Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Emmy Watch Phase 3 Concluding: 2025 Dorian TV and Gotham TV Winners

 

Cue up  your 1980s soundtrack. We are in 'The Final Countdown' for the 2025 Emmy nominations. In one week's time the nominations will be there for good and ill for all to see.

That means the final group of major awards is unfolding. Earlier today the 2025 Dorian TV Awards announced its winners for the past year. As I mentioned before they have so far this decade been very helpful at shedding light on the awards to come. So here are this year's winners:

Yet again Hacks was one of the big winners, taking Best TV Comedy, Best LGBTQ TV show, Best Written Tv Show, Best TV Performance Comedy for Jean Smart and Best Supporting TV Performance Comedy for Hannah Einbinder. This comes as little shock to those who have considered it the frontrunner since the beginning of the 2024-2025 awards season. Smart and Einbinder are now the 1000-pound gorillas for the female acting awards in comedy. Smart herself also prevailed for TV Icon Award, which don't kid yourself, she always has been.

Drama, however, showed a bit more division. The Pitt took Best TV Drama and Noah Wyle won Best TV performance, his second award in this category. However Tramell Tillman for Severance surprised by prevailing over a strong field to win Best Supporting TV performance. Severance also won most visually striking TV show but not best genre show which went to Andor. The White Lotus was completely shut out. And Squid Game unsurprisingly won Best Non-English Language TV show. Best Unsung TV show went to Overcompensating (overcoming among others Somebody Somewhere) Best Animated Show went to Harley Quinn and Best Reality Show went to The Traitors, which also won Campiest TV Show. Little surprise there, particularly considering Alan Cumming.

Best TV Documentary or Documentary Series went to Pee Wee as Himself which also won Best LGBTQ TV Documentary. Last Week Tonight won Best Current Affairs Show which is hardly a shock. Adolescence prevailed for Best Limited Series but like every other limited series was shutout in all other awards.

With the possible exception of Squid Game, all the nominees for Drama are locks in this category. Andor is a borderline case but has a great chance anyway. The only major contender that doesn't seem likely to get anywhere is Elite which was the winner for Best LGBTQ Non-English TV Show.

Now earlier this month I mentioned another new awards show The Gotham TV Awards. On June 2 they held their awards. Here are there winners.

The winner for Breakthrough Comedy Series was The Studio, which is likely to be a major front runner in the Emmys to come. The Pitt won Breakthrough Drama Series which is the second major award its won so far this year. Adolescence won Breakthrough Limited Series, which officially makes it the show to beat at the Emmys.

Comedy Awards in acting did little to clarify things. Julio Torres prevailed for Fantasmas but despite the Peabody and other awards, he is unlikely to prevail in a crowded field. Even less like is Poorna Jagannathan for Deli Boys the Hulu streaming comedy. We are more likely to see Timothy Simons for Nobody Wants This or Chase Sui Wonders for The Studio earning nominations.

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series went to Kathy Bates, who now seems inevitable to win Outstanding Lead Actress for the title role in Matlock. Ben Whishaw's victory as Breakthrough Supporting Performance for Black Doves is unlikely to push him forward as the momentum for that series has all but died. Other nominees in this category such as Katherine LaNasa for The Pitt, Skye P. Marshall for Matlock and James Marsden for Paradise seem more certain.

Stephen Graham managed to take Outstanding Lead Performance in a Limited Series, defeating among others Cristin Milioti and Michelle Williams. And Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Limited Series ended in a tie. Owen Cooper won for Adolescence and Jenny Slate won for Dying for Sex. Cooper and Slate have been moving up in the favorites category. And Aaron Pierce's win for Outstanding Performance in an Original Film for Rebel Ridge would seem to all but guarantee him a spot on the Emmy dais in a week's time.

The show also acknowledged Parker Posey as a 'Legend Tribute' and she's certain to receive a nomination for The White Lotus. Sheryl Lee Ralph was recognized with the Sidney Poitier Icon Tribute and her nomination for Abbot Elementary is an inevitability. I'm unclear what to make of Bryan Tyree Henry's Performer Tribute for his work in Dope Thief. Considering he was nominated in competition for Best Lead Performance it does seem to be hedging ones bets. But Henry never got his due for Atlanta so I'm fine with whatever recognition he received.

Personal Reactions: No notes on the majority of the Dorian Awards that are relevant. I would have preferred to see someone from The White Lotus win Supporting Performance but that's just me. Since the Gotham TV awards are there essentially to deal with series that have premiered in the past year I have less to say on the subject. I have my own preferences for this group but trying to rank an awards show that is acknowledging shows that debuted is tougher than doing so for a collective one.

That leaves just one award show left to cover. The Astra Awards which happened earlier in June. I will deal with the results this weekend.

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