Kurt Sutter: 'Sons of Anarchy' would lose fans if it got Emmy noms

Sons of Anarchy fans expecting to read another colorful rant from creator Kurt Sutter about the FX drama’s lack of Emmy nominations may have been disappointed today. Not because the show actually did earn a nod (though Sutter, Bob Thiele Jr., and Noah Gundersen are nominated in the Original Music and Lyrics category for penning the song “Day is Gone,” which was used over the emotional montage at the end of the season-six finale). But because the guest column Sutter penned for NikkiFinke.com on how it feels to be snubbed in the major categories, again, only uses the C-word once. And that’s in reference to his prior reputation for losing loudly: “I’m halfway through my second paragraph and I haven’t called anyone at AMC a money-whoring, talentless c–t yet. So, that’s progress, right?” he writes.

In the piece, he admits he wants to win an Emmy—and says anyone who claims they don’t is lying. He acknowledges the flaws in the Emmy system: Voters are busy people who can be influenced by expensive campaigns and their industry relationships and “rush to fill in circles for friends and shows they’ve seen once or twice or ‘heard’ were really good.” He uses a high school analogy to explain why he finds himself depressed anyway: If everyone else is invited to the douchebag’s year-end party…

The interesting part, though, is when he says he genuinely believes the show would “drop viewers” if it were ever nominated for a major Emmy (meaning Best Drama or one of the acting awards, one presumes). “My bombastic outlaw-asshole reputation would be tarnished. Or rather, untarnished. I’d be just another smiling douchebag in a new suit, pretending to give a shit on the red carpet. Actually…taking a shit on the red carpet, that’s something that might drop as a ‘real and honest moment.'”

Is he wrong? Certainly a show can have hit numbers with the passion of a cult fan base. But while it’s difficult to imagine longtime fans tuning out of the final season because the show would have officially gone mainstream, maybe it would have hurt the show earlier in its run. The only thing better than an outlaw is an underdog outlaw.