Severance, The Penguin lead nominations for Emmy Awards

Psychological thriller Severance from Apple TV+ and HBO’s crime drama The Penguin stacked up the most nominations for Emmy Awards, outpacing The Studio and The White Lotus in the contest for television’s highest honours.

Severance received a leading 27 nominations and was nominated for the top prize of best drama alongside Star Wars series Andor, The Pitt, The White Lotus and others.

The Penguin, set in the DC Comics universe and starring Colin Farrell, earned 24 nominations and will compete for best limited series against Netflix hit Adolescence, among others.

Hollywood satire The Studio, an Apple TV+ show featuring Seth Rogen as a nervous film executive, and HBO’s The White Lotus, about murder and misdeeds at a luxury resort, received 23 each.

“What the heck?!! We never thought this would happen,” Rogen said in a statement.

Comedy nominees included defending champion Hacks, previous winner The Bear, Nobody Wants This and Abbott Elementary.

The 23 nominations for The Studio tied the record for a comedy in a single season, set last year by Chicago restaurant tale The Bear.

Winners of the Emmys will be announced at a red-carpet ceremony in Los Angeles on September 14. Comedian Nate Bargatze will host.

The television industry is undergoing a contraction as media companies curtail the sky-high spending they shelled out to compete in the shift to streaming platforms led by Netflix.

Longtime Emmy favourite HBO and the HBO Max streaming service topped all programmers with 142 nominations, a record for the network.

Walt Disney collected 137 nominations, including six for Abbott Elementary, one of the few broadcast shows in the Emmy mix. Andor, on Disney+, received 14.

Netflix garnered 120 nods and Apple scored 81, its highest total since launching its streaming service in 2019.

Severance tells the story of office workers who undergo a procedure to make them forget their home life at work, and vice versa.

Star Adam Scott, a best actor nominee, said the cast was unsure how viewers would respond.

“The fact that it’s resonated at all has been just such an incredible feeling,” Scott said. “We thought it was something that might be too weird.”

Noah Wyle received his first Emmy nomination since 1999 for his role as an emergency room doctor on The Pitt. Wyle was nominated five times for ER but never won.

“I’m humbled and grateful,” Wyle said of the recognition for The Pitt, which received 13 total nominations.

Harrison Ford, 83, earned his first Emmy nod, for playing a grumpy therapist on Shrinking.

Ron Howard, the former Happy Days star turned Oscar-winning director, also landed his first acting nomination, a guest actor nod for playing himself on The Studio. He will compete with fellow director Martin Scorsese, also a guest star on the show.

Other notable acting nominees included Farrell and Cristin Milioti for The Penguin, The Bear actors Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, Hacks stars Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Kathy Bates for Matlock and Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for The Last of Us.

Eight White Lotus actors were recognised.

“This is a bunch of cherries on the icing on the cake that was the gift of playing such a tortured and lonely human,” said Jason Isaacs, who portrayed a suicidal father facing financial ruin on the show.

Beyonce also made the Emmys list. Her half-time performance during a National Football League game on Netflix was nominated for best live variety special.

Missing from the field was Netflix’s popular Korean drama Squid Game, while the final season of previous drama winner The Handmaid’s Tale received just one nod.

Winners will be chosen by the roughly 26,000 performers, directors, producers and other members of the Television Academy.

Full list of 2025 Emmy nominations

DRAMA SERIES

Andor

The Diplomat

The Last of Us

Paradise

The Pitt

Severance

Slow Horses

The White Lotus

COMEDY SERIES

Abbott Elementary

The Bear

Hacks

Nobody Wants This

Only Murders in the Building

Shrinking

The Studio

What We Do in the Shadows

LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES

Adolescence

Black Mirror

Dying for Sex

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

The Penguin

TV MOVIE

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

The Gorge

Mountainhead

Nonnas

Rebel Ridge

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Sterling K. Brown, Paradise

Gary Oldman, Slow Horses

Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us

Adam Scott, Severance

Noah Wyle, The Pitt

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Kathy Bates, Matlock

Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters

Britt Lower, Severance

Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us

Keri Russell, The Diplomat

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Zach Cherry, Severance

Walton Goggins, The White Lotus

Jason Isaacs, The White Lotus

James Marsden, Paradise

Sam Rockwell, The White Lotus

Tramell Tillman, Severance

John Turturro, Severance

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Patricia Arquette, Severance

Carrie Coon, The White Lotus

Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt

Julianne Nicholson, Paradise

Parker Posey, The White Lotus

Natasha Rothwell, The White Lotus

Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This

Seth Rogen, The Studio

Jason Segel, Shrinking

Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building

Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Uzo Aduba, The Residence

Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary

Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

Jean Smart, Hacks

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Ike Barinholtz, The Studio

Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons

Harrison Ford, Shrinking

Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Liza Colon-Zayas, The Bear

Hannah Einbinder, Hacks

Kathryn Hahn, The Studio

Janelle Hames, Abbott Elementary

Catherine O’Hara, The Studio

Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary

Jessica Williams, Shrinking

ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Colin Farrell, The Penguin

Stephen Graham, Adolescence

Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent

Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief

Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer

Meghann Fahy, Sirens

Rashida Jones, Black Mirror

Cristin Milioti, The Penguin

Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Bill Camp, Presumed Innocent

Owen Cooper, Adolescence

Rob Delaney, Dying for Sex

Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocent

Ashley Walters, Adolescence

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Erin Doherty, Adolescence

Ruth Negga, Presumed Innocent

Deirdre O’Connell, The Penguin

Chloe Sevigny, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Jenny Slate, Dying for Sex

Christine Tremarco, Adolescence

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Giancarlo Esposito, The Boys

Scott Glenn, The White Lotus

Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt

Joe Pantoliano, The Last of Us

Forest Whitaker, Andor

Jeffrey Wright, The Last of Us

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Jane Alexander, Severance

Gwendoline Christie, Severance

Kaitlyn Dever, The Last of Us

Cherry Jones, The Handmaid’s Tale

Catherine O’Hara, The Last of Us

Merritt Wever, Severance

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Jon Bernthal, The Bear

Bryan Cranston, The Studio

Dave Franco, The Studio

Ron Howard, The Studio

Anthony Mackie, The Studio

Martin Scorsese, The Studio

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Olivia Colman, The Bear

Jamie Lee Curtis, The Bear

Cynthia Erivo, Poker Face

Robby Hoffman, Hacks

Zoe Kravitz, The Studio

Julianne Nicholson, Hacks

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary

Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, Hacks

Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola, The Rehearsal

Hannah Hos, Paul Thureen, Bridget Everett, Somebody Somewhere

Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez, The Studio

Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis, Paul Simms, What We Do in the Shadows

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Dan Gilroy, Andor

Joe Sachs, The Pitt

R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt

Dan Erickson, Severance

Will Smith, Slow Horses

Mike White, The White Lotus

WRITING FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Jack Thorne, Stephen Graham, Adolescence

Charlie Brooker, Bisha K. Ali, Black Mirror

Kim Rosenstock, Elizabeth Meriwether, Dying for Sex

Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin

Joshua Zetumer, Say Nothing

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

Lucia Aniello, Hacks

James Burrows, Mid-Century Modern

Nathan Fielder, The Rehearsal

Seth Rogen, The Studio

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Janus Metz, Andor

Amanda Marsalis, The Pitt

John Wells, The Pitt

Jessica Lee Gagne, Severance

Ben Stiller, Severance

Adam Randall, Slow Horses

Mike White, The White Lotus

DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

Philip Barantini, Adolescence

Shannon Murphy, Dying for Sex

Helen Shaver, The Penguin

Jennifer Getzinger, The Penguin

Nicole Kassell, Sirens

Lesli Linka Glatter, Zero Day

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM

The Amazing Race

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Survivor

Top Chef

The Traitors

TALK SERIES

The Daily Show

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

SCRIPTED VARIETY SERIES

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Saturday Night Live