Jodie Foster Finally Ends A 10-Year True Detective Disappointment That Matthew McConaughey Began

With Jodie Foster’s 2024 Emmy win for her role in True Detective season 4, she’s broken a 10-year streak of disappointment for the series. Jodie Foster is commonly considered one of the greatest and most accomplished actors of all time, best known for her Oscar-winning role in The Silence of the Lambs. This made it all the more exciting when she joined the True Detective: Night Country cast, continuing the HBO show’s trend of bringing top-quality, prestige talent to lead the anthology series.

In 2024’s revamped True Detective, which saw a return to the series under new showrunner Issa Lopez following a five-year break from season 3, Foster played Liz Danvers. Like most of the hit crime show’s lead detectives, Danvers struggled to keep matters together in her personal life as she found herself diving deeper into a convoluted murder case, leading to the dramatic True Detective: Night Country ending. Jodie Foster won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her portrayal of the character.

Jodie Foster Is The First Actor To Win An Emmy For True Detective

Matthew McConaughey Shockingly Never Won An Emmy For True Detective

Despite Matthew McConaughey’s iconic performance as Rust Cohle in True Detective season 1, he didn’t receive the Emmy in 2014. Neither Colin Farrell nor Mahershala Ali won for their seasons, and none of the supporting cast members ever took home an award, making Jodie Foster the first actor to win for the series. In total, the series had 22 nominations and five wins prior to her victory in 2024. Foster’s season did bring more nominations in other categories as well.

Why It Took 10 Years For True Detective To Finally Win An Acting Emmy (Despite Season 1’s Legacy)

True Detective Season 1 Was Faced Against Some Television Titans In The Emmys

True Detective season 1 alone was enough to cement the HBO series as one of the best TV shows of all time, with McConaughey’s character considered one of the most well-written protagonists in television history. It may come as a shock that neither he nor Woody Harrelson took home an award that year, but it’s due to the fact that they were up against a stacked category. See the list of nominees and the winner below:

It seems more than likely that McConaughey would have collected an Emmy that night had he been nominated in the Miniseries category rather than Drama series. The category wasn’t labeled to include anthology series at the time, but Fargo was still included in it. In the Lead Actor in a Drama Series category, no one was beating Bryan Cranston for the final season of Breaking Bad, so True Detective never had a chance. Following that, the show’s second and third seasons never received enough acclaim for any serious Emmy consideration.

Other Emmys True Detective Was Up For

True Detective Has Been Nominated For 12 Primetime Emmys

True Detective has been nominated for a dozen Primetime Emmys during its four seasons. While Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, Mahershala Ali, and Jodi Foster all received acting nods (with Foster being the only winner), they were not the only ones. While there were no supporting actors who got Emmy nods in the early seasons of the show, both John Hawkes and Kali Reis were nominated in supporting roles in 2024 for season 4.

Where True Detective has seen the bulk of its nominations, however, are in categories behind the scenes. Directing and writing have been standouts on the show. Both Cary Fukunaga and Nic Pizzolatto were nominated for their directing and writing, respectively, though for different episodes, in the first season. Likewise, Issá Lopez was nominated as both a writer and director in season 4.

The series has also been nominated for numerous Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. While the Primetime Emmys focus on the very visible aspects of the show, focusing largely on the actors involved in the projects, the Creative Arts Emmys focus on the people working behind the scenes to make the show happen who are not directors and writers. The camera work and casting is what takes center stage at this ceremony, which is not televised. True Detective has been nominated for 28 Creative Arts Emmys, winning four of them.

This impressive slate of nominations demonstrates how much talent and skill goes into making a season of True Detective from the ground up.