HBO Max stomped the yard on Emmy nominations morning with a record haul of 142, led by drama series “The Penguin,” “The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us” and comedy “Hacks.”
That marks a new high-water mark for the HBO universe. Its previous high was 140 nominations grabbed in 2020. The all-time Emmy record haul remains the 160 nominations hoovered up by Netflix, also in 2020. This year, Netflix commanded 120, ranking second among platforms and up from last year’s 107 noms.
HBO limited series “The Penguin” punched above its weight with 24 nominations. That was second only to the top of the pack, Apple TV+ drama “Severance,” which grabbed 27 bids. Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which has been an Emmy magnet since its debut, commanded 23 noms. The sophomore outing of “The Last of Us” took in 16 mentions.
“Hacks,” which is the reigning champ among comedy series, is back in the race with 14 bids, making it the second most-nommed comedy behind Apple TV+’s “The Studio,” which earned 23 noms.
In 2024, HBO Max saw an ebb of its nominations traction with 91 bids in the strike-disrupted year.
Apple TV+ had a banner year, reaching 79 nominatons after barely six years in business. Apple’s windfall was fueled by drama “Severance” leading the series field by a significant margin with 27 mentions. Comedy “Shrinking” delivered 7 noms. As a corporate entity, Apple commanded two more noms for Apple-produced commercials — one for AirPods, the other for an Apple privacy pitch. Both of those blurbs were crafted by ad agency TBWAMedia Arts Lab and production banner Smuggler.
Walt Disney Co. platforms collected a total of 137 noms. Disney+ collected another 40 mentions, paced by Season 2 of Star Wars drama “Andor” with 14 noms. FX’s year-to-year tally took an inevitable hit after the triump of “Shogun” last year, which lapped the series field with 25 nominations, taking FX to its network-best showing of 93 noms. This year, the number fell to 35, with comedy “The Bear” on top at 13. Limited series “Dying for Sex” had a strong showing with 8.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
Hulu original series came in with 22, topped by 7 noms for returning comedy “Only Murders in the Building.”
NBCUniversal as a studio and network group scooped up 72 nominations. NBC alone grabbed 29, thanks to “Saturday Night Live” and “SNL50” specials which combined for 31 noms. Streamer Peacock earned 19 mentions, a big hike from last year’s tally of 9. NBCUniversal’s Universal Studio production group accounted for 56 noms across programs for internal and external platforms.
Warner Bros. Television Group did the math on its total tally for shows from the studio, which stands at 60 this year. The studio had at least one contender in the top three series categories: Drama (HBO Max’s “The Pitt”), comedy: (ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” Apple TV+’s “Shrinking”) and limited/anthology (“The Penguin”).
Indie outfit Fifth Season had a strong showing of more than two dozen mentions thanks to the heft of “Severance,” which it produces with Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films and Westward. Fifth Season’s Netflix telefilm “Nonnas” grabbed a nom in the TV movie category.
More to come
From Variety US