Jodie Foster on the phone as Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country

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

Jodie Foster looking at a phone with earbuds in in True Detective Night Country Jodie Foster as Liz Danvers looking suspicious in True Detective Night Country Jodie Foster as Chief Liz Danvers and Kali Reis as Trooper Evangeline Navarro in the True Detective: Night Country finale Jodie Foster in True Detective Season 4 sitting in a chair at her desk Inuik Lee Nielsen Shapiro as Holden Danvers and Jodie Foster as Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country.

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.

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

Matthew McConaughey as Rustin Cohle in True Detective

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:

2014 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy

Bryan Cranston (WINNER)
Breaking Bad

Jeff Daniels
The Newsroom

Jon Hamm
Mad Men

Woody Harrelson
True Detective

Matthew McConaughey
True Detective

Kevin Spacey
House of Cards

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.