Nominees of color made up just 18 of the 91 performers recognized in this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards acting categories, continuing a two-year decline that has drawn criticism from both entertainment industry watchers and conservative commentators.
This year’s tally of Asian, Black and Latino nominees marks a drop from 24 such performers among 92 nominees in 2025 and 30 among the nominees in 2024, which had been considered a landmark year for diversity at the awards. The total nominee pool grew by one slot this year, to 95 available spaces across the lead, supporting and guest acting categories, but four performers — Matthew Rhys, Nick Offerman, Jason Bateman and Colman Domingo — each picked up two nominations apiece, shrinking the number of individual nominees to 91.
Several categories were filled entirely with white nominees this year, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Representation among openly LGBTQ+ nominees also fell short in several divisions, with all three Lead Actor categories and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series going without an openly queer nominee.
Despite the overall decline, several nominees made history. Sepideh Moafi became the first performer of Iranian descent recognized in a dramatic acting category, earning a nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role in HBO’s “The Pitt.” Salli Richardson-Whitfield became the first Black woman to receive two directing nominations in a single year, recognized for both “The Gilded Age” and “Task.”
British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed returned to the Emmy field with a lead actor nomination for “Bait,” while Netflix’s “Beef” was a major contributor to this year’s Korean and Latino representation, earning nominations for stars Youn Yuh-jung, Charles Melton and Oscar Isaac.
The figures drew swift reaction online, including a Breitbart column accusing the television industry of hypocrisy over its public embrace of diversity initiatives. TheWrap’s own report on the numbers noted the decline arrived amid ongoing political debate over corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and conservative pushback against them.
The Television Academy has not issued a statement addressing the nomination breakdown.
This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.