Highlights From The 2025 Emmy Nominations!

Awards Season is steadily creeping upon us, folks, with the nominations for the 77th annual Primetime Emmy Awards being announced bright and early this morning! So let’s get right into it!

The big winner in terms of nominations this year was Apple TV’s “Severance” whose second season dominated all Drama Series categories with 27 total nominations, including for its stars Adam Scott and Britt Lower (it’s his second nomination, her first).

Apple TV had a lot more to celebrate today, as its comedy shows “Shrinking” and “The Studio” made very impressive showings as well. “The Studio” in particular came out swinging, breaking the record for the most nominations for a freshman series with 23 total nominations, including those for its stars Seth Rogen (his first in a Lead category), Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, and Ike Barinholtz. Meanwhile, “Shrinking”, which debuted its sophomore season late last year, also earned nominations for 4 of its stars, including a first-time Emmy nod for Harrison Ford!

And with last year’s winner “Hacks” also in the mix once again, along with fan faves “Abbott Elementary” and “Nobody Wants This”, it’s highly possible the long national nightmare of the not-at-all-funny series “The Bear” winning every Comedy category might finally be over…

As expected, Netflix’s “Adolescence” appears to be this year’s “Baby Reindeer”, poised to sweep the Limited Series categories. It’s also poised to make history – and already has. The show’s breakout star, 15-year-old Owen Cooper, is the youngest ever nominee in his category (Supporting Actor in a Limited/Anthology Series or TV Movie) and, if he wins, it would make him the youngest male winner in ANY Emmy acting category ever!

“Adolescence” does face some mildly stiff competition, though, from fellow Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”, which has been getting plenty of Awards Season buzz as well.

When it comes to the Supporting Actor/Actress in a Drama Series categories, though, it seems to be a race between “The White Lotus” stars against each other! In fact, in the Supporting Actor category, 6 out of the 7 nominees are either from “The White Lotus” or “Severance” (with James Marsden’s performance in “Paradise” breaking things up), while 4 out of the 7 nominees in the Supporting Actress category are from “The White Lotus”. It will be interesting to see which (if any) of the amazing performances put in by Carrie Coon, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood, Natasha Rothwell, or Sam Rockwell will bring it home, or if John Turturro, Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, or Tramell Tillman can pull off an upset. (On a side note, interesting that "The White Lotus" is being considered in the Drama Series category and not in the Anthology Series category... I guess because they all take place in the same universe and have recurring characters? But by that definition, "American Horror Story" could/should qualify for Drama Series too, no? Hmmm...)

Many (including myself) were ecstatic to see the incredible second (and last) season of “Andor” make the cut for Best Drama Series. The show received 14 nominations in all; however, along with Best Comedy Series nominee “What We Do In The Shadows”, we again encounter this weird Emmys phenomenon where a show is nominated for Best Series yet its main cast is completely shut out from the acting categories. Not seeing Diego Luna or Genevieve O’Reilly or Stellan Skarsgard or even Elizabeth Dulau’s names in the acting lists is, honestly, wild. Yes, Forest Whitaker and Alan Tudyk got Guest Actor nods, and the show did get a nod for Best Writing, but to shut out the actors who delivered some of the best performances on TV this year is a huge oversight. (It did get a nomination for Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes though, so that’s something.)

Overall, genre television didn’t do too bad this year. In addition to “Andor”, HBO’s “The Last of Us” earned a not-too-shabby 16 nominations, including Best Drama Series and nods for its two lead actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, as well as for Kaitlyn Dever in the Guess Actress category, while “The Penguin” had the second-most nominations of any show this year with 24 (bringing HBO’s total to a whopping 142 this year). Even Hulu’s post-apocalyptic drama “Paradise” squeaked in there with nods for Best Drama Series and stars Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden, and Julianne Nicholson (who also received a much-deserved Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination for her role as Dance Mom in “Hacks” – the range, people!!!). Still, it was more than a little disappointing/surprising to not see shows like “Interview With The Vampire”, “Agatha All Along”, "House of the Dragon", “Squid Game”, or even “Yellowjackets” included in any of the major categories (or at all, in some cases). Sigh…

Anyways, the full list of nominees is here; tune in to the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 14 on CBS!