Emmy nominations are in, and this year’s nominees represent not only some of the most acclaimed TV and streaming shows of the year, but also some of the most-watched through the first half of 2025.
“The White Lotus,” with 24 nominations, was the most-watched drama nominee so far this year, ranking as the No. 16 most-watched streaming program with 11.46 billion minutes viewed, according to Nielsen.
“Severance,” “The Pitt” and “Andor” also made strong showings on the top 20 streaming original series list. “Severance” leads the pack in the No. 5 slot with 9.28 billion viewing minutes, followed by “The Pitt” (No. 7, 8.23 billion) and “Andor” (No. 14, 5.68 billion). Fellow drama nominees “The Diplomat” and “Slow Horses” premiered in fall 2024, but the former spent four weeks on Netflix’s top 10 English-language series list.
Notably, “Squid Game” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which were snubbed in the major drama categories after receiving significant nods in the past, both made a strong showing on the streaming lists. “Squid Game,” which released its second season in late December, was the No. 9 overall streaming program and No. 1 streaming original series with 15.07 billion viewing minutes, while “The Handmaid’s Tale” came just behind “The Pitt” with 8.23 billion.
Things get a little murkier when it comes to the limited series and comedy categories, with most series not reflected on the streaming list, especially those that premiered in 2024. Three of the five nominated limited series came from Netflix, “Adolescence,” Black Mirror” and “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” — along with FX’s “Dying for Sex” and HBO’s “The Penguin.”
“Adolescence” quickly joined the ranks of Netflix’s most-watched English-language TV shows, currently sitting in the No. 2 slot (behind “Wednesday”) with 142.6 million views to date. While Ryan Murphy’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is on Netflix’s most-watched list, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” hasn’t quite made it there, having spent seven weeks on Netflix’s weekly top 10 list. “Black Mirror” Season 7 spent five weeks on the top 10 list.
Nominees in the comedy category are similarly difficult to rank, ratings-wise, given limited viewership data for FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” and Apple TV+’s “Shrinking” and “The Studio.” “Nobody Wants This” was an undeniable hit for Netflix, as the romcom was in the top 10 English-language TV series list for six weeks.
Returning nominees “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear,” “Hacks” and “Only Murders in the Building” all seem to have relatively comparable viewership to their previous seasons, with “Abbott Elementary” — the only broadcast show in the main nomination categories — closing out the 2024-25 TV season with an average 8.67 million viewers across linear and streaming, according to Nielsen live-plus-35-day viewing data. Per Nielsen streaming numbers, “The Bear” scored 1.2 billion viewing minutes during the week of June 24, 2024, when Season 3 dropped in full.
Likewise, the Season 4 premiere episode of “Only Murders in the Building” debuted to 460 million viewing minutes, per Nielsen, while “Hacks” did not appear on any of Nielsen’s streaming charts during the entirety of its Season 4 rollout.
Confused about the lack of viewership transparency in the era of streaming? Us too.
MLB All-Star Game scores biggest Fox audience since the Super Bowl
The 95th MLB All-Star Game cemented its status as the most-watched all-star event in sports, bringing in 7.2 million viewers across Fox and Fox Sports streaming services, with viewership peaking at 8.1 million from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen. The game ranked as the most-watched telecast on Fox since Super Bowl Sunday, which scored a record 127.7 million viewers back in February.
Netflix KOs 2025’s biggest women’s sports audience with Amanda Serrano-Katie Taylor
While the Netflix-hosted boxing match between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor on July 11 brought insubstantially fewer viewers than last year’s Mike Tyson-Jake Paul bout (which drew an average-minute audience of 108 million viewers from the opening to closing bell), the main event still made some noise with an estimated AMA of nearly 6 million global viewers, and an AMA of 4.2 million viewers in the U.S., according to VideoAmp and Netflix. That ranks as the year’s most-watched professional women’s sports event, per Netflix.
“Big Brother” kicks off Season 27 to ratings growth
“Big Brother” debuted the first two episodes of its 27th season to double-digit percentage growth and impressive streaming numbers. The premiere on July 10 scored 2.99 million viewers — up 10% and 29% from last summer’s part 1 and part 2 premieres, according to Nielsen, while the first Sunday episode on July 13 scored 2.56 million viewers, up 12$%. The Paramount+ live stream was up 28% from last year’s Sunday premiere.
