This Year's Emmy Nominations Prove Streaming Has Officially Taken Over TV Awards Season

In 2020, the Walt Disney Company had its linear network ABC to thank for 36 Emmy nominations, the biggest single contributor to the company’s overall tally. A year later, though, it’s a whole new world. Disney+, which collected 19 nominations in 2020—a solid showing for its first year of Emmy eligibility—nearly quadrupled its nomination count to 71 this morning. That's more nominations than all of Disney’s linear properties combined, and nearly half of the 146 total tally from across the company. Sister streamer Hulu, meanwhile, received 25 nominations, the second-highest contributor to Disney’s company-wide nomination tally. Changing priorities The shift to streaming at Disney is indicative of the changing priorities and investments across the industry, which increasingly has put its most exciting and award-worthy new shows on subscription services instead of on linear networks. While streaming services have been taking up more and more space in the nominations list every year, the utter domination of streaming ahead of the 73rd Emmy Awards is a sure sign that viewers can almost exclusively count on finding the buzziest and most breakthrough performances on subscription streaming services, not on linear television HBO/HBO Max Leads the Emmy Pack With 130 Nominations, Edging Out Netflix No matter how you look at the nomination breakdowns released Tuesday, the story is clear: If it wasn’t already a sure thing that streaming is the future of television, the 2021 Emmy nominations have officially cemented it. Streaming services accounted for four of the five top nominated outlets, with HBO Max (paired with HBO) and Netflix overwhelmingly dominating in terms of total nominations. Disney+, less than two years old, beat out every broadcast and cable network in terms of nominations and came in third overall. Apple TV+, which isn’t even a breakout streamer (parent company Apple has mostly given it away for free since its launch), received more nominations (34) than all the broadcast networks aside from NBC. The shuttered streaming service Quibi, whose programs are now streaming on connected TV platform Roku, got eight nominations, one more than broadcaster Fox (which airs the Emmys once every four years and used to rack up several nominations each year for shows like 24, The X-Files and Ally McBeal). AMC, once an Emmy juggernaut thanks to Mad Men and Breaking Bad, didn’t land a single nomination this year, while its streaming service AMC+ collected just one. If it wasn’t already a sure thing that streaming is the future of television, the 2021 Emmy nominations have officially cemented it. On the platform side, HBO and HBO Max officially won the morning, collecting 130 total nominations and narrowly edging out Netflix. Overall, WarnerMedia took home 138 nods, highlighting just how central HBO Max is to the company’s overall awards prospects—although HBO titles like Mare of Easttown and Lovecraft Country led the pack in terms of total nominations per show. In all, HBO was responsible for 94 nominations, while HBO Max originals brought in an additional 36—but freshmen HBO Max series Hacks and The Flight Attendant both attracted more than a handful of nominations, an indication that the streamer's original programming strategy is beginning to pay off. At Netflix, originals The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit and Bridgerton (Netflix's biggest original series ever) represented in some of the bigger categories to add to the service’s 129 total nominations, but the company came up slightly short from the 160 total nominations it received a year ago. A well-timed content acquisition also paid off Tuesday morning: Cobra Kai, a Karate Kid spinoff series that YouTube cast off after two seasons as an original and which Netflix scooped up, received its first major Emmy nomination for outstanding comedy series after being nominated for its stunt work in 2018 and 2019 when it was still on YouTube. Disney+’s 71 nominations put the streamer in third place among all outlets (although parent company Disney did get more total nominations than any other company), with Marvel original series WandaVision and Star Wars original phenomenon The Mandalorian doing most of the heavy lifting. After a slow start, Apple TV+ continued to find traction this year, with its feel-good original Ted Lasso bringing in 20 of the platform’s 34 total nominations. Apple TV+ Sets July Premiere of Ted Lasso’s Second Season Some streaming stumbles However, it wasn’t an entirely rosy picture for streamers: Amazon Prime Video only brought in 18 nominations this year compared to the 31 it collected a year ago. But companies will point to Covid-19-related shutdowns to blame for a less-than-stellar showing. Disney-owned cabler FX, which normally takes home a hefty chunk of nominations, only received 16 nods this year without new seasons of previously nominated shows like American Crime Story, Atlanta or Better Things airing in this year's eligibility window. (FX content is available to stream on Hulu, but those nomination counts are broken out separately.) Tuesday’s nominations also revealed which platforms have yet to take off. NBC Universal, which took the wraps off streamer Peacock a year ago, saw its linear channel NBC bring in the bulk of its nominations—46, in all—while the fledgling streaming service only collected two nods. At ViacomCBS, linear channel CBS received 26 nominations, more than any of its other properties; Paramount+, which only debuted in March, collected six nominations, while free streamer Pluto TV got one. (Showtime brought home six nominations, the same as it did a year ago.) Discovery+, which debuted in January, collected one nomination total, adding to Discovery’s total of five nominations. Awards nominations aren’t an indicator of business success, of course, but they can still be a useful metric. Nominations and wins collect company prestige and industry attention, helping companies attract top talent, and on the business and marketing side, they can influence the cultural conversation and aid in marketing titles that help generate subscriptions and reduce churn. Besides that, there’s a competitive aspect as well: media companies are always looking for ways to show how they’re better than their entertainment rivals. And for that reason, Disney, WarnerMedia and Netflix have plenty of celebrate today.