Why ‘Severance’ didn’t win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series

Adam Scott in “Severance”
Some watchers were utterly perplexed that the innovative, original, and mind-bending “Severance” was overlooked for the 2025 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, ultimately losing to “The Pitt,” a formulaic hospital drama that treads well-worn paths in the medical genre, echoing countless predecessors like “ER” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” to name just two of umpteen examples.
When two strong candidates compete for an award like an Emmy, they can “cancel each other out” through the phenomenon of vote splitting in a competitive field.
Here’s how it works:
• Divided Support Base: If two candidates (say, Drama A and Drama B) are both highly regarded, they may split the votes of that group. For instance, if half vote for “Severance” and half for “The White Lotus,” each gets only 30% of the total votes.
• Plurality Voting: Emmy Awards, like many award systems, often use a plurality voting system, where the candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority. If the remaining voters coalesce around a third candidate (Drama C), then “The Pitt” could win with 31% of the vote, despite “Severance” and “The White Lotus” being “stronger” in terms of raw talent or popularity.
• Voter Psychology and Strategy: Voters may have strong preferences for “Severance” or “The White Lotus,” but not coordinate their votes. If “Severance” and “The White Lotus” are seen as neck-and-neck frontrunners, some voters might stick with their favorite instead of strategically voting for a compromise candidate. Meanwhile, voters for “The Pitt,” unified behind a single choice, can capitalize on this division. This is especially true in categories with many nominees, diluting the vote further. The 2025 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series were: Andor, The Diplomat, The Last of Us, Paradise, The Pitt, Severance, Slow Horses, and The White Lotus.
• Example Scenario: There are two critically acclaimed drama series, “Severance” and “The White Lotus,” each with passionate supporters. Both are nominated for Outstanding Drama Series alongside “The Pitt” (and five other dramas: D, E, F, G, and H). If “Severance” gets 30% of the vote and “The White Lotus” gets 28%, but “The Pitt” secures a unified 31%, “The Pitt” wins, even if “Severance” and “The White Lotus” were considered “stronger” by more voters collectively.
MacDailyNews Take: This is why Ranked Choice Voting is used in the Academy Awards for Best Picture. For its Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, at least, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) should adopt Ranked Choice Voting, Approval Voting, the Condorcet method or some other more meaningful method of voting for the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Yet another hospital retread that everyone’s seen a thousand times is a better series than “Severance?” M’kay, Emmys. #Joke
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) September 15, 2025

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