Three current or former Utahns have been nominated for Emmy Awards — one of them for the first time.
Ken Jennings is up for the Outstanding Host for a Game Show, and he’s part of an Emmy first — two hosts of the same game show competing against each other. Mayim Bialik, who rotates with Jennings as a “Jeopardy!” host, is also nominated.
Nominations were announced by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on Wednesday.
This is Jennings’ first nomination. Bialik is also looking for her first Emmy win, although she was nominated four times for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her role on “The Big Bang Theory.” And “Jeopardy!” is also nominated as Outstanding Game Show — a category it has previously won 39 times.
Jennings, a Brigham Young University graduate, lived in Salt Lake City when he made his amazing “Jeopardy!” run in 2004. He won 74 games in a row, amassing $2,522,700. He and his family moved back to the Seattle area in 2006.
The other nominees in the game show host category are Steve Harvey (“Family Feud”), Keke Palmer (“Password”), and Pat Sajak (“Wheel of Fortune”).
Two other 2023 Emmy nominees have strong Utah ties: Current Beehive State resident Tan France and Utah-born-and-bred Derek Hough.
This image released by Etsy shows Tan France during a portrait session on Aug. 24, 2020 in Los Angeles for his Etsy collection, launching Monday, Sept. 14. ( Jack Strutz /Etsy via AP)
France and his fellow “Queer Eye” stars are nominated for the fourth year in a row as Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. He and Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness are looking for their first win.
The Netflix series is nominated for half a dozen Emmys for directing, casting, editing, production design and as Outstanding Structured Reality Program.
France is a longtime resident of Salt Lake City, where he lives with his husband and their two sons. The native Brit became a naturalized American citizen in 2020.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah native Derek Hough of Dancing with the Stars gets a special jersey from the Jazz Bear while sitting sideline for the Utah Jazz Miami Heat game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday Dec. 31, 2022.
Derek Hough, who was born and raised in South Jordan and Orem, is looking to add another Emmy to his collection. He’s nominated for Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming for a routine he created for “Dancing with the Stars.”
He’s been nominated 11 times before, winning in 2013, 2015 and 2021.
The 2023 Emmy Awards is scheduled to air on Monday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. MDT on Fox — KSTU/Channel 13 in Utah.