Special Report

27 Most Popular Emmy Nominated Shows

Steven Peters, Charles Stockdale

Published: September 7, 2017 9:57 am

Last Updated: April 7, 2020 9:18 am

Each year the Emmy Awards are presented to “recognize excellence within various areas of television and emerging media,” according to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. This is largely a formal type of recognition, however, as most of the programs nominated for awards are already hugely popular and loved by fans.

One way that this popularity can be measured is by reviewing the online ratings given to Emmy-nominated programs by viewers. There are 227 programs nominated for an Emmy this year, including documentaries, short films, TV series, TV episodes, and commercials. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed TV shows with 10,000 or more reviews on popular online movie and television database IMDb. And 27 of these have average ratings of 8.5 or higher.

In many cases, shows with higher IMDb ratings also have more award nominations. The 27 shows with the highest ratings have 203 combined Emmy nominations this year. While some of these popular programs do not have many Emmys from past years, this is generally due to the shows not having been on air for very long. It appears that viewers and the Academy of Television Arts & Science are in agreement: The shows that get the highest ratings from fans are also those that receive the most recognition from the Emmys.

This trend is consistent on a historical scale, as well. For instance, “Saturday Night Live” has had 231 Emmy nominations since its conception – the most for any program ever. The show also has an online rating of 8.1 out of 10, which is a relatively high score. Even HBO’s smash hit “Game of Thrones” – which was neglected by the Emmys this year – scored 12 wins at the 2016 awards. This was more than any other program that year. GoT is currently rated 9.5 out of 10.

Click here to see the 27 most popular Emmy nominated TV shows.
Click here to see our methodology.

27. The Walking Dead
> IMDb rating: 8.5
> Current Emmy nominations: 1
> Past Emmy performance: 2 wins / 15 nominations
> Year released: 2010

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26. Modern Family
> IMDb rating: 8.5
> Current Emmy nominations: 3
> Past Emmy performance: 22 wins / 77 nominations
> Year released: 2009

25. Adventure Time
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 1
> Past Emmy performance: 6 wins / 12 nominations
> Year released: 2010

24. Taboo
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 2
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2017

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23. Mr. Robot
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 3
> Past Emmy performance: 2 wins / 6 nominations
> Year released: 2015

22. Atlanta
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 6
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

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21. Silicon Valley
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 10
> Past Emmy performance: 2 wins / 23 nominations
> Year released: 2014

20. The Night Of
> IMDb rating: 8.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 13
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

19. Archer
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 1
> Past Emmy performance: 1 wins / 4 nominations
> Year released: 2009

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18. Shameless
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 2
> Past Emmy performance: 2 wins / 10 nominations
> Year released: 2011

17. Vikings
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 3
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 8 nominations
> Year released: 2013

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16. Better Call Saul
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 9
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 14 nominations
> Year released: 2015

15. The Handmaid’s Tale
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 13
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2017

14. Big Little Lies
> IMDb rating: 8.7
> Current Emmy nominations: 16
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2017

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13. South Park
> IMDb rating: 8.8
> Current Emmy nominations: 1
> Past Emmy performance: 4 wins / 16 nominations
> Year released: 1997

12. The Simpsons
> IMDb rating: 8.8
> Current Emmy nominations: 2
> Past Emmy performance: 32 wins / 85 nominations
> Year released: 1989

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11. This Is Us
> IMDb rating: 8.8
> Current Emmy nominations: 10
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

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10. The Crown
> IMDb rating: 8.8
> Current Emmy nominations: 13
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

9. Black Mirror
> IMDb rating: 8.9
> Current Emmy nominations: 3
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2011

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8. Stranger Things
> IMDb rating: 8.9
> Current Emmy nominations: 18
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

7. O.J.: Made In America
> IMDb rating: 9.0
> Current Emmy nominations: 6
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

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6. House Of Cards
> IMDb rating: 9.0
> Current Emmy nominations: 7
> Past Emmy performance: 6 wins / 46 nominations
> Year released: 2013

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5. Fargo
> IMDb rating: 9.0
> Current Emmy nominations: 16
> Past Emmy performance: 5 wins / 36 nominations
> Year released: 2014

4. Westworld
> IMDb rating: 9.0
> Current Emmy nominations: 22
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

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3. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
> IMDb rating: 9.1
> Current Emmy nominations: 8
> Past Emmy performance: 4 wins / 10 nominations
> Year released: 2014

2. Sherlock
> IMDb rating: 9.2
> Current Emmy nominations: 4
> Past Emmy performance: 9 wins / 35 nominations
> Year released: 2010

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1. Planet Earth II
> IMDb rating: 9.6
> Current Emmy nominations: 10
> Past Emmy performance: 0 wins / 0 nominations
> Year released: 2016

Methodology:
To identify the 27 most popular Emmy-nominated shows, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed average IMDb ratings for TV shows nominated for at least one Emmy award with at least 10,000 user reviews and a rating of at least 8.5 on IMDb. Overall ratings for TV series were used for episodes nominated separately. Ties were broken by the number of Emmy awards the show is nominated for this year followed by how many total awards each program has received over its lifetime.

Nonprofit organization The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (The Television Academy) runs the Emmy Awards, an annual event. This year, 227 programs received at least one nomination. 82 shows, some of which are comprised of several programs, were considered. Past Emmy wins and nominations came from the Emmy’s website.