The 5 Biggest Takeaways from the 2025 Emmy Nominations

It’s that time of the year again, folks: Emmy nominations day. Which means that it's once again time to find out if the Emmys voters will validate your TV tastes, or make you feel like everyone else spent the year watching TV shows you’ve never even heard of before. Speaking of: did you know that Nathan Lane starred in a Hulu comedy called Mid-century Modern? Because I didn’t until today! (Don’t come for me in the comments, Lane-heads!)

So, what did the Emmys get right this year? For starters, Severance leads the race with 27 nominations. It’s the same total nominations as the fourth season of Succession, but just shy of the record (32) set by Game of Thrones’ final season. Next up is The Penguin with 24 nominations, followed by The Studio (23), The White Lotus (23), and The Last of Us (16). I celebrated many of these series and more in my round-up of who should receive nominations earlier this week.

For the most part, the Emmys did okay. There are a couple of snubs that I’m completely fine with—though I’ll keep those to myself—but also a few omssions that actually made me say “REALLY?!” as I watched the livestream announcement. I’ll give each Emmy sin its own space below, as well as one Emmy winner who I hope to see holding a trophy at the awards show on September 14.

This is the largest gripe I have with the Emmys this year. Andor garnered 14 nominations for the Star Wars prequel’s critically acclaimed second season, including Outstanding Drama Series, Directing, and Writing. This isn’t your typical awards show relegating the Star Wars series to your special effects and make-up departments rodeo. With nominations in all the major categories, it seems that Emmy voters actually enjoyed Andor as much as the rest of us. They just… didn’t like the acting? Leading star Diego Luna and supporting actress Genevieve O’Reilly were both left out of their respective categories. You nominated Andor, but you didn’t nominate Andor himself?

Sadly, years of blogs and bickering critics have yet to sort out that The Bear is a drama, and The White Lotus is a comedy—not the other way around. Still, here we are with the two shows flipped. Maybe we’ve just collectively forgotten what makes a show funny in 2025. According to this year’s Emmy nominations, What We Do in the Shadows’ final season was worthy of a nod for Outstanding Comedy Series, but none of show’s actors were recognized. The same goes for Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, which received nominations for Directing and Writing, but not Series or Acting. So, you can have amazing directing and writing, and still not produce a good series? Were the Emmy voters really turned off by Nathan Fielder that much?

Seth Rogen’s The Studio was nominated for 23 Emmys this year. The comedy series, about a fictional movie studio struggling through today’s complicated entertainment landscape, featured countless celebrities playing fictional versions of themselves. Dave Franco tripped on mushrooms in the two-part finale. Ron Howard tried to sell the studio a movie with a long runtime. Martin Scorsese cried as his script was purchased just for the studio to throw it away. Five of The Studio's cameos were nominated for Guest Acting awards, including Scorsese, Franco, Howard, Zoë Kravitz, and Anthony Mackie. They should just retitle this award "Person We Like the Most."

Another year, another snub to Taylor Sheridan’s TV empire over at Paramount+. Landman, the most-watched original series ever on the streaming platform, received zero nominations. Sheridan didn’t receive any writing or directing nominations for any of his other shows either, including Yellowstone’s final season, 1923, Lioness, and Tulsa King. None of the actors were nominated. Paramount+ only walked away with eight nominations in total—mostly in production design and stunts. What, is cowboying a crime?

Emmys voters, please don’t let us down. If either Tramell Tillman (Severance) or Zach Cherry (Severance) win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, they would become the first Black actor to win the award. It’s "the only acting category at the Emmys yet to have a Black person win," Variety reports. Not only is the honor long overdue, but I find it quite symbolic that Mr. Milchick and Dylan G. are competing against each other to reach that milestone. It's Innies vs. Outies in the real world.