“The Bear” just broke an Emmys record. But probably not in the way the series’ creators would hope.
In 2024, the show took home 11 Emmys for its second season, becoming the winningest comedy series in a single year at the Television Academy awards. On Sunday, however, the show didn’t score a single Emmy. When combined with its shutout at the Creative Arts Emmys in early September, “The Bear” ends its 2025 season with a total of zero Emmy wins.
This gives it the biggest drop for a comedy series in a single year in Emmys history — and ties it with “The Crown” for the biggest drop for any series.
Why did the once adored FX series have such a precipitous fall from grace? There are a few reasons.
To begin with, “The Bear” had extremely limited competition for this negative record. The majority of shows that have won 10 Emmys or more are limited series or TV movies (beginning with “Angels in America” in 2004 and also including “John Adams,” “Chernobyl,” “Watchmen,” “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Behind the Candelabra”), which didn’t return the following year and thus couldn’t suffer a drop.
“Game of Thrones” was one of the only shows that could reasonably compete with “The Bear” in this arena. In 2015, the HBO series broke the record for the most wins in a single season for an ongoing program, scoring 12 Emmys for Season 5. The following year, “Game of Thrones” matched this total, bringing in 12 more Emmys for Season 6. After a year off, “Game of Thrones” returned in 2018 with a nine-Emmy haul (giving it a drop of only three awards from one season to the next). It then beat this total with 12 wins in 2019 for its final season.
Aside from “Game of Thrones” and “The Bear,” only three seasons of continuing series television have scored double-digit wins at the Emmys. In 2022, Season 1 of “The White Lotus” scored a 10-Emmy haul — though this happened in the limited series category, where its first season was classified. The following year, Season 2 was moved to the drama series categories and won half as many Emmys, five. In 2024, “Shōgun” shattered the Emmys record with 18 wins, but the show has yet to release a second season.
That leaves “The Crown,” which earned 11 Emmys out of 24 nominations for its fourth season in 2021. When the Netflix series returned to the Emmys in 2023, however, it went home empty-handed with only six noms, giving it a similar fall to “The Bear.” The show would return in 2024 for its final season, winning three times.
As for what made Emmy voters turn on “The Bear” so dramatically, it may be a combination of the fresher competition and the renewed discourse over whether the intense show even belongs in the comedy category.
At the moment, voters seem to be looking for comedy series that are first and foremost funny. Its worth noting that even during its record-breaking season, “The Bear” lost the top Emmy prize to “Hacks,” a show about the art and business of comedy that is packed with frequent and overt humor.
This year, it was Apple TV+’s “The Studio” that received the most voter love of any comedy. The show won 13 Emmys total, including Outstanding Comedy Series. The Hollywood send-up is unwaveringly committed to generating laughs, with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and company filling each episode with wall-to-wall gags. It also boasts strong technical elements, using long takes and intricate sets to play up both the glamor and the mania of show biz. No wonder it’s the new champ.
