The people over at FX have got a lot to be psyched about today. 

In a TV awards cycle increasingly dominated by the HBO-Netflix horse race — which, for HBO, technically includes steamer Max — it was the other premium cable network and its Hulu offerings that came out tops among individual programs during Wednesdays Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. 

Driven by the year’s two most nominated projects, the drama Shogun and reigning comedy The Bear, FX narrowly beat HBO for No. 2 status among all nominated platforms. It marks the first time FX has ever come so close to topping total Emmy nominations, with Netflix walking away with an easy win this year on the backs of its sprawling slate. FX’s No. 2 status among prestige outlets is all the more compelling when you look at the breakdown of actual programs. Its 93 nominations, which topped HBO and Max’s collective haul by just two noms, are spread out between a mere nine programs, one of them a digital companion series to Shogun. 

In addition to major players Shogun and The Bear, the latter the recipient of ten Emmy Awards just this past January at the delayed 2023 affair, FX also scored well for anthologies Fargo and Feud, reality program Welcome to Wrexham, comedy What We Do In the Shadows, and, in a surprising turn, the final season of comedy Reservation Dogs. The latter went previously ignored by the TV Academy for its first two seasons. All told, FX (and FX on Hulu) bested its previous nominations record (56 in 2016, the year of The People v O.J. Simpson) by 37.

For its part, the dominant Netflix easily topped all of the platforms in contention with 107 nominations. Apple also had a best-ever year, scoring a best-ever 70 nominations thanks in no small part to a cache of programming filmed before the dual Hollywood strikes of 2023.

HBO was in sort of the opposite scenario as Apple. Though it still placed a strong No. 3, it trailed its recent showings thanks in large part to a 2024 slate diminished by the strikes. Dependable Emmy players such as The White Lotus and The Last of Us were taken off the field by delays — and even without the strikes recent breakout House of the Dragon was never going to premiere its second season in the nominations window which closed in May. The good news for HBO: True Detective: Night Country ranked as the most-nominated anthology or miniseries, and Max original Hacks returned to the Emmy race after a year’s break with 16 nominations.

There will be further updates as numbers — all courtesy of the Television Academy, which cites submitting outlets, are crunched and digested, but right now the platform race stands as follows.

More to come…