“The Beatles: The Night That Changed America,” the CBS special that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” received six Emmy Awards nominations Thursday morning.
The special, produced by CBS and AEG Ehrlich Ventures, is up for Outstanding Variety Special and in the categories of direction (Gregg Gelfand), music direction (Don Was), writing (Ken Ehrlich, David Wild), lighting design and sound mixing.
In the composing world, John Lunn will attempt to win his third consecutive award for “Downton Abbey,” the opening number of the Tony Awards is angling for a hat trick and T Bone Burnett has received his first Emmy nomination.
Lunn and Burnett, who wrote for HBO’s “True Detective,” are up for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special along with Jeff Beal (his second nomination for “House of Cards”), Ramin Djawadi (“Game of Thrones”) and first-time nominee Alan Silvestri (“Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey”).
David Arnold and Michael Price, nominated twice before for their work on PBS’s “Sherlock,” are up again for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, this year for “Sherlock: His Last Vow.” “Downton Abbey” composer Lunn is in contention with “The White Queen,” along with James Levine (“American Horror Story”), Ludovic Bource (“Clear History”), Jeff Russo (“Fargo”) and Rob Mathes for “Herblock: The Back and White.”
Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda are nominated for this year’s Tony Awards opener and will go up against the “Saturday Night Live” team responsible for “(Do It On My) Twin Bed”) – Eli Brueggemann, Chris Kelly, Sarah Schneider, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon – Bob Christanson and Alisa Hauser (“A Christmas Carol – The Concert”), Joshua Funk and Rebecca Drysdale (“Key & Peele”), John William Kavanagh, Craig Gerber (“Sofia the First: The Floating Palace”) and Bob Thiele, Noah Gundersen and Kurt Sutter (“Sons of Anarchy”).
Besides Was, who is also the president of Blue Note Records, music direction nominees include William Ross who is up twice, for “Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn” and “The Oscars.” Their competiton is Davice Chase (“The Sound of Music Live!”), Lenny Pickett, Leon Pendarvis and Eli Bruggemann (“Saturday Night Live”) and Elliot Lawrence and Jamie Lawrence (“The 67th Annual Tony Awards).”
“The Voice” was the only music competition to earn nominations, picking up three: realiuty competition series, makeup and picture editing. NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live!” received a nomination in the Special Class Program; it is the only scripted show among the nominees.