Emmys: Can “The Pitt” be stopped in the Drama races?

by Cláudio Alves

THE PITT is the year’s most nominated program, with 25 nods under its belt.

If there’s still some suspense in the Comedy Emmy races, with Hacks and Widow’s Bay battling out for supremacy, nothing seems able to stop a The Pitt sweep in Drama. Perhaps Pluribus could do it, having scored nominations in the double digits, yet its strongest bet seems to be Best Actress, and that’s about it. Not that the chance to finally see Rhea Seehorn with an Emmy after years upon years of stellar work in Better Call Saul isn’t a treat on its own. Still, sweeps are boring, and here, at The Film Experience, we yearn for variety and surprises. Can the TV Academy deliver on that front?

Eric Blume, Nathaniel R, and I don’t have much faith in them…

As NOBODY LIKES THIS in Comedy, YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS scored a lone Best Drama Series nomination.

Best Drama Series

THE DIPLOMAT (Netflix)
THE GILDED AGE (HBO)
A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS (HBO)
PARADISE (Hulu)
THE PITT (HBO Max)
PLURIBUS (Apple TV)
SLOW HORSES (Apple TV)
YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS (Apple TV) 

ERIC:  I don’t think anyone would argue that this is the strongest slate of eight shows we’ve had, which perhaps is irrelevant as this award is one of the most done-deal guarantees of the night.  The Pitt will win in a walk, and rightfully so.  It’s such a beautifully done, filled-with-humanity-without-being-gooey show, and nothing on this list can touch it.  The show is riveting, complex, technically ambitious, medically accurate, and gorgeously acted and staged.  It’s the medical procedural show for people who hate medical procedurals, and it’s an industry darling.  Lots of Emmys for it this year, partly because it has so few serious rivals.

CLÁUDIO: I like The Pitt a lot, but its second season felt more uneven than the first. Haven’t yet seen the Game of Thrones spin-off or Your Friends & Neighbors, so can’t comment on those. What remains is a bit dispiriting, with one exception - I love Pluribus (or what would happen if The End of Evangelion was extended to a series by itself, with the depressed twink replaced by an angry lesbian novelist). Slow Horses is a great show, too, but they shouldn’t win for this particular season, which felt ropier than their previous offerings. Alas, I admit you’re right in your prediction, and The Pitt will take it.

NATHANIEL: I am so bored by this lineup. Rooting for Pluribus or The Pitt… but for once I would like to feel that voters actually sample 50% of the ballot and shows don’t get an instant leg up on ballots just by airing on Apple TV or HBO. Seriously now. There are so many streaming services.

With 14 nominations and 3 wins, all in different categories, Sterling K. brown can be said to be a TV Academy favorite.

Best Actor, Drama 

Sterling K. Brown, PARADISE
Gary Oldman, SLOW HORSES
Mark Ruffalo, TASK
Rufus Sewell, THE DIPLOMAT
Noah Wyle, THE PITT 

ERIC:  Similarly, this race is not the strongest list this category has seen in recent years.  And similarly, this is a guaranteed win for Wyle, who had even more to play this season than the first.  It’ll be a well-deserved second victory for this show’s beating-heart center.  Also, I can’t pass on this category without mentioning that it’s an all-time Emmy Rules Crime that Heated Rivalry was not eligible… Connor Storrie came out of nowhere and delivered one of the most passionate, sexy, captivating, complicated, nuanced, and technically accomplished pieces of acting for this or any year.  If he were in the running, Wyle would have a real threat. 

CLÁUDIO: This is Wyle’s to lose, and I’m fine with it. He delivered a pretty consistent anchor to the season’s most widely-beloved drama, give or take the Canadian hockey boys - Williams, too. Still, Ruffalo is showy enough in Task to pose a threat, and Brown is such an Emmy darling he could spoil, despite Paradise boring me to tears. Three cheers for Oldman, who keeps getting nominated for excellent work that often has him take a backseat to the Slow Horses ensemble - fart jokes aside - which feels like a most uncommon dynamic for a perpetual Best Actor nominee around these parts. 

NATHANIEL: Normally, as a non-fan of repeats, I would be rooting against Wyle, but this is the most I’ve hurt for a TV character since Paul Mescal on Normal People, so, in other words, this performance really hits me in a deep way.

Zendaya is the only Emmy winner of these five, but she’s unlikely to repeat for EUPHORIA’s controversial third and final season.

Best Actress, Drama

Carrie Coon, THE GILDED AGE
Chase Infiniti, THE TESTAMENTS
Keri Russell, THE DIPLOMAT
Rhea Seehorn, PLURIBUS
Zendaya, EUPHORIA 

ERIC:  Another of the weaker categories.  There’s an outside chance Russell may surprise-win, as she did at the SAG Awards…she’s a well-loved TV vet who has never won her Emmy.  But I think it’ll swing to Seehorn for her superb work on the Vince Gilligan show.

CLÁUDIO: If Russell wins, I’m pretending it’s for The Americans. Sorry, but The Diplomat feels derivative of a slew of much better shows and even its leading lady sometimes appears to be going through the motions, playing her greatest hits rather than coming up with a characterization that can stand on its own. Though surely, none of that matters and this is Seehorn’s coronation after all those years making headlines for her snubs on another Gilligan show? Could Infiniti benefit from OBAA fever not yet having left Hollywood as of voting? Maybe, but feels unlikely.

NATHANIEL: As a non-fan of the Breaking Bad universe, I will be cheering on Seehorn’s win solely based on the nominated performance.  That said, this category would be A LOT better if Michelle Pfeiffer were here for The Madison. I am just so, so happy that she rediscovered her joy for acting in TWO series after that last abysmal TV Christmas movie.

Can Tom Pelphrey win over three actors from THE PITT?

Best Supporting Actor, Drama 

Patrick Ball, THE PITT
Billy Crudup, THE MORNING SHOW
Shawn Hatosy, THE PITT
Gerran Howell, THE PITT
Jack Lowden, SLOW HORSES
Tom Pelphrey, TASK
Carlos-Manuel Vesga, PLURIBUS 

NATHANIEL: I’m all in for Pelphrey here, whose pain runs deep, and I always give bonus points to actors when they make me feel the psychic thread/connection to other characters that they’ve had long histories with before the show we’re watching began, and his scenes with his niece and best friend are just… chef’s kiss. (I think Howell is amazing on The Pitt, but he had richer material in the first season) 

ERIC:  I gave up on The Morning Show several years ago, so not sure how Crudup is doing these days (he richly deserved that first Emmy).  Lowden is so wonderful on his show, but this season he had very little to do.  Seems like the race is between Ball and Pelphrey.  It probably depends on how much the voters want to throw The Pitt’s way.  Both actors do terrific work on their shows, and either is a worthy winner.  I’m thinking maybe they go for Pelphrey to keep things non-sweepy.

CLÁUDIO: A lot of this feels like echoes from last season. For instance, Lowden would have been a great winner in 2025 when he wasn't even nominated, while Howell, like Nat pointed out, found himself bereft of good material in The Pitt’s second season. I’m taking a leap of faith and saying Hatosy and Ball will split their show’s many fans and Pelphrey sneaks in for a “surprise" win, that's not much of a surprise considering we're all predicting it. Yet, my heart belongs to Vesga and his pitch-perfect, ever-aggravating and aggravated duet with Seehorn late in Pluribus’ first season.

Karolina Wydra faces the TV season’s most challenging role in PLURIBUS.

Best Supporting Actress, Drama

Taylor Dearden, THE PITT
Fiona Dourif, THE PITT
Allison Janney, THE PITT
Katherine LaNasa, THE PITT
Sepideh Moafi, THE PITT
Julianne Nicholson, PARADISE
Karolina Wydra, PLURIBUS 

ERIC:  This is a great line-up (hooray for surprise Fiona Dourif!), and it seems like LaNasa will be a repeat winner.  I think she may have leaned a little too hard into that mysterious accent (I’m from Pittsburgh, and that is not a Pittsburgh accent), but she’s a superb actress and brings so much to her character and the show.  I’d vote for Moafi, and I think she stands a good shot, but LaNasa got to shine this season, and she’s a worthy repeat winner.

CLÁUDIO: Honestly, LaNasa is good and a probable repeat winner, but she should be in the lead category at this point. Moafi feels more deserving from the same show, while Karolina Wydra seems bound to be ignored for the best single performance in the last season of television, not to mention the most daunting, near-impossible-to-conceptualize role. Think about it. She must play all of Humanity condensed into one entity, seduce another character and the audience while keeping both on the knife’s edge of doubt about her intentions, suggesting an emerging personhood while having us second-guess every glimpse we get of what could be another subterfuge from the hive mind. It’s one of those acting challenges that can only exist in genre fare, and that, because they manifest in such contexts, rarely get the accolades they deserve. 

NATHANIEL:  Amen. Preach, Cláudio.

Give us your best bets in the comments. Can Pluribus steal some of The Pitt’s momentum, some of its thunder, and nab more Emmys than we're guessing?