Last year, we conducted our first-ever analysis of the Primetime Emmy Awards to find out how total viewership and actual voting results would end up comparing for the most-watched nominated titles and actors. Driven by our curiosity for data, we shared the insights as a fun spin on the results, and the response was so positive, we decided to give it another go!
While viewing time is not ultimately a consideration for who will get the statue, we wanted to see who this year’s winners would be if the deciding factor was by how U.S. TV audiences voted with their time (and we’ve expanded the number of categories we’re covering this time around).
The ceremony is set to air on Sunday, September 14th at 8pm on CBS and Paramount+.
The winners by viewership
Outstanding Drama Series
Like many series, production on the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus was delayed due to the Writer’s Guild of America strike in 2023. So when it launched in February of this year, it had been more than two years since the last chapter. Released episodically, it built momentum over the course of the season and enjoyed seven consecutive weeks of viewership increases. Additionally, viewing patterns showed that a subset of viewers were going back to watch prior seasons. All told, The White Lotus totaled over 210 million viewing hours within the Emmy eligibility window, giving it our Best Drama title this year.
Though Apple TV+’s Severance didn’t finish in the top spot, the fact that it finished in second place at 157.5 million hours, among a very competitive set of programs, is worth highlighting. Apple TV+’s penetration among the U.S. TV audience is lower than its competitors, which makes the feat all the more impressive.
Outstanding Comedy Series
Hulu’s The Bear, last year’s Comedy winner in our Emmy analysis, was once again in the running this time around. However, it was ABC’s Abbott Elementary that finished in the top spot with 184.1 million hours. Heading into its fifth season, the series has performed consistently well for ABC, and also benefits from significant catch-up viewing on Hulu. This was an example of a key trend of success we are seeing emerge across the media landscape—multiplatform engagement—which gives the viewers the option of where they want to consume content.
With Abbott Elementary, Only Murders in the Building, and The Bear occupying the top three spots in this category, Disney was once again a force to be reckoned with.
Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
True crime is a very popular genre among TV viewers (and podcast listeners), and we often see documentaries of that ilk break into the weekly top 10. While we can’t call Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story true crime in the strictest sense, the highly dramatized telling of a very real murder case seemed to offer something for a broad range of viewers. With just over 149 million hours of watch time, it is our winner in the Best Limited or Anthology Series this year.
Coming in second, and the only other title to break the 100 million hour mark, was HBO’s The Penguin, set in Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe. Its status as an acquired series (since it aired on HBO before becoming available on HBO Max) meant it hovered just outside our Top 10 for the majority of its run, but quietly accrued a substantial amount of watch time during and after.
Outstanding Television Movie
This is a new category for us this year, but fitting since we track movies in our streaming top 10 every week, and the nominees are all streaming exclusives. Netflix’s action thriller Rebel Ridge led the pack by a significant margin with 90.5 million viewing hours. The feature occupied the number one movie position in our top 10 for three consecutive weeks last September.
Again, an honorable mention is in order for Apple TV+’s The Gorge here, which also enjoyed three consecutive weeks on the movie chart and finished third among nominees despite the aforementioned disparity in distribution.
Outstanding Reality Competition Series
While this is a new category for us to cover, the nominees remained largely unchanged from 2024, with RuPaul’s Drag Race, Amazing Race, The Traitors, and Top Chef all returning. The one difference was CBS’s Survivor being nominated this year in place of NBC’s The Voice last year. Survivor, a pioneer in what became a very popular primetime genre, recently completed its 48th season, and is the longest running of any of the nominees. That was certainly a contributing factor to its victory in our viewer tally, as fans can enjoy recently telecast episodes on Paramount+ and prior seasons on Paramount+, Hulu, and The Roku Channel, among other places. Survivor notched the most viewing hours by a substantial margin.
Given Love Island USA’s popularity this summer, it will be interesting to see if the dating competition gets an Emmy nod next year.
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
This is the second year in a row that Gary Oldman was nominated for the role of Jackson Lamb in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, and after a second place finish in 2024, Sir Gary reached the top spot in our viewing total this year. With a long and storied career, it’s not uncommon to find a movie starring Mr. Oldman on television. But, outside of Slow Horses itself, it was his turns in the Harry Potter and the Christoper Nolan Batman film franchises that helped propel him to victory.
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Like the Lead Actor in a Drama Category, our winner in the Lead Actress category is another television and film veteran with a long history of industry accolades. Kathy Bates takes the crown by a wide margin here, largely fueled by CBS’s Matlock—another multiplatform success—for which she is nominated. And although many films contributed to Ms. Bates’ overall total, two in particular stand out, the first being Netflix original A Family Affair, which was released during the summer of 2024. The other goes back nearly 30 years, and is a staple of both linear TV and streaming: romantic drama Titanic.
Looking across the acting categories, it’s a very close contest between Kathy Bates and Gary Oldman as the most-viewed actor overall, with Oldman just a hair ahead.
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmy in Hulu’s The Bear, won both our viewing title and the actual Emmy for Lead Comedy Actor last year, and has managed to repeat the feat this year, at least for the viewing portion. However, where he was ahead in watch time by a wide margin in 2024, it was a much tighter race this time around. Jason Segel from Apple TV+’s Shrinking came in a very close second.
Outside of The Bear, Jeremy Allen White was again helped by his role in the Showtime dramedy Shameless, while Jason Segel had the benefit of How I Met Your Mother, both long-running shows that viewers enjoy rewatching.
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Rounding out our awards this year is the Lead Actress in a Comedy category, which features three returning competitors in Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri, and Jean Smart. However, it was Kristen Bell—nominated for Netflix’s Nobody Wants This—that took the crown this time around. Much like the Lead Actor category, this was a tight competition, with Uzo Aduba of Netflix’s The Residence following very closely behind Bell.
NBC’s The Good Place, which isalso available on Netflix, was the biggest contributor to Kristen Bell’s total outside of Nobody Wants This. For Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black played a role.
Conclusion
The nominees for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards demonstrate the power of both new and long-running programming to attract viewers’ time and attention. By understanding how audiences are voting with their time, brands and platforms can ensure they’re reaching audiences where they are and create meaningful partnerships with the talent they are investing their time in.
Measurement Methodology
For nominated programs and movies:
Total viewing hours across broadcast, cable, and streaming were tallied for the Emmy eligibility period of June 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025.
For nominated actors:
Total viewing hours across broadcast, cable, and streaming were tallied for any title featuring the nominee during the eligibility period, with some guidelines:
- They must be a named character
- Must be in the top-billed cast
- Voice work, cameos, shorts, and brief recurring roles are excluded
- All information above sourced from Gracenote