Emmys flashback 5 years to 2019: Jason Bateman (‘Ozark’) pulls off Best Director shocker over ‘Game of Thrones’
The 71st Primetime Emmys were held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on September 22nd, 2019. While it was a big night for shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Fleabag,” and “Chernobyl” in their respective genre fields, there were a fair amount of surprises that the Gold Derby odds didn’t predict. Perhaps the biggest shock of the night was Jason Bateman winning Best Drama Directing for “Ozark’s” season two premiere, “Reparations.” How was he able to overcome his sixth place odds and win his first Emmy for directing?
When the nominations were announced on July 16th, 2019, “Game of Thrones” led the drama field with 32 bids for its eighth and final season. It was followed by “Better Call Saul,” “Killing Eve,” “Ozark” and “This Is Us,” all earning 9 noms each. “Game of Thrones” was touted to handily win its fourth Drama Series Emmy as well as its third for directing. Most pundits were predicting the episode “The Long Night” would prevail given it was the most acclaimed of the season. However, given directing often corresponds with a writing bid, others forecasted the controversial series finale “The Iron Throne” would win. With three episodes nominated and no general consensus, people began to speculate about a potential upset.
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For “Ozark,” nine nominations was an improvement from five the year before, which included Bateman earning bids for both acting and directing, but not Best Drama Series. In 2019, Bateman returned to the acting and directing categories, and “Ozark” earned additional nominations for Drama Series, Actress (Laura Linney) and Supporting Actress (Julia Garner).
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Given the series’ improved reception with the TV academy, Bateman’s SAG Award win that year for playing Marty Byrde, and the fact that he had never won an Emmy, pundits began to speculate whether the veteran TV actor’s time had come to finally win an Emmy…for his acting. And just like the year before, he submitted the same episode for acting and directing (“Reparations”). However, he faced stiff competition from Billy Porter, who began to generate huge awards buzz and would go on to lead the Gold Derby odds for his performance as Pray Tell on “Pose.”
On the night of the Emmys, while “Game of Thrones” once again won for Drama Series and Supporting Actor Peter Dinklage, the wealth was mostly spread out in the drama field. Garner prevailed in the Supporting Actress category for “Ozark,” and “Succession” pulled off a surprise win in Drama Writing for its debut season. The latter win signaled a potential upset in Drama Directing. Later that night, Kerry Washington emerged and read Billy Porter as the winner for Best Drama Actor over Bateman, who gave a rousing acceptance speech that resulted in a massive standing ovation. It looked like Bateman was going to have to wait for that Emmy after all.
Following Porter’s win, the next category presented was Drama Directing. The clips from each nominated episode were played, and then Timothy Hutton and Brittany Snow came out to present the award. But when Hutton opened the envelope, a surprise name was read, “Jason Bateman, Ozark.” With a look of shock, Bateman could be seen mouthing, “Wow!” as his co-stars Linney and Garner were over-the-moon excited. When he got on stage, he kept his speech short but sweet, naming each part of the Emmy trophy and dedicating a piece of it to all the people he felt were responsible for making the show a success.
When the 2019 Emmys wrapped, Bateman’s win was one of the hottest topics of conversation. How did he pull off that upset? In Gold Derby’s post slugfest, Riley Chow speculated that “Game of Thrones” almost certainly lost because of vote-splitting, but he didn’t understand how Bateman was the beneficiary. After all, “Succession” had won for writing, and Adam McKay won the DGA over Bateman. Matt Noble stated that McKay may be seen as more of a film guy, and Bateman was a TV guy, so the TV directing branch felt more inclined to award one of their own. Especially since he’d been working in TV since he was a child, and had worked with so many directors over the years. Joyce Eng mentioned that going forward, it was a possibility that he’d be a stronger contender for directing than acting for “Ozark.”
Other likely explanations for Bateman winning: “Ozark” was growing in popularity, he was wearing so many hats for the show as an actor, director and producer, and given Porter became the heavy front-runner for acting by Emmy night, the director’s branch might’ve felt that voting for Bateman was the best way for him to be honored for the show. Also, Bateman self-directing the episode he submitted for acting was likely a beneficial factor as well.
Bateman would go on to earn subsequent acting nominations for “Ozark” in 2020 and 2022, but lost both to Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) and Lee Jung-Jae (“Squid Game”) respectively, as well as a directing nomination for the series finale (“A Hard Way to Go”) in 2022, which he lost to Hwang Dong-hyuk (“Squid Game”). This year, he’s nominated again as a producer for the Apple TV+ limited series “Lessons in Chemistry.” Whether or not he ever takes home an Emmy for acting, his memorable directing shocker for “Ozark” will forever make him “Emmy winner Jason Bateman.”
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