Emmy nomination voting is officially underway, and the Television Academy’s results are providing insight into which performances could break out when nominations are announced on July 8th.
Of the 20 stars who hosted Saturday Night Live during its 51st season, NBC only shortlisted 11 for guest comedy roles. This is a significant step back from a year ago, when all 20 Season 50 hosts were included in the voting. Guest comedic actors include Bad Bunny, Ryan Gosling, Harry Styles, Jack Black, Coleman Domingo, Will Ferrell, and Connor Story, while guest comedic actresses include Amy Poehler, Olivia Rodrigo, Melissa McCarthy, and Ariana Grande.
The nine hosts who were voted off were even more surprising. Some of the season’s biggest names who didn’t submit include Matt Damon (who was a candidate to host in 2019), Alexander Skarsgård (who featured in Ashley Padilla’s viral “Trump Mom” sketch), Glen Powell, Josh O’Connor, Finn Wolfhard and Miles Teller. Also in attendance were music pop star Sabrina Carpenter, famous comedian Nikki Glazer, and recent Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”).
Then comes the voting for the performers, who boast one of the Television Academy’s largest peer groups.
There are 1,573 applications in contention across 17 performer categories this year, down from 1,706 in 2025, a nearly 8% decrease. Across 17 acting races, Prime Video’s “The Boys” and “Saturday Night Live” each received 28 performers, the most of any series. HBO Max’s The Pit comes in at 24th, followed by the network’s version of Euphoria at 23rd, Peacock’s now-canceled The Copenhagen Test at 21st, and the final season of The Hux at 20th. Other cast-heavy series include “Jury Presents: Company Camp” (2019), “Only Murders in the Building” and “Tulsa King” (2018). “Fallout” (17).
According to Academy rules, the number of nominees in each category is determined by the volume of submissions, and only if submissions exceed the 80-submission threshold will the field expand to a sixth lead or supporting nominee. This year, there will only be five nominees in all six Best Actress races.
The ranking of lead actors in dramas is basically stable at 78th place, which is almost the same as last year’s 77th place, when 134 names were poured into votes. The number of leading drama actresses decreased from 75 to 63, continuing a significant decline from 109 in 2023 to 114 in 2022. Lead comedy actors fell to 43, the smallest field in the category in the past five years, and a big step back from 51 last year and 84 in 2022. The number of lead comedy actresses decreased by one from 47 to 46, keeping them almost even.
Races that combine limited series and movie starring races are also on the decline. Leading Actor (Limited) rose from 48 to 52, but remains far below the 97 in 2023. The number of leading actresses has dropped from 53 to 41, which is a big difference from 96 in 2023.
The supporting drama category remains the most crowded actor race, but it still shows long-term decline, which is surprising. The number of supporting drama actors is 228, about the same as last year’s 233, but down from the record high of 436 in 2022. That means more than 200 applicants were lost over four years. She ranked 222nd in the Best Supporting Actress Award for a Drama, compared to 227th last year and 385th in 2022. Despite the decline of the series as a whole, the supporting comedy race continues to rise as he ranks first in actor voting.
The number of supporting comedic actors jumped from 163 last year to 185, reaching 147 in 2024, the largest year-on-year increase among those polled. Supporting Comedy Actress also rose from 141 to 149. With 40 lost applications, supporting actors in limited series or movies fell from 124 to 84, the largest decline among acting races. At the same time, the Best Supporting Actress Award (limited) plummeted by 39 people, from 105 to 66. Both totals in 2023 were record highs of 209 and 177.
Guest races remain busy and self-submission is possible. Guest comedic actors fell from 97 to 88, and guest comedic actresses rose from 74 to 82. On the drama side, the guest actor category was mostly stable at 84, down three categories from 87, while guest drama actress had the steepest guest decline of the cycle, dropping from 77 to 51.
