Emmy nominations morning dawned with The Pitt leading the Drama Series pack, and Widow’s Bay hoping to make good on its late-phase surge among Comedy Series newcomers. We can officially say: Mission accomplished. But this year’s crops of nominees had some other interesting stories to tell beyond those two narratives. Here are five of the themes, trends, and takeaways that Gold Derby spotted after combing through the nominations.
On repeat
We’re long past the era where the summer television lineup was one repeat after another, but TV Academy voters can still be counted on to keep that tradition alive. As expected, the top vote-getters across the three major categories are all previous champs. Season 2 of The Pitt conquered the Drama Series race with 25 nominations; the fifth and final season of Hacks laughed its way to the top of the Comedy Series categories with 24 nods; and a second helping of Beef is on the menu in Limited Series with a field-leading 16 mentions.
This isn’t unique to the present, of course; back in the days when network television ruled the roost, Emmy spotters were accustomed to seeing the shows and names come up on ballots over and over and over again. But the boom times of the Peak TV era broadened viewers’ palettes and made omissions of shows that built passionate audiences outside of the traditional Emmy umbrella that much more apparent. While it’s not like The Pitt or Beef are later-stage grandfathered-in series like NYPD Blue or Sex and the City — and viewers and critics still consider Hacks to be top of its game five seasons in — these results are a clear reminder that familiarity is still your biggest asset when you’re going for an Emmy berth.
That even extends to shows that didn’t dominate their categories; despite an underwhelming reception, the second season of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This made the Best Comedy Series cut over close challengers The Comeback and Rooster, even though it only managed one other nomination for Best Music Supervision. Season 4 of The Bear similarly overcame mixed reviews to repeat in several key categories, though notably not in Best Comedy Actor for Jeremy Allen White. (As we previously noted, the strong reaction to Season 5 may have provided a last-minute assist.) Going back for seconds, thirds, and fourths is just the way the Emmy cookie crumbles.
The First-Timers Club
At least one platform knows how to navigate a freshman series into contention alongside much-lauded upperclassman. With Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Pluribus, and Widow’s Bay, Apple TV claims bragging rights for having the highest number of newcomers competing for the “Best in Show” prizes. Margo and Bay are the only two Season 1 shows in Best Comedy Series contention, and the freshman year of Pluribus is jousting with the first installment of HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in Best Drama Series. Apple even scored a surprise nomination for the second season of Your Friends and Neighbors in the latter category, bringing its overall first-timer count to four nods.
Not for nothing, but Widow’s Bay and Pluribus are also the most-nominated new comedy and drama series, with 19 nods and 18 nods, respectively. The second-place freshman comedy is Prime Video’s Spider-Noir with 11 nominations (although that’s entirely due to its spider-strength in below the line categories), while Knight takes the No. 2 spot among dramas with nine. And while Apple missed out on a Best Limited Series berth, HBO didn’t make up any ground there thanks to Half Man‘s failure to chart. Still, the network can trumpet having the most-nominated freshman Limited Series with DTF St. Louis, which seduced voters to the tune of 13 nods.
Special freshman class honors also have to go to Peacock, which scored seven nominations for its Sarah Snook-led thriller All Her Fault, including Best Limited Series — the first time the struggling streamer has seen one of its series qualify for one of the top three categories. With Amy Poehler’s return to series comedy already on deck for the fall, maybe Peacock will add another big feather to its Emmy plume next year.
Paramount piqued
While the Emmy sun was shining bright in the favored land of 30 Rock, there was no joy in Paramount-ville, because mighty Taylor Sheridan had struck out. The embattled streamer came up almost completely empty, managing a lone stunt coordination nod for Tulsa King, the Sheridan-created Sylvester Stallone mob dramedy. But the rest of the absurdly prolific writer-director-producer’s Sheridanverse was soundly ignored, despite a vaunted attempt to expand its Emmy profile with A-list hires like Michelle Pfeiffer in The Madison and white-glove FYC events for hits like Landman that drew eager crowds.
Granted, Sheridan himself didn’t exactly help his cause by boldly declaring things like, “I’m not trying to win Emmys” in interviews. And Paramount+ is also caught in the midst of a thorny corporate situation as its parent company, Paramount Skydance, seeks to acquire Warner Bros. in a highly unpopular deal that certainly had to be lurking in the back of voters’ minds as they filled out their ballot. Still, the across-the-board rejection has to be bracing, and is sure to set in motion a ground-up rethink of how Paramount approaches Emmy season campaigning next year… if at all.
It also speaks to the urgent need for the streamer to start planning for life after Sheridan, who will starting creating shows for NBCUniversal’s TV arm starting in 2029. The acquisition of HBO would be one surefire way to Emmy glory given that the network earned 122 nominations this morning. But new Paramount exec Cindy Holland has made other moves as well, bringing the Duffer brothers and their Emmy history into the fold along with Anne Hathaway in her first-ever streaming series. In other words, there’s a chance that the streamer’s first Emmy nominee will wear Prada.
Singular sensations
Faced with an infinity of acting contenders, Emmy voters still carved out space for a few familiar faces to carry the flags for their shows. Wonder Man‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Bait‘s Riz Ahmed, Rooster‘s Steve Carell, The Morning Show‘s Billy Crudup, The Four Seasons’ Colman Domingo, The Testaments’ Chase Infiniti, and Half Man‘s Richard Gadd have the unique distinction of being the only nominations logged for those respective series.
Drilling down a little further, Infiniti is the only first-time nominee of the group, while Carell is the only nominee not to have won previously. Ahmed won Best Movie/Limited Actor for The Night Of in 2017; Abdul-Mateen picked up a Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actor statuette for Watchmen in 2020; Domingo scored Best Drama Guest Actor for Euphoria in 2022; Crudup took home Best Drama Supporting Actor for The Morning Show in 2024; and Gadd won Best Movie/Limited Actor for Half Man that same year.
Gold Derby can testify to how Infiniti’s tireless campaigning on behalf of One Battle After Another during the 2026 Oscar cycle helped stoke excitement for The Testaments, which launched on Hulu one month after Paul Thomas Anderson’s film took home Best Picture and five other statuettes. The young star was swarmed by well-wishers during a brief appearance at the Disney upfront afterparty in New York in May. And weeks later, she accepted the Gotham TV Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama to big cheers in the room, setting the stage for her Emmy nod.
Meanwhile, Rooster‘s sole nod for Carell is probably the biggest surprise of this one-and-done group. After all, the collegiate comedy was a ratings hit for HBO and hails from super-producer Bill Lawrence — whose Apple TV series Shrinking scored nine nominations for its third season — which hinted that it could crow in other categories. But even at the Rooster series premiere party, revelers expressed some reservations about its awards prospects, noting that the series was seemed a little off-brand for HBO and its roster of spikier comedies. Maybe the show’s already-ordered sophomore year will make the grade with voters.
YouTube after dark
One quick parting thought: Emmy voters were able to stave off having to — gasp! — welcome a YouTube chat show to the Best Variety Series party thanks to CBS’s decision to give Stephen Colbert a farewell season before scrapping the Late Show franchise from its lineup. But with Colbert gone, there’s an opening for established viral hits like Hot Ones or the just-launched Outside Tonight With Julian Shapiro-Barnum to codify the sea change that’s already happening across the chat show landscape.
Of course, there are still a few network and cable stragglers, including NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers and CNN’s Have I Got News for You, that voters could nominate in lieu of opening a new YouTube tab. Still, given that 2026 is poised to be the year where digital natives like Obsessions‘s Curry Barker and Backrooms‘ Kane Parsons are going to make their presence felt at the Oscars — and with that ceremony migrating to YouTube in 2029 — TV is inevitably going to make the same pivot.
And it’s not like the Emmys aren’t toe-dipping in those digital waters anyway; the YouTube-based Subway Takes and The Randy Rainbow Show are among the shows nominated in the short form comedy/drama/variety series category. And guess what what other bite-sized seres is in that mix as well: Colbert Before Air, the Late Show‘s behind the scenes YouTube series. That means Colbert could win Emmys for being a TV and YouTube star in September.
To paraphrase a certain sage, the channels they are a-changin’.
