Apart from the unique appearance of certain non-flying waterfowls, the Saturday night WGA Awards were a familiar event.
“Hack” won the second trophy in four years of Best Comedy Series, and the second trophy in the same span of Best Episode Comedy, and continued the victory parade that began with 2024 Emmy, and headed the top It confused the “bear” of. award. This hot streak continued until 2025, winning the American Casting Society, Costume Designer Guild Award, Director Guild Award, Producer Guild Award, AFI Award and more. With season four closing production in January, Max Originals from creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Stasky should be taking part as presumed favorites for the 2025 Emmy season.
The season’s dominant drama “shōgun” won’t make it to compete in 2025 – the writer’s room is still plugged in for Season 2 – but that season 1 winning streak also has the WGA awards marked by Justin And then Rachel Condo brought home the Best Drama Series, Best Episode Drama and Best New Series. More wins at the SAG Awards will be added to the mantle to support recognition from the Art Director Guild (given on Saturday), CSA, CDG, DGA, PGA and AFI awards. Needless to say. Independent Spirit Awards (“shōgun” each have five nominations) – and the odds are awards that remember large epics whenever voters return.
Additional winners included “Bob’s Burger.” This brought home the animation honor for the episode “Save Your Favorite Drive-Ins” written by Katie Crown. Comedy/Variety Series – “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver for a talk or sketch. For comedy/variety specials, “Nikki Glaser: One day you will die.” “Bob’s Burger” has been nominated 16 times over 11 seasons and has now won two. “Tonight with John Oliver Last Week” has won eight times in 10 years. Both are expected to gain more Emmy love in 2025, and are extremely successful throughout their respective runs.
Overall, there were few opportunities for new Emmy competitors to bending their strength. There is a new series nominated for the Best Comedy series, and a new show “Fallout”, “Mr. Smith” and “Shogun” that has been nominated for Best Drama – no one will compete this year. Even the new series categories are sparse, “English teacher” and “No one wants this” can’t crack the best comedy series races and beat “shōgun” in shared categories Needless to say. (The new series does not distinguish between comedy and drama.)
However, there is its unique “penguin.” The fall favourite of Lauren Lafranc, a hybrid of Legacy HBO Dramas and Warner Bros. Discovery IP, hit the estimated Frontrunner on Saturday night, beating the Best Limited series “Ripley.” The fact that they didn’t have to compete with “baby reindeer,” who won last year’s Emmy Awards but didn’t qualify for the WGA Award, may have helped prevent it from looking as repetitive as all other categories. However, “Penguin” is besting “Ripley,” FX’s “Say Nothing,” HBO’s own “True Detective: Night Country,” and Apple TV+ Summer Sensation’s “Presumed Innocence” are still impressive.
Still, the victory isn’t entirely out of the left field. As Indiewire pointed out in January when “The Penguin” landed three SAG nominations, “Batman” spinoff is becoming Emmy’s heavyweight. He drew in three DGA nominations (before he lost to Ripley) and PGA nominations (where he lost to Baby Reindeer), but now the Penguins are winning. In addition to the WGA Award, the series won the AFI Award, winning two of four critical selection categories, and honoring the Art Director Guild Award for Best Limited Series and Special Makeup Effects from Makeup I won the award. Hairstylist Guild – The latter happens on Saturday nights.
And “penguins” may not be performed – this winter or this year. Colin Farrell is his current favorite for winning the SAG Award, and Cristin Milioti has a decent shot with winning the Indie Spirit Award. As for Emmys, all bets are off. With a wide range of appeal to all TV Academy branches and HBO’s model awards teams, and running the campaign, “The Penguin” should have a big presence on big TV nights. As always, you’ll need to wait for the features of the Spring release. Netflix has “Zero Day” and “Adolescence”, Apple has “Studio” and “Dope Thief” and Full has “Die for Sex” and HBO. The “task” is also performed, but “Penguin” certainly reflects the steady appearance of the character in the title as a new boss.
