If it feels like the Emmys have a more populist lean each year, it’s because they do, as new Parrot Analytics data
reveals.
The average US audience demand for TV series nominated for 5 or more major Emmys has grown 65.5% in the last half decade
- from 11.3x more in-demand than the average show in 2017 to 18.7x more in-demand for this year’s top nominees.
In 2017 Emmy voters rewarded more character-focused drama and comedy series like Veep, Silicon Valley, and Better Call Saul. While these series did have loyal fanbases, they only cracked the lower levels of our ‘Outstanding’ category of
audience demand.
With WandaVision and The Mandalorian racking up a combined 13 major Emmy nominations (and 46 overall) - and The Boys getting a nod for Best Drama - 2021 is by far the Emmy’s most crowd pleasing year of the streaming era.
The rise in both the supply and audience demand of genre programming over the last half decade - starting with Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, and currently led by WandaVision and The Mandalorian - has correlated with a rise in critical recognition of these massive global hits, as the tastes of the Television
Academy and the TV consuming public draw closer and closer.
“Emmy voters have traditionally stuck with the same series and talent year after year when it comes to nominations, even
if those shows or talent don’t win. But the proliferation of streaming and increase in audience demand for genre shows
across new platforms have become seemingly impossible for the Academy to ignore,” said Parrot Analytics Senior Strategy
Analyst Julia Alexander.
While the Emmys still acknowledge and reward abstract comedies and dramas driven by auteur directors, an increase in the
supply and demand of genre entertainment has clearly impacted the series that the Television Academy is celebrating.
This data provides hard evidence to back up a trend that many analysts and reporters have suspected - that the Emmy
voters and US audiences are growing closer together in what they consider to be great television.