Ballots for the 2026 Emmys have officially been released and voting is currently underway in all categories. For Best Drama Series Writing, there are 97 submissions, which means there will be six finalists for the category when nominations are announced July 8.
When it comes to the number of entries per series, almost all of the main contenders were fairly strategic, submitting either one or two episodes for consideration. But the biggest eye-opener was Pluribus, which put seven of nine episodes up for consideration, excluding their sophomore installment and season finale, both of which already shared writers credited for other submissions.
This is a common occurrence for shows helmed by Vince Gilligan, which have a tendency to over-submit and represent as many writers as possible. Similar instances happened with Better Call Saul, which would enter roughly the same amount of episodes every season, risking vote-splitting. In this particular category, though, the Writers’ Branch tends to single out a few favorites, so we expect to see the post-apocalyptic thriller nab at least one of the six slots.
The most obvious choice is the pilot scripted by Gilligan, given the category’s inclination for premieres, but if other episodes were to make the cut, what would they be? Both the penultimate hour, “Charm Offensive” by Jonny Gomez, and the fifth episode, “Got Milk” by Ariel Levine, were cited at the Writers Guild of America Awards, with the former having a better shot, given it is more dialogue-heavy and features memorable story beats. There is also the third episode, “Grenade” by Gordon Smith; he is a previous four-time nominee for Better Call Saul.
How much the science-fiction drama will represent this race will depend on the level of support the other series have, given they all went with fewer entries. Best Drama Series frontrunner The Pitt put forward two back-to-back hours centering around a sexual assault victim, a deaf patient, and an alcoholic patient’s death, with revealing character conflicts. Expect both to make it in, just like last year when the medical drama took a third of this category. The same goes for previous winner Slow Horses, whose season finale contains shocking character reveals.
The rest of the shows are uncharted territory. The only previous nominee is Fallout from two years ago, now with its second season premiere, but it is hard to gauge how much buzz Prime’s video game adaptation has retained from its first season. After that, take your pick, as the rest of these contenders have never been recognized for this race before.
The intense season finale of Task was cited at the WGA Awards, so that is a high possibility. Then there are The Diplomat and Industry with their high-stakes sixth episodes, showcasing character twists and downfalls. If any of them can garner enough passion within this branch, they could perhaps squeeze into those final spots.
Additional series put up their premieres and/or finales/penultimate episodes, including The Gilded Age, Paradise, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Testaments (along with its sixth installment), Dark Winds, Alien: Earth (only its fifth episode), The Boroughs, and The Night Manager.
Here is how we see the 2025 Best Drama Writing category breaking down:
Front-runners
- The Pitt (Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman & R. Scott Gemmill, “1:00 P.M.”)
- Pluribus (Vince Gilligan, “We Is Us”)
- Slow Horses (Will Smith, “Scars”)
- The Pitt (Valerie Chu, “12:00 P.M.”)
- Pluribus (Gordon Smith, “Grenade”)
- Pluribus (Jonny Gomez, “Charm Offensive”)
Potential Spoilers
- Industry (Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, “Dear Henry”)
- Task (Brad Ingelsby, “A Still Small Voice”)
- Pluribus (Alison Tatlock, “Please, Carol”)
- The Diplomat (Peter Ackerman & Debora Cahn, “Amagansett”)
- Pluribus (Ariel Levine, “Got Milk”)
- Fallout (Geneva Robertson-Dworet & Graham Wagner, “The Innovator”)
Longshots
- The Gilded Age (Julian Fellowes & Sonja Warfield, “My Mind Is Made Up”)
- Paradise (Dan Fogelman & Eric Wen, “Graceland”)
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Hiram Martinez & Ti Mikkel & Ira Parker, “In the Name of the Mother”)
- The Testaments (Bruce Miller, “Precious Flowers”)
- Alien: Earth (Noah Hawley, “In Space, No One”)
- Dark Winds (Max Hurwitz & Thomas Brady, “The Glittering World”)
- Pluribus (Vera Blasi, “HDP”)
- The Night Manager (David Farr, “Episode 5”)
- The Boroughs (Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews, “Welcome to The Boroughs”)
