The 2025 Emmy Nomination Awards: Winners, Snubs, and Thirstiest Campaigns

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2:39Pretty much in line with expectations, the top shows in order of nomination totals were Severance, The Penguin, The Studio, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, Andor, Hacks, Adolescence, The Bear, and The Pit. HBO Max and Apple TV weigh up in nominations. Amazon and FX weigh down this year. Netflix doing pretty well with 121 total nominations, second only to HBO Max. The prognosticators pretty much predicted the major categories correctly, but there were some surprises and some big snubs, some industry narratives that work here, as there always are with these award shows. So today we're going to give out some very specific and very special awards for the Emmy nominations.

3:22Rebecca Ford is here. She covers the awards races for Vanity Fair. I used to work with her at Hollywood Porter. She's got her picks. I've got mine. So today it's the Emmy nomination awards. From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Felony, and this is The Town.

3:40All right, we are here with Rebecca Ford, who is the senior correspondent at Vandy Fair and co-host of the Little Gold Men podcast. Welcome, Rebecca. Thanks, Matt. Good to be with you. Another part of your CV is you had the misfortune of having the desk outside of my office at the Hollywood Reporter for many, many years. I can only imagine the screaming and crying and other obscenities you had to endure. So I'm sorry about that. No, I learned a lot. All right. So you agreed to come on and talk about the Emmy nominations and participate in the first annual Emmy nominations awards. We will be giving awards based on the Emmy nominations that were handed out yesterday morning.

4:28Do you understand the gimmick here? I do. I do. I know a lot about awards, so I get awards. You've been covering awards a long time, and you deal with all the BS and contender, ego, publicist nonsense that I thankfully do not have to deal with anymore. So you're doing the Lord's work. We're going to start with the easiest one, biggest winner. This can be an individual or entity. Should I go first or do you want to go first. You go first. I'm going to select our guy, Casey Boyes at HBO. Most nominations ever. He's the head of HBO content. 142 nominations, leading all the platforms, topping Netflix, which got 121.

5:11And, you know, everyone freaked out last year when HBO had a down year and he took the lumps. So we got to give him the props. HBO had a great year, especially when you consider they are putting out a fraction of the content that Netflix is putting out. And they're still whomping them in the awards. Yeah, I had also picked HBO. I think they really had a great year. I mean, The Last of Us, The White Lotus, Hax, The Penguin, The Pit. It's just they had something for every category and they really, really delivered. It's kind of nuts that The Pit, which was supposed to be the populist show, the, you know, broadcast style show.

5:55It's basically an ER spinoff. It was actually supposed to be an ER reboot. And that ends up getting 13 nominations, you know, not the same as White Lotus, but still amazing. Yeah. And I feel like when I was searching around, I feel like people are most mad that like every actor in the pit didn't get nominated. So people love that show. Yeah, it did really well. I'd also say a close runner up would be Zach Van Amburg and Jamie Ehrlich at Apple, Apple TV Plus record, 81 noms. They got top nominations in all three major categories. Actually, the most series, I believe, in the top three categories.

6:32Pretty impressive, especially considering the service didn't exist six years ago. Okay, so let's go to Biggest Loser. This could be individual or entity. Okay, I'll go first. You go first on this one. I definitely think for me it's Squid Game. Oh, really? That show, the first season, got 14 nominations, six wins. The actor Lee Jong-jai won in like a historic win for lead actor. And they got zero for their second season. Yeah, that is bizarre. I mean, below the line, that doesn't make any sense. I know, that is bizarre. It was really shocking. Second season not received as favorably as the first.

7:10Still huge on Netflix. And a lot of times these nominations go to the shows that people actually watch. And yeah, so that is surprising. I mean, they went all out with that first season to get, you know, they knew what they had at that time. They brought everybody here. Did they bring the whole cast here again? They did. I just felt like nothing hit in the way it did. Even with, like, memes or the social commentary, it just didn't hit like it did with the first season. So they didn't have the heat behind it. They have another season. There's a chance it could be back. But to get zero is really pretty bad.

7:41My biggest loser is Amazon. I mean, what is going on there? Prime Video. they only had 12 nominations total and none in the major categories. Like, it is embarrassing considering the amount of content they put out and considering what a player Amazon has been in the past at the Emmys. I mean, this is embarrassing. You didn't think that one nomination for a 12 was enough? No, a 12. At least you can pronounce it the French ballerina show that was canceled during their campaign. like says a lot about what you think about your show and you cancel it during the Emmy campaign yeah I agree they really had a rough go of it and I don't know what they need to do to change it they need to make better shows I mean I know that their demo likes the white guy with the gun shows and like that is where they're going and kind of stuff they're doing and they got some nominations for the boys which is a good show but if they're going to play in this or just say screw it we don't care we're CBS and we're not even going to pretend to play.

8:46But even CBS has like the Kathy Bates nom. They have, you know, their reality shows get nominated. They've got Colbert, like Amazon just kind of floundering. So, all right, we're going to leave it there. Let's go to our sneaky winner. The one that maybe is not obvious to the average person. I went with Nathan Fielder. He got two nominations. Oh, really? Even though he didn't get comedy series for the rehearsal? That's okay. He's been totally snubbed by the TV Academy up until this point. And so, you know, the rehearsal didn't get anything, the curse. So for the rehearsal season two, which is, in my opinion, much better to get two nominations.

9:25Including writing. Writing and directing. Which writing and directing, I do think, is often the place where, like, legit shows get those nominations. And I think for him to get those two really speaks to a new kind of support he didn't have before. It shows that he has the cred amongst writers because writers vote for writers and they love him. Yeah. I'll accept that one. My sneaky winner is James Babydoll Dixon. Okay. The agent for Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Jimmy Kimmel. All three of the nominated variety talk shows all have the same agent. So shout out for James Babydoll Dixon. Very specific.

10:07but he's kind of a winner every year. These guys do well every year. They do, but because the category was only three nominees this year, he got them all. You know, there's no Seth Meyers. There's no Hot Ones. There's none of these others that have been in there before. Well, Hot Ones hasn't, but none of these others got in there and his three guys did. So shout out for Babydoll. Let's go for the Sneaky Loser. Who's your Sneaky Loser? My Sneaky Loser is an Oscar nominee named Renee Zellweger. Oh, sad. She did campaign. Yeah, she campaigned a lot. She had the Bridget Jones movie, which is so bizarre because that movie was released theatrically everywhere other than America.

10:50And yet they put it up for Emmys, which you know what you're allowed to do. And she did not get the nom. The movie that is on television got a TV movie nomination, but she did not, which she did. She did a lot for it. She really was going for that nom. And I really thought she had it. So that's kind of an embarrassing loss for a movie that should not have been in this race in the first place. Yeah, my sneaky loser is Taylor Sheridan. I know this is like my hobby horse. I've been saying for years that his show should get more Emmy attention. But zero in the major categories, like with the level of star power that he's working with.

11:30Harrison Ford gets a nomination for shrinking, but not for 1923, where he's like kicking ass. I don't get it. Landman was in the top 10 of Nielsen shows for the year and got good reviews. Billy Bob is amazing. And he didn't get a nom. The voters are not going to let that be an Emmy show. Why? Because Allie Larder like embarrasses herself on the show. I get that it's got a different tone than you would normally see. But Billy Bob got nominations for that Amazon detective show he did. With those shows, it's just not about who's on them. They're not going to be let in. The door is closed. Helen Mirren.

12:07Like, she's got an Oscar. Well, I'm sure she gets a very great payday. They do. They're not getting an Emmy nomination. I just, I don't understand it. If Cate Blanchett can slum it in TV and get a nomination, then so should Helen Mirren. Yeah, but in an Alfonso Cuaron show, it's just, it's different. Okay. All right. Well, that's my sneaky loser. Let's move on to the thirstiest award. the show or person that tried the hardest to get a nomination and it just didn't work out. I'm going to pick Seth Meyers. That dude was everywhere. He showed up at the motion picture television home. He literally went to the old folks home where the old voters live and entertained them as part of his campaign and did not get in for the late night category.

12:58It's a bummer for him. it's also such a small category i know but he thought he had a chance and you know for him like i really hope that this doesn't impact his show because those 12 30 shows are hanging by a thread to begin with and emmy nominations can be a lifeline i really hope that seth meyers is safe but it's tough when you're not an award show and you're not getting the audience it's it's tough So maybe he needs to stick around as long enough so he can take over SNL, in my opinion. But bummer for Seth Meyers. He really tried and didn't happen. Fallon didn't even try this year. Bill Maher doesn't even try anymore.

13:39Right. But Seth Meyers did. Sorry, Seth Meyers did not work. I picked Running Point, the Netflix comedy show. You thought that was a contender? I did not, but Netflix sure did. Kate Hudson hosted an LA Lakers game, invited tons of awards press and really pushed for it. It's a good show. I think it could have been with the right campaign, but they really tried to run a campaign for it. But it was always like 50th on Gold Derby. It was never actually close. Yeah. Sometimes Netflix will do that where they just decide they're doing a campaign for talent reasons and nobody else has decided their show is a contender.

14:15Right. But good for them. They're going to spend the money. Yeah. she did a lot of press for it and didn't go anywhere. All right. This next one, I did not have a selection for this next one, but I think you probably do most embarrassing nomination for the Academy. The like, what this person got nominated. Mine is based on a principle that I've long held, but I'm, I'm picking Will and Harper, the documentary. Oh, but that's, I know what you're going to do. Go ahead. I'm going to do it. It got five nominations for Emmys, including for Christian Wig for her original song. And this is after they ran a very intense Oscar campaign and didn't make the shortlist.

14:54So the new rule is if you run an Oscar campaign, but you don't get nominated, you are allowed to now run an Emmy campaign. So to me, the double dip just remains extremely embarrassing. Yeah, that's the Made in America OJ rule where it won the documentary Oscar and Emmy. And after that, they said, no more of that. But if you campaign and you don't get it, you can then do it. I mean, I guess it's embarrassing for Netflix that they are essentially choosing some of their movies to run in the Emmy race and some of them to run in the Oscar race. Like Rebel Ridge got a nomination for Emmys. If that movie was good, why didn't they save it and run it in the Oscars?

15:36It wasn't good enough. Not good enough, I guess. The Gorge, the Apple movie, got a nomination for TV movie. if that was actually good maybe run it in the Oscars I think it's just because they know it has no shot at the Oscars so they go for it for the Emmys yeah that movie Nona's yeah Nona's which is like weirdly popular Vince Vaughn that got a nomination as well

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17:05Yeah, you heard that right. Late night half price appetizers are here at Applebee's. Saucy, sweet, and spicy boneless wings. Crispy, cheesy mozzarella sticks. Creamy spinach and artichoke dip. Your favorite app's half price available every single night because why should appetizers have curfews? Tap the banner to learn more. Dining only for a limited time at participating locations. Restrictions apply. Copyright. 2026 Applebee's Restaurant, LLC. All right. All right, let's move to the Enough Already Award, the show or person that keeps getting nominated but is well past nomination worthy. You go first.

17:44I picked Jeremy Ellen White, who I think is - Oh, how dare you? He's a very talented actor. I watched the recent season. He's doing some great dramatic work out there, but I just think the continued nominations in the comedy category - Oh, just because he's not funny. I mean, but that's not his fault. It's not his fault. He's a very good actor. But I think when you look at the rest of the category, it is the nomination that feels most stale to me in that group. So you're saying that Jason Segel is a laugh riot on shrinking. I guess that is technically a comedy. It is. And he has like funny, awkward moments like Jared May Allen White does not deliver a single comedic.

18:23No, the bear is anti funny. It like sucks the humor out of the room. Yeah, it's a little bit of a cheat. I'll give you that one. my Enough Already Award is The Amazing Race. Like, please, God. Like, we get it. It's an impressive production. It's hard to shoot around the world. But the show is the same as it's ever been for 20 years. Like, there are so many other shows on. Give someone else a chance. Like, it's just stale. Yeah, it is. I mean, that's the stalest category. At least they have the traders shaking enough now. But that category has problems. And I agree. Amazing Race is an old, old show.

19:04I know. It's just, and I used to watch it. Like, it's very well done, but it really feels like nobody watches any of these shows and they just keep voting for it just to vote for it. Well, Survivor got booted off, but now is back this year. So sometimes they get a little hand slap and then have to return. So we'll see. Good for Probst. Friend of the town, Jeff Probst. The showrunner that can brag the most. I picked Charlie Brooker for Black Mirror. Oh, okay. Explain. Maybe I underestimated that show this year. I didn't think it was going to perform as well as it has with previous seasons. You know, the first season was like so huge, but it got 10 nominations.

19:41It's actually the most it's ever gotten in a single year. And including like for Rashida Jones, who I think no one really saw coming in that lead actress race. So I wonder if it's just because we're all living in a world that's terrified of AI and this all feels a little closer to home. But it did really, really well. And I really didn't think it was going to this year. Okay, that's not a bad one. I'm going to go with Lorne Michaels. Okay. 31 nominations for the SNL franchise. Now, obviously, got a big boost this year because the SNL 50 show and all the Peacock documentaries also got nominated.

20:17And there was some weakness. Some of the hosts that typically will get nominated in the guest category did not get nominated this year. But he got the supporting actor nomination for Bowen Yang. For some reason, and he gets the nomination on that cast. Not sure why about that. But 31 noms for SNL. Big flex for Lauren. 50th anniversary. Yeah, that's a good one. You think he'll win? You think he'll beat John Oliver? I do think he'll win. You think SNL is going to beat John Oliver? That's bold because this would be 10 in a row for John Oliver. Yeah, I don't know. I just feel like this whole SNL 50 thing just felt really big this year.

20:53But I could be wrong. It depends. It depends if Lauren comes on the town during phase two. That would put them over the top. That would put them over. I'm just saying, Lauren, you know my number. All right. Most surprising nomination. You want to go first? I'm going to say Sharon Horgan in Bad Sisters for drama actress. I'll be honest with you. Like, didn't realize that that was even a contender. Like, that that was considered a good show. I know people like it on Apple TV Plus. But Sharon Horgan, like, do you watch that show? I do. And she got nominated for the first season, but it's always sort of a underdog.

21:31Like it was surprising. She basically kicked out Elizabeth Moss, who would have been nominated for her last season. So of The Handmaid's Tale. So it was a surprise. But I think if you notice that she'd been nominated before the show got nominated for writing in the first season, there is a lot of love for it. OK. All right. Then that's maybe not as big a surprise. But I wasn't that surprised that Handmaid's Tale didn't get much. I mean, I feel like it's not the whole zeitgeisty thing that propelled it at the beginning. Yes, I know we're still in that dystopia, but it's less fresh. There's lots of other shows that are capitalizing on that now.

22:04So it doesn't surprise me. Although the ratings for Handmaid's Tale have still remained huge. Like it is the biggest show on Hulu, basically. Yeah, I don't know. I thought for the final season, it'd give it a bigger send off than it did. With the Emmys. Yes, yes. So I picked Megan Fahey, who got nominated for Sirens, a show that I did not think was an Emmy contender at all. It's a Netflix series. It's like a fun watch, but to me, it was not a Netflix show. And it actually got three other nominations. So I think with her, she's, you know, the like it girl. She was on White Lotus. Like people love her.

22:40So I think it was more of a sport for her. But again, I got a couple below the line nominations as well. Speaking of fights behind the scenes, they had a whole fight with the creator and Netflix behind the scenes on that one. Oh, interesting. They wanted changes and the tone was wrong. And it does have a very particular tone to it. And, you know, big stars. So I'm not surprised. Maybe I'm more surprised that Julianne Moore didn't get nominated. Right. I just think it's because Fahey's so loved. Who's the biggest snub? The biggest snub of everyone? For acting? Yeah. Mine is Jon Hamm. on the show that nobody watched?

23:16I watched it. Okay. The show is fine. It's like, got its fans. It's got its detractors. But the show got a couple nominations, not for series. And he should have been nominated. He's also great on Landman. Yeah, I don't think that show had much of a chance, though. It just never got the momentum that it needed. Who's your biggest snub? Diego Luna. I loved in Andor. Yeah, he was great. Oh, my biggest snub is Keira Knightley. I love Black Doves. I thought she was incredible. Oh, I don't even know what that is. Oh, my goodness. Well, there was like five spy shows that came out at the same time. Yeah, like three of them had Amanda Seyfried in them, right?

23:57There were like three Amanda Seyfried shows where there was a murder and there's a mystery. There were too many at once, I think. Eddie Redmayne also got quite lost in that. Oh, I loved that show, Day of the Jackal. What happened there? Peacock, man. It's just hard. Yeah, Peacock. I mean, none of those shows did well, but Akira Knight is really good in Black Devs. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch. It's a Netflix show. It's a quick watch. Okay. Let's go to your category. I will not be selecting someone. Rebecca's This Person Will Be a Star Breakout Nomination Award. Oh, yes. Thank you for putting my name in one of these awards.

24:32It's very exciting for me. You can't pick the kid from adolescence. No, I'm going less obvious once I explain myself. So I'm picking Ayo Edabiri. Everybody knows her. Nope, let me finish. She hosted SNL. Not for acting, though. She got a nomination for directing the show. Oh, okay. The Bear. Which episode did she direct? Napkins. But the more interesting thing is she co-wrote an episode in the fourth season that I just watched, which is called Worms. And it's the best episode of a very mediocre season. That's the one where she goes around with the 12-year-old kid. Yeah. And it's really good. And so I think she is the breakout to become like a writer director.