Emmys Analysis: Streamers Inject Fresh Blood Into Nominations With ‘The Studio’, ‘Severance’, ‘The Pitt’ & Other Breakthroughs

After last year’s Primetime Emmy broadcast that sported fresh blood in terms of marquee category winners with Hacks for Comedy Series, Shōgun for Drama Series and Baby Reindeer for Limited Series/Anthology, even down to the usually tired and predictable Reality Series lineup with newcomer The Traitors, this morning’s announcement of nominees for the 77th annual Primetime Emmys gives us hope for a repeat of no repeats in the major categories. That is something increasingly rare but perhaps is a new trend where voters actually aren’t doing the same old/same old that Emmys past, fairly or unfairly, were accused of.

With Severance dominating the Drama Series field with an impressive 27 nominations (wow) in its second season, doubling the haul of its first which debuted way back in 2022 (and only two crafts wins then), it looks like a front-runner for a triumph come September. Should it falter, a first-season entry with 13 nominations, The Pitt, seems the most likely to benefit and perhaps pull off a win for its debut as a powerhouse on HBO/Max. It even might get a win for star Noah Wyle, who, after losing regularly decades ago for ER, has returned to an emergency room with a real chance to finally join the winners circle.

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And in Comedy Series, the seesaw battle of the past couple of years between FX’s The Bear and HBO/Max’s Hacks now looks to bow to the sensational showing of Apple TV+’s industry favorite The Studio, with a remarkable 23 nominations (tying The Bear’s first-season haul). Proving, as Hacks did, that voters can’t resist shows about themselves, nearly half its nominations belong to the cast, with star/creator Seth Rogen nabbing three nominations including Lead Actor, co-stars Ike Barinholtz, Catherine O’Hara nd Kathryn Hahn in Supporting categories and a whopping six nominations for Guest Stars. Five of those are playing themselves, including four out of six for Guest Actor (Dave Franco, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie and Martin Scorsese) and one for Guest Actress (Zoë Kravitz) in addition to Bryan Cranston definitely not playing himself. Is this a record for acting nominations for people playing themselves? It has to be.

Incidentally, for Howard, who started acting at age 5 in the late 1950s and has co-starred in several series as well, his bonkers turn as director Ron Howard represents his first Emmy nomination ever for acting, even though he has won a few as a producer in the past. Joining him in the newbie acting Emmy stats is a long-overdue Harrison Ford, up for his first-ever Emmy for his moving role in season 2 of Shrinking, a show that is another breakthrough with its first Comedy Series nomination among its seven mentions.

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Apple TV+ is responsible for Shrinking, as well as both Severance and The Studio, and looks to have a very good night when the Primetime Emmys are handed out on September 14. Netflix, which was the runner-up to HBO/Max’s personal-record 142 nominations with 121 of its own, also looks to continue its impressive streak in the Limited Series/Anthology category, having won it in three of the past four years including the past two with Beef and Baby Reindeer. This year it not only has the unquestioned and global sensation front-runner in Adolescence with 13 nominations but also Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. with 11 nominations and anthology Black Mirror with 10, making for 34 noms overall in a strong category against HBO/Max’s leading The Penguin with 24 and Hulu’s Dying for Sex with nine. It is the one category where surprisingly Apple didn’t come to play despite two contenders from early in the season, Presumed Innocent and especially Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer; neither the cut, though some of their stars did. This particular category just begs to be expanded to eight nominees, just as the TV Academy did with Drama and Comedy series.

CBS will be televising the Emmys this year with their turn at the wheel of the four rotating broadcast networks, and it got the opportunity to make an early jump on things by announcing the nominees in two categories on CBS Mornings that generally still friendly to broadcast TV: Talk Series and Reality Competition Series. Coincidentally, the network had three of the combined eight nominees in those categories — Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Survivor and The Amazing Race — making it appear that CBS was the early nominations leader (!). It would be a short-lived lead because when the rest of the nominations were announced nearly four hours later, momentum predictably changed. And no matter how you look at things, it is the streamers that control this competition and make the Emmy-friendly contenders that continue to draw the big names and become the center of conversation. It actually is why there were no jaw-dropping shockers this morning. I mean, didn’t we know that two-thirds of The White Lotus cast would be nominated? When the Actors branch likes a show, they really like it.

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Of the shows that campaigned heavily, the biggest loser was the final season for The Handmaid’s Tale which only landed a single Guest Actress nomination for Cherry Jones, who either wins or gets nominated no matter what show she is in. Consider that Handmaid’s Tale won big in its very first season and is going out very quietly in its sixth, which might indicate that voters indeed are looking for fresh blood — or this particular series’ vision of a dystopian future has just gotten too close for comfort to our current reality.

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Television Academy chair Cris Abrego said a record was set in terms of voters turnout of the 26,000-plus members, and that indicates an excitement for this season and the freshness of the nominees including so many potential first-time winners ranging in age from 15-year-old Adolescence star Owen Cooper to 83-year-old Ford, who could become the youngest and oldest ever-winners in their respective categories on their first try. I guess that means it is never too early or too late, Emmy-wise.

On to Phase 2 as the campaign for Emmy gold heats up.

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