and absurdist comedy than all of scripted television combined, the academy leaned heavily on comfort food over challenging fare in its picks for the 2021 primetime Emmy contenders.

The top nominated shows overall were two dramas, Netflix’s “The Crown” and the Disney+ “Star Wars” story “The Mandalorian,” which scored 24 nods each. The former’s fourth season revisits the tabloid saga of fussy royals Charles and Diana, while the latter’s second continues its tale of a bounty hunter and his young charge — affectionately known as Baby Yoda — through space.

Next in the running was “WandaVision,” the wonderfully creative Disney+ limited series spun off from Marvel Cinematic Universe; the Scarlet Witch and her robot spouse received 23 total nominations.

And in the comedy series race, voters embraced Apple TV+’s nice-guy breakout “Ted Lasso,” starring Jason Sudeikis as a helpful soccer coach who’s always handing out cookies, with 20 nominations.

And whether you’re buzzing over the day’s big winners or not, it’s clear the TV Academy — like many viewers — leaned toward the soothing presence of familiar franchises and gentle storylines. We’ll see if the titles with the most chances at a statuette go on to rack them up when the awards are announced Sept. 19, during a televised ceremony from L.A.’s Microsoft Theater hosted by Cedric the Entertainer.

Even this year’s less acclaimed nominees indicated that voters wanted programming that provided a break from the constant pummel of bad news: Consider Netflix’s longshot “Emily in Paris,” a fluffy American-abroad comedy that score two nominations despite stirring up controversy when it was nominated for the Golden Globes, and the streamer’s whimsical, bodice-ripping period drama “Bridgerton,” which nabbed 12.

All eyes heading into the day were on the highly competitive limited series category, where the best shows of the year were competing for just five slots. And, no surprise, it’s now home to the academy’s most notable snubs.

Steve McQueen’s stunningly beautiful limited series “Small Axe” (Amazon), about life in London’s immigrant West Indian community, received no major nominations, while none of the performers from Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” (Amazon) — namely the magnetic Thuso Mbedu — were included in the acting categories. Voters also passed on “The Good Lord Bird,” Showtime’s limited series starring Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown.

In the midst of a racial reckoning that began last summer and continues into the present moment, these were notable omissions. Still, the TV Academy did reward several shows that center the experience of Black people and other people of color: HBO’s British limited drama “I May Destroy You,” in which creator and star Michaela Coel — nominated for acting, writing and directing — explores the definition of consent and the aftermath of sexual assault, and the final season of FX’s “Pose,” a tale of LGBTQ life at the height of the AIDS crisis starring nominees Billy Porter and Mj Rodriguez, notched nine nominations apiece.

If you’re looking for a repeat of “Watchmen,” which led the conversation when it won 11 Emmys last year, the closest analogue may be another HBO genre-bender, “Lovecraft Country,” which received 18 nominations in all. As with “Watchmen,” which hit a nerve by incorporating real-life events like the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre into a complex sci-fi tale, “Lovecraft” filtered America’s Jim Crow past through the lens of ghosts, monsters and secret Indiana Jones-like caverns. But it’s hard to celebrate “Lovecraft’s” Emmy success too fervently: HBO canceled the show just last week.