Kathy Bates Broke A Record With Her Matlock Emmy Nomination

35 years after Kathy Bates bucked Oscar conventions by winning a Best Actress award for a horror movie, she's now defying norms at the Emmys. At the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards this year, Bates was nominated for her lead role in "Matlock," a legal drama series that loosely presents itself as a gender-flipped version of the 1986 TV show of the same name. There are a lot of differences between the series, but Bates' portrayal of Matty scratches a similar itch to Andy Griffith's Ben Matlock.

Bates didn't win her Emmy this year; the award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series instead went to Britt Lower for her role as both Helly and Helena in season 2 of "Severance." Still, Bates made history merely being nominated: As Variety pointed out last week, at 77 years old, she is now the "oldest-ever Emmy nominee in the outstanding drama actress category."

Bates took the record from previous actresses like Angela Lansbury (who was nominated at 71 for her role in "Murder, She Wrote" in 1996) and Cicely Tyson (who was nominated at 71 for "Sweet Justice" in 1995). 

Not only has Bates set a new record, but "Matlock" has already been renewed for a second season that will premiere in October. If the second season is as well-received as the first, there's a decent chance Bates can break her own record in 2026.

"I love that," Bates told Variety when told about her Emmy record-breaking stat. "It's true, first of all, and it's a badge of honor. It's just the serendipity of all of it."

Bates was particularly happy about the nomination because her "Matlock" role came during a time where she thought her acting career was over. Good leading roles are harder to find for older people in Hollywood, but especially for women, which may be why Bates said she was "about ready to hang it up" before the first season of "Matlock" came along. Now she's not only proving that she's still capable of providing a riveting performance on par with her earlier roles, but that there is indeed a strong audience for TV shows centered on older women.

Perhaps her biggest point of pride is keeping up with "Matlock" production schedule. It's a network TV show with about 20 episodes each season released on a consistent yearly basis, which means that Bates' work life is arguably more demanding than a lot of what the younger actors working on streaming shows (with their mere 6-8 episode seasons) have to put up with. 

"Her stamina and her ability to stand at the center of a demanding network show, it's incredible," said "Matlock" creator Jennie Snyder Urman about Bates. "We go to deep depths."