The Cannibalism of Category
The most glaring example from the 2026 Emmy nominations is the breakout hit “Widow's Bay.” The darkly comedic series landed an impressive 19 nominations, including one for Comedy Series. Yet, in the Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category, it finds
itself in a precarious position with both Kate O'Flynn and Dale Dickey nominated for their standout performances. For Emmy voters who adored the show, the choice is agonizing. Do you pick O'Flynn’s hilariously understated weirdness or Dickey’s commanding presence? This is vote-splitting in its purest form. When voters’ loyalties are divided between two performers from the same show, it can pave the way for a lone nominee from another series—perhaps a less-acclaimed one—to sneak through and win. It's a phenomenon that punishes a show for having a cast that is uniformly excellent, a strange penalty for superior casting and acting.
A History of Internal Competition
This isn't a new problem, but it has been exacerbated by the sheer depth of modern TV casts. Decades ago, the women of “The Golden Girls” regularly competed against each other, with the academy eventually spreading the wealth by awarding each of them an Emmy over the show’s run. More chaotic was the cast of "Friends," who mostly vied for supporting slots with inconsistent results. More recently, shows like “Succession” and “The White Lotus” have dominated entire acting categories, sometimes leaving only one or two slots for actors from any other show on television. In 2023, the Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category was comprised entirely of men from those two shows. While this speaks to the quality of those productions, it also highlights a systemic issue where the Emmy ballot becomes a reflection of a few buzzy shows rather than the industry as a whole.
Is There a Better Way?
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards offer a simple, elegant solution: a category for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. This award celebrates the collective chemistry and collaborative spirit that defines the best television shows. It recognizes that a series is often more than the sum of its individual parts. The Television Academy, however, does not have an equivalent award at the main ceremony. It awards Emmys for casting, but that's a behind-the-scenes honor that doesn't celebrate the on-screen performers as a unit. By focusing exclusively on individual achievement, the Emmys fail to reward the very thing that makes so many of today's best shows compelling. An ensemble award would allow voters to honor a show like “Widow’s Bay” or HBO's medical drama “The Pitt” for its overall strength, without forcing them to pit beloved actors against one another.
A Victim of Its Own Success
In a way, the ensemble problem is a high-class problem to have. It's a direct result of television's current creative boom, where even small roles are filled with brilliant performers and shows are built around sprawling, interconnected casts. A voting rule change in 2017 that allows members to vote for as many nominees as they deem worthy in a category has only amplified the issue, encouraging voters to simply tick off all the names from the one or two big shows they've watched. This leads to nomination-hoarding by the most popular series and makes it nearly impossible for a performer in a less-seen show to break through. The result is a system that can feel lazy and narrow, rewarding the most-watched shows rather than the most deserving performances across the board.
