The landscape of the Emmy Awards has seen a notable shift towards "sweeps," a phenomenon where a single series dominates many major categories. This trend is largely attributed to the Television Academy's unique voting structure, which comprises over 25,000 members across 31 peer groups, each specializing in a particular field such as acting, writing, or editing. While a select 15 categories, including Outstanding Comedy, Drama, and Limited Series, are voted on by the entire membership, both nominations and final winner selections are often restricted to designated peer groups. This exclusivity, unlike the broader voting system of the Oscars, significantly shapes the outcomes and has led to the rise of concentrated wins.

Historically, a full sweep of all seven major categories (series, acting, writing, and directing) was rare, with HBO’s “Angels in America” in 2004 being the sole instance before 2020. However, the COVID era ushered in a new pattern of domination. Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” made headlines in 2020 by sweeping the board in its final season, an unexpected victory given its previous limited recognition. Netflix followed suit in 2021 with “The Crown” Season 4, also securing seven major wins. While complete sweeps have become elusive since then, the trend of single shows dominating multiple categories has persisted.

Recent Emmy ceremonies further exemplify this pattern. The first season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” initially a limited series, won five of its seven eligible categories, largely due to strategic lead actor submissions. The 2023 Emmys, held in January 2024 due to industry strikes, saw the final season of HBO’s “Succession” take six of seven major awards, missing only supporting drama actress. FX’s “The Bear” debuted by sweeping all six of its major comedy categories, with Ayo Edebiri winning in supporting actress. Netflix’s “Beef” also secured five of its seven major categories. Fast forward to the September 2024 ceremony, “Hacks” achieved a significant upset by winning comedy series over the highly favored second season of “The Bear.” Despite this, “The Bear” still set a record with 10 total wins, including five of its six acting prizes, with only writing and lead actress going to “Hacks.” FX also saw major success with “Shōgun,” which set a new high for drama wins, and Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” garnered five of its six nominations.

Looking ahead to the 77th Emmy Awards, several series are poised to continue this trend of "Emmy sweepers." Apple TV+’s cerebral drama “Severance,” high-concept satire “The Studio,” and the gritty British crime miniseries “Adolescence” are considered strong contenders. Success often hinges on robust support across the four largest Academy branches: Executives, Actors, Writers, and Editors. HBO Max, with a record 142 nominations, fields drama contenders like “The Last of Us” Season 2, “The Pitt,” and “The White Lotus” Season 3. “The Pitt” is noted for a potentially clear path to drama series gold, despite fewer nominations. “Severance,” with a staggering 27 nominations, boasts a strong toolkit including a top-tier lead drama actor nomination for Adam Scott and supporting nominations for Tramell Tillman, whose potential win would be historic as the first Black man to win the category. Patricia Arquette, also from “Severance,” is a strong supporting drama actress candidate, potentially cruising to another win without co-stars splitting the vote.

In the comedy categories, “The Studio” tied “The Bear” for the most comedy nominations ever, benefiting from “Hacks” dropping key nominations. Ike Barinholtz from “The Studio” faces a tough supporting race against Harrison Ford. “The Rehearsal” is a surprise player with four unexpected writing nominations. For limited series, “Adolescence” with 13 nominations goes head-to-head with HBO Max’s “The Penguin,” which has a monster 24 nominations. While genre shows sometimes struggle to convert nominations into major wins, “The Penguin” is expected to buck this trend with strong lead acting threats in Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti, and likely wins in writing and directing.

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards, held on September 6th at the Peacock Theater, provided the first glimpse of this year's winners, with scripted programming taking center stage. HBO Max’s “The Penguin” and Apple TV+’s “The Studio” emerged as dominant forces. “The Studio” amassed nine total wins, including Guest Comedy Actor for Bryan Cranston and numerous craft and technical categories such as casting for a comedy series, cinematography, music supervision, sound editing, and sound mixing. Many "Studio" winners publicly acknowledged Sal Saperstein, the show’s fictional studio executive. “The Penguin” secured eight trophies, cleaning up in makeup, hairstyling, production design, and visual effects, with VFX supervisor Johnny Han highlighting innovative gun safety practices.

Apple TV+’s “Severance,” the most-nominated show overall with 27 nods, nabbed six wins at the Creative Arts Emmys. Notable wins included Merritt Wever for Guest Actress in a Drama Series and Jessica Lee Gagné, who made Emmy history as the first woman to win in the Cinematography for a Drama Series category. Gagné, who was also nominated for directing, spoke backstage about overcoming discrimination in her early career and the show’s journey from underdog to fan favorite. Disney+’s “Andor” collected four wins, specifically for fantasy costumes, production design, picture editing, and special visual effects. “Andor’s” creative leader, Tony Gilroy, was lauded by several craft specialists for their work on the series. Other notable winners included Netflix’s “Bridgerton” with three trophies, including one for Julie Andrews' character voice-over performance, and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” with three wins, including stunt honors and a surprise victory for original music and lyrics. Netflix’s “Arcane” prevailed as Animated Program, securing three additional animation craft awards, while “Rebel Ridge” won in the TV Movie category. Desi Lydic of “The Daily Show” won for Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for her digital special, expressing hope for the future of late-night comedy and confirming the show’s creative freedom. Julianne Nicholson earned her second Emmy, winning Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in HBO Max’s “Hacks.” Shawn Hatosy took home Guest Drama Actor for “The Pitt,” expressing emotion over his first Emmy win and praising co-star Noah Wyle. Beyoncé also received an Emmy for outstanding costumes for variety, nonfiction or reality programming for “Beyoncé Bowl.”

The 77th Emmy Awards, hosted by Nate Bargatze, will be broadcast live on Sunday, September 14, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. Highlights from the two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies will air on FXX on September 13. The ongoing trend of concentrated wins suggests that Emmy night 2025 will likely see a handful of outstanding series dominate the awards once again.