Do awards matter?
It’s the question that seems to resurface nearly ever cycle. There’s no getting around that all of the glitz, glamor, and hullabaloo can veer heavily into the self-indulgent, but do nights purportedly dedicated to celebrating art actually get art celebrated?
And in an age when the culture is more fragmented than ever and viewership numbers are still recovering from massive pandemic downturns, is anyone still paying attention?
A recent report from Luminate would suggest “yes,” at least in the case of this year’s Emmy nominations. The entertainment data company (which is own by Gold Derby parent company PMC) examined viewership changes for the nominated series after the July 15 short-list announcements. And a handful of series nominees saw massive spikes, seemingly as a result of making the cut.
Chief among them was HBO Max’s The Pitt. Minutes watched of the Noah Wyle-led medical drama increased more than 200 percent between July 11 and 24, compared with the previous two weeks, making it by far the largest change in viewership of the nominated series.
The next largest boost in Drama Series belonged to The Diplomat at 42 percent, just ahead of Paradise and The Pitt’s main competition in the category, Severance.
The two shows are still neck-and-neck in Gold Derby’s Emmys predictions, so what could account for such a big difference in their post-nomination viewership?
Primetime Emmy Awards 2025
Comedy Series Comedy Actress Comedy Actor Comedy Supporting Actress Comedy Supporting Actor Comedy Directing Comedy Writing Drama Series Drama Actress Drama Actor Drama Supporting Actress Drama Supporting Actor Drama Directing Drama Writing Limited Series Movie/Limited Actress Movie/Limited Actor Movie/Limited Supporting Actress Movie/Limited Supporting Actor Movie/Limited Directing Movie/Limited Writing Competition Program Variety Talk Series Variety Scripted Series Variety Special Live Variety Series Writing
It’s important to consider that these numbers are percentage changes for each given show, so it’s difficult to directly contrast the two. The Pitt’s minutes-viewed count had fallen significantly since early June, so there was plenty of room to climb. But a 200 percent increase is still massive.
In the case of Severance, the bump after its enormous 27-nomination haul was impressive, but to read into the data, it’s easy to imagine that most of the people who were going to watch the second season of a highly spoil-able series had already seen it.
With Severance currently in the lead for Best Drama (71 percent vs. The Pitt’s 24.5 percent at the time of publishing), the spike for The Pitt could suggest a tighter race than previously imagined, especially if Academy members were among those catching up.