Although popular with audiences, Landman hasn’t exactly struck oil at the Emmys. But things might change this year, based on one highly predictive harbinger.
In its first season, Taylor Sheridan‘s primetime soap didn’t receive a single nomination from the Television Academy, despite scoring a Golden Globe bid for Billy Bob Thornton‘s performance as Texas oilman Tommy Norris. However, Season 2 landed a Best Drama Ensemble bid from the Screen Actors Guild’s Actor Awards, which has been a positive omen when it comes to the best series categories at the Emmys.
Over the past three decades, a nomination from the Actor Awards has become a key signal to Emmy voters of a show’s worthiness. And for good reason: actors comprise a large percentage of the Television Academy.
For example, the first season of Shrinking only netted nominations for Jason Segel and Jessica Williams. But last year, in its second season, the Apple TV series received an Actor nomination for Best Comedy Ensemble; months later, the Emmys showered Shrinking with seven nominations, including Best Comedy Series. Similarly, on the drama side, The Diplomat went from a lone bid for Keri Russell in Season 1 to a Best Drama Series nom for Season 2, following recognition from the acting guild.
In 2024, a pair of drama contenders finally made their way into the Emmys’ series race after getting a boost from the guild: The Gilded Age and The Morning Show. While The Gilded Age was overlooked at the Emmys for its first season (receiving just a sole nomination for production design, which it won), The Morning Show got snubbed for the Best Comedy Series for its first two, despite competing for the Best Comedy Ensemble for its debut season at the Actor Awards (although supporting actor Billy Crudup did win an Emmy).
While The Kominsky Method won Best Comedy Series at the Golden Globes for its first season, it didn’t compete for that prize at the Emmys until its second, bolstered by back-to-back Actor ensemble nominations in 2018 and 2020. Likewise, another Netflix original, Ozark, missed the Emmy’s drama series lineup for Season 1 in 2017, but found itself in the lineup the following year after a SAG bump.
Season 1 of HBO’s vampire soap True Blood couldn’t get Emmy voters to bite; then it scored a SAG ensemble nomination in 2010, and a Best Drama Series nod followed. A year earlier, Weeds broke through in Best Comedy Series for its fourth season months after scoring a SAG ensemble nod. Weeds, in fact, got its first SAG nomination for its second season, proving that sometimes it really does pay off the play the long game.
In 2007, a saw a pair of third-season shows cracked the series races at the Emmys following Actor Award bids: Entourage in in comedy and Boston Legal in drama. (The latter show, curiously, had competed in the comedy categories at the guild the year prior).
Although it has been on Emmy life support of late, Grey’s Anatomy cracked the drama series lineup for Season 2 back in 2006, following a SAG ensemble nom that encompassed both Grey’s debut season and the first-half of its second due to the differing eligibility windows (the Actor Awards cover the previous calendar year, while Emmys reflect the traditional TV season, June 1-May 31). Another popular procedural, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, followed a similar path in its second season in 2002.
For its first two seasons, the Emmys didn’t have much affection for Everybody Loves Raymond. But guild voters had a soft spot for Ray, and a Best Comedy Ensemble nomination preceded the sitcom’s breakthrough Best Comedy Series bid in 1999 for Season 3. Another multicam classic, 3rd Rock From the Sun, broke through in Best Comedy Series for its second season in 1997, after a push from the guild.
While there is a long history of shows getting a SAG boost at the Emmys, an ensemble nomination isn’t always a magic wand. Sheridan’s hugely popular Yellowstone picked up a Best Drama Ensemble nomination in 2021 for Season 4, but failed to help its Emmy prospects (the show received just one Emmy bid for cinematography throughout its entire run).
Shows like Day of the Jackal, The Closer (a four-time ensemble contender), Without a Trace, The Great (nominated twice for ensemble), Key & Peele, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Hot in Cleveland, My Name Is Earl, Sports Night, Remember WENN, and Cybill all similarly failed to crack the Emmys’ comedy and drama series lineups despite their popularity at SAG.
Emmy Awards Nominations 2026
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
35.
36.
Your Friends and Neighbors
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
Talamasca: The Secret Order
42.
43.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
44.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
45.
46.
47.
The Last Thing He Told Me
48.
49.
Will Landman be able to tap that SAG-to-Emmy pipeline? One thing working in Landman‘s favor is a drama series race that’s missing half of last years contenders: Andor ended after its two-season run, while The Last of Us, Severance, and The White Lotus are all currently in production and won’t be eligible.
According to Gold Derby’s odds, newcomers Pluribus, Task, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are battling against returning contenders The Gilded Age, Euphoria, and Stranger Things for those unclaimed slots alongside last year’s nominees The Diplomat, Slow Horses, Paradise, and reigning champ The Pitt. Landman lags behind at No. 15 — below the likes of Industry, The Morning Show, The Testaments, and The Boys — on the lower fringes of contention.
Yet Tommy Norris and his clan have an advantage over their competitors: actors really like them. And if history has taught us anything, that love might be good enough to get over the hump.
