Lifestyle
5 takeaways from the 2025 Emmy nominations
Britt Lower and Adam Scott in Severance. Both were nominated for Emmys Tuesday.
Apple TV+
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Apple TV+
Emmy nominations came out on Tuesday, and the winners will be announced on September 14. There are a lot of familiar faces, a few new ones, and a few … new old ones. (You can see the list here.) Here’s what we noticed.
Shows with big, well-regarded casts ran up their totals
Seth Rogen in The Studio.
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Apple TV+
Severance and The Studio, both from Apple TV+, were the most-nominated shows on the drama and comedy sides, respectively. Severance received 27 nominations, and The Studio received 23. Of those Severance nominations, nine were for actors. Of the Studio nominations, 10 were for actors — including quite a run through the guest actor categories, where five men and one woman were nominated. The Studio and Severance were both very well-reviewed shows, too, but when you look at totals, it helps to have a lot of famous faces people admire. (See also: The White Lotus, which continues to crowd the supporting categories in drama.)
Jeff Hiller and Bridget Everett in Somebody Somewhere.
Sandy Morris/HBO
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Sandy Morris/HBO
The supporting actor in a comedy series category has a couple of nice surprises
It will always be annoying that the Emmys never paid much attention to the beautiful, funny Somebody Somewhere on HBO. But in the show’s final year of eligibility, at least, they found room to recognize Jeff Hiller, who played Joel, and who gave one of the most distinctive, heartfelt, big-hearted performances of the season. They also recognized an up-and-comer named Harrison Ford — his first Emmy nomination ever — for his great work in Apple TV+’s Shrinking, which was one of the most disappointing snubs last time around.
Colin Farrell in The Penguin.
HBO
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HBO
The streaming players are always shifting
For a while, the big streamers at the Emmys were Netflix and Hulu, but Apple TV+, Max and Disney+ are all well-established in the awards game at this point. Apple TV+ has to be thrilled with the big showings for The Studio and Severance, plus Shrinking and Slow Horses and even the very so-so Presumed Innocent miniseries. HBO is still very popular among voters, but its presence is changing a bit. When it comes to big nominees, there are The White Lotus and The Last Of Us on the drama side, and those aired on traditional HBO. But then there’s The Pitt in drama series, and Hacks in comedy, and those were on Max, or what was then Max — in other words, they were streaming-only. (An outlier: The Penguin, which is competing in the limited/anthology series category, was developed for Max but ultimately did air on HBO.) Disney+ also got 14 nominations for Andor, and Netflix is still in there with Adolescence, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and with Black Mirror. Hulu’s top performer this year, at least by numbers, and excluding those FX shows like The Bear, is Only Murders in the Building, though Paradise did well also.
Ted Danson in A Man on the Inside.
Colleen E. Hayes/Netflix
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Colleen E. Hayes/Netflix
There are always some heartbreakers
There is a difference between the concept of a “snub” and a nod that just didn’t happen, but there’s always some very good work that goes unrecognized. As a big fan of The Pitt, I was disappointed not to see Taylor Dearden, who played Dr. King, nominated, and as a fan of Netflix’s A Man on the Inside, I would certainly have nominated that. There will be great consternation over Diego Luna and the rest of the cast not being nominated for Andor, often paired with eye-rolling over all those The White Lotus acting nominations, which do seem to be nearly automatic — you get on that show, you get nominated.
Tramell Tillman in Severance.
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Apple TV+
The most fun comes from the first-time nominees
It’s always fun to see people get their first nods. There are established actors who just haven’t specialized in TV, like Harrison Ford, Colin Farrell (in The Penguin), and Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny (both for Monsters). There are surprising first-timers like Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, who have both been on TV for ages and were both finally nominated for Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. Exciting actors who are blowing up, like Tramell Tillman and Zach Cherry, both of Severance. The great Michael Urie, nominated for Shrinking and worth every vote; the marvelous Cristin Milioti, who’s been the best thing about several different shows and is nominated now for The Penguin.
And, of course, in the end, there are all those nominations for The Studio, which, as a show-business satire, would give a hefty side-eye to the whole process.


Lifestyle
Sunday Puzzle: Major U.S. cities
Sunday Puzzle
NPR
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NPR
On-air challenge
I’m going to read you some sentences. Each sentence conceals the name of a major U.S. city in consecutive letters. As a hint, the answer’s state also appears in the sentence. Every answer has at least six letters. (Ex. The Kentucky bodybuilders will be flexing tonight. –> LEXINGTON)
1. Space enthusiasts in Oregon support landing on Mars.
2. Contact your insurance branch or agent in Alaska.
3. The Ohio company has a sale from today to next Sunday.
4. The Colorado trial ended in a sudden verdict.
5. Fans voted the Virginia tennis matches a peak experience.
6. I bought a shamrock for decorating my house in Illinois.
7. All the Connecticut things they knew have now changed.
8. Can you help a software developer in Texas?
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Mike Reiss, who’s a showrunner, writer, and producer for “The Simpsons.” Think of a famous living singer. The last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last name spell a bird. Change the first letter of the singer’s first name. Then the first three letters of that first name and the last five letters of his last name together spell another bird. What singer is this?
Challenge answer
Placido Domingo
Winner
Brock Hammill of Corvallis, Montana.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Robert Flood, of Allen, Texas. Name a famous female singer of the past (five letters in the first name, seven letters in the last name). Remove the last letter of her first name and you can rearrange all the remaining letters to name the capital of a country (six letters) and a food product that its nation is famous for (five letters).
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, December 18 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
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‘Wait Wait’ for December 13, 2025: With Not My Job guest Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus performs at Spotlight: Lucy Dacus at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on October 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images
This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, guest judge and scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Lucy Dacus and panelists Adam Burke, Helen Hong, and Tom Bodett. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Alzo This Time
Mega Media Merger; Cars, They’re Just Like Us; The Swag Gap
Panel Questions
An Hourly Marriage
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell three stories about a new TV show making headlines, only one of which is true.
Not My Job: Lucy Dacus answers our questions about boy geniuses
Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus, one third of the supergroup boygenius, plays our game called, “boygenius, meet Boy Geniuses” Three questions about child prodigies.
Panel Questions
Bedroom Rules; Japan Solves its Bear Problem
Limericks
Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: NHL Superlatives; Terrible Mouthwash; The Most Holy and Most Stylish
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict what will be the next big merger in the news.
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