Monday, August 25, 2025

'Arcane,' 'Love, Death + Robots,' and 'Octopus!' already Emmy Award winners


I closed 'SNL50: The Anniversary Special' leads nominees for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) at the Emmys by telling my readers "I think I will look at the other categories where juries have already declared winners at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards next." They're all in animation and motion design, which gives me an opportunity to re-examine Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Narrator. First, the winners at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards with assistance from Animation Magazine.


Love, Death + Robots may not be favored to win Outstanding Animated Program, but it already has four Emmy Awards, two each for two episodes. "400 Boys" won two Emmys, Daryl Graham for Character Animation and Robert Valley for Character Design. "How Zeke Got Religion" also won two Emmys, Gigi Cavenago for Production Design and Edgar Martins for Storyboard. Congratulations!


Arcane is likely to win Outstanding Animated Program and already has two Emmy Awards. Bruno Couchinho won Background Design for "The Dirt Under Your Nails" and Faustine Dumontier won Color for "The Message Hidden within the Pattern." Congratulations!


Octopus! is unlikely to win Outstanding Narrator, but Minkyung Chung, Michaela Olsen, Hayley Morris, Julie Gratz, Anthony Galante, and Sabrina Chaney won Outstanding Motion Design for the documentary. Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for updated Gold Derby odds in animation, voiceover, and narration.

Outstanding Animated Program
  • Arcane: "The Dirt Under Your Nails" (Netflix)
  • Bob's Burgers: "They Slug Horses, Don't They?" (Fox)
  • Common Side Effects: "Cliff's Edge" (Adult Swim)
  • Love, Death & Robots: "Spider Rose" (Netflix)
  • The Simpsons: "Bart's Birthday" (Fox)
Arcane, Love, Death & Robots, and The Simpsons all have two nominations, while Bob's Burgers and Common Side Effects have just this one. Gold Derby's odds break the tie at the top as all experts, three-quarters of editors, and 88.2% of users have chosen 2022 winner Arcane to return to the podium next month. The other quarter of the editors and 6.3% of users picked 2023 winner The Simpsons to walk off with the statuette. The long-shot picks are Bob's Burgers with 2.8% of users, Common Side Effects with 1.7% of users, and Love, Death & Robots in last with 1.0% of users. Love, Death & Robots will have to get its Emmy elsewhere.
Opinion has consolidated around Arcane, as all of the experts and editors plus 90.7% of users now expect it will win. The rest of the field consists of The Simpsons with 4.6% of users, Bob's Burgers with 1.9, and Common Side Effects and Love, Death & Robots tied at 1.4%. At least more users have moved to Love, Death + Robots, while all the rest of the also-rans have lost support.
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance
  • Julie Andrews – Bridgerton: "Into The Light" as Lady Whistledown (Netflix)
  • Hank Azaria – The Simpsons: "Abe League of Their Moe" as Moe Szyslak (FOX)
  • Maya Rudolph – Big Mouth: "Why Do We Go Through Puberty?" as Connie the Hormone Monstress (Netflix)
  • Alan Tudyk – Andor: "Who Else Knows?" as K-2SO (Disney+)
  • Jeffrey Wright – What If...?: "What If... 1872?" as The Watcher (Disney+)
  • Steven Yeun – Invincible: "What Have I Done?" as Mark Grayson / Invincible (Prime Video)
Gold Derby expects Maya Rudolph to win for the fifth time since 2020 with the support of 85.7% of experts, all editors, and 72.2% of users. Alan Tudyk, who would be one of two nominees who would win a game of "one of these things is not like the others" because he's in a live-action show, sits in second with 14.3% of experts and 13.2% of users. Julie Andrews would be the other contestant in "one of these things is not like the others" and has 8.3% backing her. Steven Yuen has the support of 4.9% of users, while Hank Azaria and Jeffrey Wright are tied at 0.7% of users apiece.
The editors have remained constant in their support for Rudolph, while the experts and users are moving in opposite directions between Rudolph and Tudyk. Expert expectations for Rudolph have declined slightly to 83.3% while increasing for Tudyk to 16.7%. Meanwhile, user support for Rudolph increased to 75.8% while that for Tudyk decreased to 11.8%. The remaining nominees have all lost support, with Yuen at 3.8%, Wright at 0.5%, and Azaria with none.

I close by returning to 'Asia' and 'The Americas' lead nature documentaries at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Outstanding Narrator.
Sir David Attenborough – Planet Earth: Asia: "The Frozen North" (BBC America)
Idris Elba – Erased: WW2's Heroes Of Color: "D-Day" (National Geographic)
Tom Hanks – The Americas: "Andes" (NBC)
Barack Obama – Our Oceans: "Indian Ocean" (Netflix)
Phoebe Waller Bridge – Octopus!: "Part 1" (Prime Video)
The two most nominated series are Planet Earth: Asia and The Americas with two nominations each, one in this category and another for Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score). Erased: WW2's Heroes Of Color, Octopus!, and Our Oceans have just this nomination for their narrators. If this were a program category, those numbers might mean something. Instead, this is a performer category, so I defer to Gold Derby, where every expert, 60% of the editors, and 68.4% of the users have picked Sir David Attenborough to win this award again. Former President Barack Obama is the choice of 40% of the editors and 21.4% of the users. Only 5.1% of the users think Tom Hanks has a chance, followed by 2.7% of the users for Idris Elba and 2.4% of the users for Phoebe Waller Bridge. That's certainly an all-star field of nominated narrators!
There has been a lot of movement among the professionals, although it hasn't affected the odds much, as those depend mostly on the users. Two-thirds of the experts and 72.3% of the users remain behind Sir David, but all of the editors and one-third of the experts have moved to former President Obama, who also has the support of 18.4% of users. Unanimous editor support is enough to make me predict that 2022 and 2023 winner Obama will return to the podium. Meanwhile, user support for Hanks has increased slightly to 5.58%, decreased slightly for Elba to 2.4%, and cratered for Waller Bridge to 1.0%. At least Octopus! already has an Emmy!

That's a wrap for today. I plan on posting something brief, evergreen, and educational tomorrow and possibly continuing my Emmy coverage Wednesday with limited series nominations at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Stay tuned.

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