For the second year in a row, Number of programs competing For Primetime, Emmy Awards has dropped, according to votes published on the TV Academy’s website on Thursday, the first day of the Emmy nomination vote.
Unlike last year, when the effects of pandemic and the strikes of the actors and authors caused the number of submissions to Case with almost 40%The 2025 drop was relatively small – but also a little surprising, which indicates that the industry has not yet recovered from the hits it has taken over the past five years.
In the 16 program categories where a comparison from year to year was possible had nine fewer items this year than last, two had the same number of items and five had more submissions this time.
The most dramatic downturn came in the category Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, which fell to only 33 entitled programs from 2024’s 49 and 2023’s 61. The only other program category suffering from a two-digit drop was outstanding documentary or nonfiction series, which fell to 3.
Categories that had single-digit drops were comedy series; TV movie; talk show; host for non -fiction; structured and unstructured reality; and short form comedy, drama or variety. The categories of live variation and competition competition had the same number of items as last year.
Categories that had more submissions this year than last were led by outstanding drama series, which jumped from 107 items in 2024 to 126 2025 (it is still good during the 171 dramas that were eligible two years ago). Profits also came in the pre-recorded variety special, Documentary Special, Game Show and short-shaped nonfiction categories.
In total, however, fewer programs were left than 2024, which in itself had reduced a steep decline from the previous year.
In most Emmy categories, the rules determine the number of nominees with the number of items in that category: 20 to 80 items requires five nominees, 81 to 160 means six, 161 to 240 means seven and more than 241 means eight. But they also guarantee that outstanding drama series and outstanding comedy series will have eight nominated each. It wrinkles in the rulebook is happy for drama and comedies this year, because if they were the subject of the scale used in other categories, drama would only have six nominated and comedy only five.
In the actress categories, however, the Emmy scale will mean that exclusively bands, leading acting categories in comedy, drama and limited series will all have only five nominees, something that has not happened since 2007 in drama and has only happened twice over the past 16 years in comedy.
The supportive actress categories will go up to seven for comedy and drama and to sex for limited series, while the guest declaration categories all will have six nominees (again, barriers bands that can add extra nominees).
Overall, the drama categories had another 90 submissions this year than they did in 2024, while the comedy cities had a more modest win of 14 submissions. However, actors in the limited series categories fell significantly.
Here is the number of submissions in the program and categories of execution:
Comedy Series: 69 (-4)
Drama series: 126 (+19)
Restricted or Anthology Series: 44 (-16)
TV movie: 39 (-3)
Talk Series: 13 (-1)
Script sort of series: 6 (The figure was not released last year)
Variety Special (Live): 26 (unchanged from last year)
Variation special (pre -recorded): 89 (+10)
Short-shaped comedy, drama or Variety Series: 14 (-4)
Short-shaped nonfiction or reality series: 28 (unchanged)
Documentary or Nonfiction Special: 49 (+4)
Documentary or Nonfiction series: 34 (-14)
Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special: 26 (-5)
Structured Reality Program: 23 (-5)
Unstructured Reality Program: 36 (-2)
Reality Competition Program: 50 (unchanged)
Spelshow: 25 (+3)
Lead actor in a comedy series: 51 (-4)
Lead actress in a comedy series: 47 (-6)
Supporting actors in a comedy series: 183 (+16)
Supporting actress in a comedy series: 141 (+9)
Guest actor in a comedy series: 97 (+4)
Guest actress in a comedy series: 74 (-5)
Lead actor in a drama series: 77 (-4)
Lead actress in a drama series: 75 (+8)
Supporting actors in a drama series: 233 (+16)
Supporting actress in a drama series: 225 (+31)
Guest actor in a drama series: 87 (+34)
Guest actress in a drama series: 67 (+8)
Lead actors in a limited or anthology series or film: 48 (-22)
Lead actress in a limited or anthology series or film: 53 (-9)
Supporting actors in a limited or anthology series or film: 124 (-37)
Supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or film: 105 (-32)
Performs in a short form comedy or drama series: 27 (+14)
Character Voice-Over Performance: 142 (-16)
Narrator: 22 (-1)
Worthy of a reality or reality competition program: 48 (-36)
Host for a game show: 20 (the figure was not released last year)
The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards are set on September 14 at CBS and Paramount+.
