Apple TV+’s Severance led the Emmy Nominations announced Tuesday with 27 nominations, followed by 24 for HBO’s The Penguin and and 23 each for Apple TV+”s The Studio and The White Lotus.
Severance and The White Lotus were among the nominees for Outstanding Drama Series, along with Disney+’s Andor, Netflix’s The Diplomat, HBO’s The Last of Us, Hulu’s Paradise, HBO’s The Pitt, and Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. Shogun won last year, and did not have a season in contention this year.
The Studio was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series along with ABC’s Abbott Elementary, FX on Hulu’s The Bear and What We Do in the Shadows, HBO’s Hacks, Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and Apple TV+’s Shrinking. Hacks won last year.
The Penguin was nominated for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series along with Netflix’s Adolescence, Black Mirror and Monsters: The Lyle and ErikMenendez Story, as well as FX’s Dying for Sex.
HBO Max scored the most total nominations — 142, which was also a record for the platform.
You can find the full list of Emmy nominations here.
Severance Emmy Nominations Validate Apple’s Big Bet
The awards provide validation for Severance, which was the subject of many pieces when it returned for its second season about a ballooning budget, which Bloomberg reported to be $200 million. (Other validation came from a report that the show’s first season alone generated $200 million for Apple.)
Also Read: Ben Stiller Addresses Severance Season 2 ‘Patches Where There Were Difficulties’
The show, led by Adam Scott, created by Dan Erickson and executive produced by Ben Stiller, follows office workers for the mysterious Lumen, which imposes a strict work/life balance: “Innies,” as people are known at work, are wiped of their memories each day of their lives as “outies,” which is what they’re called outside of work. Outies, meanwhile, are wiped of their memories as “innies.”
The Emmy nominations also represent an incredible rise for Erickson, who just a few years ago was delivering food orders for Postmates as he waited to see if his award-winning Severance script would become a show. (He recounted the story for us on the MovieMaker podcast.)
The show was nominated for 14 Emmys three years ago at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, and took home Emmys for main title design and musical score. Delayed by the acting and writing strikes, it took three years to return for its acclaimed second season, after a production process in which Stiller acknowledged there were “patches” of difficulties.
He told The New York Times in January, “it’s not always perfect. We went through patches where there were difficulties, but also, I think it all came out of everybody wanting something to be as good as it could be. And I really believe that all those different points of view ended up making the show what it is. So, yeah, there was some stuff that happened, but it wasn’t a big deal.”
Scott was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, alongside Sterling K. Brown for Paradise, Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, Pedro Pascal for The Last of Us, and Noah Wyle for The Pitt.
The nominations for Best Actress in a Drama Series are Kathy Bates for Matlock, Sharon Horgan for Bad Sisters, Britt Lower for Severance, Bella Ramsey for The Last of Us, and Keri Russell for The Diplomat.
The nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy Series are Uzo Aduba in The Residence, Kristen Bell in Nobody Wants This, Quinta Brunson, who also created Abbott Elementary, Ayo Edebiri for The Bear, and Jean Smart for Hacks.
The nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series are Seth Rogen, one of the creators of The Studio; Adam Brody for Nobody Wants This, Jason Segel for Shrinking, Martin Short for The Only Murders in the Building, and Jeremy Allen White for The Bear.
Brenda Song and Harvey Guillén announced the nominations Tuesday morning from the Wolf Theatre at the Academy’s Saban Media Center, joined by Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego.
The Emmys will air Sunday, September 14 at 8 ET/5 PT on CBS.
Main image: Brenda Song and Harvey Guillén on the Television Academy live feed of the Emmy Nominations.