2025 Emmy Awards: Streaming Giants Dominate as Creative Arts Ceremonies Set Stage for Primetime Event

Streaming Services Lead the Pack in 2025 Emmy Race

Apple TV+ has emerged as a dominant force in this year’s Emmy nominations, with their drama series ‘Severance: Season 2’ leading the pack with 27 nominations. The streamer is also making waves in the Comedy category with ‘The Studio’ securing 23 nominations, while HBO’s ‘The Penguin’ heads the Limited Series category with 24 nominations.

Creative Arts Ceremonies Set the Tone

The Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies, which honor the year’s best artistic and technical achievements across scripted, unscripted, and variety programming, are being presented over two nights. A total of 97 awards will be distributed – 51 for scripted series and telefilms on Saturday, and 46 for nonfiction, reality, and variety categories on Sunday.

In a historic achievement, ‘The Studio’ has already broken the record for most Creative Arts Emmys given to a Comedy, securing nine awards including victories in categories such as contemporary costumes, production design, casting, music supervision, picture editing, sound, and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Bryan Cranston.

Notable Achievements and Breakthroughs

This year’s nominations have seen several groundbreaking achievements. Sterling K. Brown has tied Andre Braugher and Don Cheadle for most nominations by a Black male performer with 11 nominations. Additionally, Ayo Edebiri has made history as the first black woman nominated for both acting and directing in the same year for her work on ‘The Bear’. At age 29, Edebiri is also the youngest black woman to receive three acting nominations in her career.

The Main Event

The prestigious awards ceremony is scheduled for September 14, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, with CBS and Paramount+ handling the broadcast. Comedian Nate Bargatze will serve as host for the evening.

Last year’s ceremony was highly praised by critics, with Variety noting its ‘heartfelt tone and attention to detail.’ The Boston Globe’s television critic Matthew Gilbert particularly appreciated the return to a more traditional awards show format, describing it as ‘a relief to get an old-fashioned Emmy Awards show, one not straining to be snarkier than thou or heavily meme-able’.