2025 Emmys outrage: Why your favorite genre shows like ‘Outlander,' ‘Interview With the Vampire,' and ‘Squid Game' were snubbed

Yahoo

9 hours ago

The 2025 Emmy nominations present a curious case for genre television.
While sci-fi, horror, and fantasy hits like Severance, The Last of Us, and Andor received multiple nominations on Tuesday, many fan-favorite outside-the-box programs — think Outlander, Interview With the Vampire, Squid Game, The Wheel of Time, and Dark Winds — were snubbed in major categories by the Television Academy, resulting in social media outrage. So, what gives?
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First, a bit of a backstory. Prior to 2005, Emmy-winning dramas almost always took place in police stations, hospitals, or courtrooms — yawn. But Lost changed all of that. ABC's science-fiction hit won Best Drama Series 20 years ago and opened the door for the fantastic to be taken seriously by the Television Academy. Game of Thrones continued the voters' newfound love affair with genre fare when it won Best Drama Series four times between 2015 and 2019. GoT was ineligible in 2017, which is when the dystopian The Handmaid's Tale prevailed.
Post-Lost, nominees for Best Drama Series have fully embraced all types of stories, including super-powered individuals (Heroes and The Boys), serial killers (Dexter), vampires (True Blood), robots (Westworld), 1950s monsters (Lovecraft Country), 1980s monsters (Stranger Things), 2070s monsters (Fallout), aliens (The Mandalorian and Andor), dragons (House of the Dragon), cannibals (Yellowjackets), virtual reality (3 Body Problem), and mind control (Severance). But, as is always the case with awards shows, not everything can make it in, and the list of snubbed programs would be too long to name.
Here are some beloved genre shows that were snubbed in the 2025 Emmy nominations.
It has now been seven years since Starz's romance epic was last cited at the Emmys. It was nominated in 2018 and 2016 for Best Period Costumes, in 2016 for Best Period Production Design, and in 2015 for Best Music Composition. The list of egregious snubs through the years includes Caitriona Balfe as time-traveling doctor Claire Randall Fraser and Sam Heughan as her Highlander true love, Jamie Fraser, plus all of the show's writers, directors, and producers.
So, what's with all of the Outlander hate? The Television Academy has always had a tough time puckering up to romance shows. The only major exception in recent years was Bridgerton, which won two trophies for hairstyling in 2021 and 2022. Of course, that period series had the benefit of being one of the most watched programs in Netflix history. Comparatively, Outlander airs on Starz, a network that frequently gets forgotten by Emmy voters, despite rigorous campaigning.
Outlander submitted six actors on the 2025 Emmy ballot for Season 7, Part 2: leads Heughan and Balfe, and supporting players John Bell as Young Ian Murray, David Berry as Lord John Grey, Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie, and Sophie Skelton as Brianna MacKenzie. No guest stars were entered this year.
The good news? Season 2 of AMC's blood-sucker received two below-the-line bids for Best Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Hairstyling and Best Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic). But it was snubbed for series, acting, writing, directing, etc., despite an impressive 98 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, the story was already made into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, which received two Oscar nominations for Best Score and Best Art Direction.
Interview With the Vampire didn't even get in for its "Theatres des Vampires" production design or its atmospheric cinematography, which seems Le'strange. AMC used to be an Emmy favorite when dramas like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead were the talk of the town, but things changed when streaming outlets took over the industry. AMC's last major awards contender was Better Call Saul, which couldn't win a single Emmy despite 53 nominations.
The four acting submissions for Season 2 of Interview With the Vampire were: lead actor Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac, supporting actor Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt, supporting actress Delainey Hayles as Claudia, and guest actor Luke Brandon Field as Young Daniel Molloy.
In 2022, Season 1 of Squid Game received 14 Emmy nominations and won six: director (Hwang Dong-hyuk), actor (Lee Jung-jae), guest actress (Lee You-mi), production design, stunt performance, and visual effects. How did Season 2 receive exactly zero bids?
Blame the buzz. The second season was really just Part 1 of the final story, and it likely left voters feeling unfulfilled, especially with its cliffhanger ending. The third season, aka Part 2 of that last chapter, streamed in June and will be eligible at the 2026 Emmys. Reviews for Season 2 were still adequate — 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes — but viewers simply weren't as enamored by Seong Gi-hun/Player 456's return to the deadly games.
Gold Derby's users had predicted (or hope-dicted) that the show were receive a Best Drama Series nomination and that featured star Choi Woo-seok as Thanos would contend in Best Drama Supporting Actor, but that simply wasn't to be. Better luck next year?
The Prime Video fantasy series was canceled in May after three seasons, essentially ending its 2025 Emmy campaign. Yes, occasionally, canceled shows do reap bids. But it's likely that TV Academy members simply didn't want to waste a vote on something the network and studio were no longer backing. The Wheel of Time was also snubbed in its first two seasons, suggesting that it was never on voters' radars to begin with.
The series was developed by Rafe Judkins and based on the books of the same name by Robert Jordan. "We were really running and gunning it," Judkins told Gold Derby about the epic scope of the heralded fourth episode of Season 3, "The Road to the Spear." Meanwhile, fans are running and gunning to try to get it picked up by another network, so far to no avail.
Ten members of the ensemble cast were submitted on this year's Emmy ballot: lead stars Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran and Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred; supporting players Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, Madeleine Madden as Egwene Al'Vere, Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, and Zöe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara; and guest performers Robert Strange as Eelfinn, Natasha Culzac as Sevanna, and Olivia Williams as Morgase Trakand.
One of Gold Derby's 10 best shows of 2025 (so far), Dark Winds was overlooked despite its 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score for Season 3. From the opening cameos of show producers Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin as jailbirds, to the heart-shattering final moments, this season was yet another triumph for the still-never-nominated AMC series. (Hmm, we're beginning to wonder if there's an AMC curse at the Emmys.)
The psychological thriller set in 1970s embraces and elevates Indigenous culture, which series star Zahn McClarnon describes as "telling our own stories in an authentic way." The program led into those themes at its FYC event in June, but alas, the cultural zeitgeist has yet to be blown away by Dark Winds. Remember, sometimes it takes a few years for a show to really catch on at the Emmys, so fingers crossed voters will tune in when Season 4 airs in the future.
Besides McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn, five other performers were hoping to hear their names called as Emmy nominees: supporting actors Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee, Deanna Allison as Emma Leaphorn, Jenna Elfman as Sylvia Washington, and Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito; and guest star Bruce Greenwood as Tom Spenser.
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