Emmy Nominations 2025: The Biggest Snubs and Surprises

All votes are in, and the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations are here. All honorees were announced on the morning of July 15 by What We Do in the Shadows star Harvey Guillen and Running Point’s Brenda Song. While last year’s nominations landed in the messy, lingering haze of the post-strike landscape, the competition is a bit tighter this year, with returning champions like The White Lotus and Severance going up against strong new contenders like medical drama The Pitt, British miniseries Adolescence, and Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ comedy The Studio.

As always, there were a few notable nominations (and omissions). But first, the expected: the Adam Scott and Britt Lower-starring Severance, which dominated online discourse at the beginning of the year, also commanded the Emmys board, leading the pack with 27 nominations. The creepy workplace drama was followed by limited series The Penguin (Colin Farrell’s hours of prosthetics going to good use), with 24 nominations. The Studio and The White Lotus followed with 23 a piece, and Hacks with 14 (The Studio made history as the most-nominated fresh comedy ever).

While it’s no surprise The White Lotus received a ton of voter love, its ensemble cast was simply too stacked with talent to recognize every single player. Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, Aimee Lou Wood, Natasha Rothwell (justice for Belinda), Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Rockwell all got nods, while Patrick Schwarzenegger, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Tayme Thapthimthong, Sam Nivola, and Blackpink’s Lisa were left out.

Adolescence received 13 nominations, including for 15-year-old breakout Owen Cooper, who became the Emmy’s youngest-ever supporting actor nominee. On the other end of the age spectrum, at 77, Kathy Bates became the oldest woman nominated in the lead actress in a drama category for her titular role on Matlock, and Harrison Ford received his first-ever Emmy nomination at 83, for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his role as Dr. Paul Rhoades on Shrinking.

The Emmys will be broadcast live on CBS on Sunday, September 14, with comedian Nate Bargatze hosting. Below, the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2025 Emmy nominations:

Surprise: Chloë Sevigny Scores Her First Emmy Nod

Though she’s received plenty of recognition throughout her decades-long career (including a Golden Globes win for her work on Big Love), Sevigny has never been nominated for an Emmy, until now. She received a supporting actress nod for her turn as Kitty Menendez in Ryan Murphy’s controversial (but highly watched) limited series Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story.

Snub: Patrick Schwarzenegger for The White Lotus

As mentioned above, despite near-universal love for The White Lotus’s third Thailand-set season, a few key players from the ensemble cast were shut out by Emmy voters this year. That includes Patrick Schwarzenegger, whose turn as finance bro Saxon Ratliff provided the season with one of its most rewarding character arcs.

Snub: The Four Seasons

Tina Fey’s buzzy comedy (co-starring fellow TV legend Steve Carell) fizzled out for Emmys voters. They did give Colman Domingo a supporting actor nod, but he’s always a favorite.

Surprise: Meghann Fahy for Sirens

Fahy is always fabulous, but Sirens didn’t make much noise, making her lead actress in a limited series nod a pleasant surprise.

Snub: Selena Gomez

Gomez finally got an Emmy nod last year for her fourth season of playing the straight man to co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short (she’s also a producer on the comedy mystery series). This year, however, she was ignored by voters (as was Martin—Steve, that is; Short got a nom).

Snub: Natasha Lyonne for Poker Face

More than 30 guest stars featured on season two of Poker Face, Rian Johnson’s quirky crime anthology for Peacock. But all that talent didn’t bolster the Columbo-style series’ lead, Natasha Lyonne (as unwitting detective Charlie Cale) to Emmy nomination status.

Surprise: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for The Last of Us Season 2

Both actors are fan and voter favorites, but the second season of the zombie apocalypse show was far less well-received than its first, putting the nominations (that they ultimately received) on shaky ground.

Snub: The Pitt Cast

Yes, Noah Wyle received an Emmy nod (his first since starring on ER 26 years ago) for his role as Dr. Robby on The Pitt. But like The White Lotus, the surprise hit medical drama’s ensemble cast couldn’t all make the cut. Supporting actors Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, and Tracy Ifeachor were all locked out this year.

Surprise: Uzo Aduba for The Residence

Netflix may have canceled the White House-set mystery series after one season, but the Television Academy was a fan of Aduba’s delightfully kooky performance as Detective Cordelia Cupp.

Surprise: Kristen Bell for Nobody Wants This

Given the show’s runaway popularity, it’s not a surprise that Bell was nominated for her leading role in Nobody Wants This. It is a surprise that it’s her first Emmy nomination at all, given how many years she’s been on our TV screens.

Snub: The Rehearsal

Nathan Fielder may have had airline travelers and CNN viewers enthralled with his absurdist takedown of the state of modern aviation, but Emmy voters weren’t buying it.

Snub: Bridget Everett for Somebody Somewhere

This was Everett’s last chance to get an Emmy nod for her cult creation, Somebody Somewhere. The academy finally recognized her co-star Jeff Hiller in the Supporting Actor category (something of a surprise in and of itself), but snubbed Everett once again.

Snub: Meg Stalter for Hacks

While Hacks, as always, was an Emmys darling this year, Meg Stalter didn’t cinch her first Emmy nom for her scene-stealing role as an insufferable nepo baby assistant. (Maybe she will next year, for her starring turn in Lena Dunham’s Too Much, which just missed the 2025 voting window.)

Surprise: Jake Gyllenhaal for Presumed Innocent

Legal thriller Presumed Innocent kind of came and went, but voters remembered Gyllenhaal’s leading performance in the limited series enough to give him a nod for his intense role as a prosecutor accused of killing a colleague.

Snub: Agatha All Along

The highly anticipated Wandavision spinoff was entirely snubbed in the acting categories; luckily, head witch in charge Kathryn Hahn snagged a nomination elsewhere, for her work on The Studio.