Norm Macdonald’s Posthumous Netflix Special Earns Three Emmy Nominations

Actor and comedian Norm Macdonald filmed one final standup special for Netflix before his sudden death last September and now, that special has received three Emmy nominations. On Tuesday, Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special received nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special was released on May 30th.

Per the title card in the Netflix special, “Norm was working hard preparing material for his Netflix special — until COVID shut things down. In the summer of 2020, he was scheduled to undergo a procedure and as he put it, ‘didn’t want to leave anything on the table in case things went south.’”

Macdonald’s long-time producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra previously revealed that Macdonald filmed the entire hour-long special in his living room in one take. The day after filming it, he went in for his procedure which was successful, which saw the footage put away and forgotten for a year. Unfortunately, a year later, Macdonald’s health had deteriorated and he was unable to shoot the special in front of a live audience as planned.

“He ended up getting sicker in August and September and he remembered he had shot this and asked me to find it so he could watch it — so he ended up watching it before he passed away,” Hoekstra said.

Macdonald died in September 2021 at the age of 61 from cancer, which he had been privately battling for nine years.

“It makes me so happy that I can share it, but also so sad that we can’t share it with him,” Hoekstra concluded. “He didn’t do this for the shock that it exists. He shot it because he loved his material and was so proud of his material. He worked so hard and it really would’ve bothered him to have done all that work and not been able to show everybody. He did it for the stand-up. I just hope people appreciate that he did this.”

Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special is now streaming on Netflix. The 74th Emmy Awards will air live on September 12th on NBC. You can check out a list of the nominees here.