There’s a New Frontrunner in the Prestige TV Arms Race

Apple TV+ may not be a streaming juggernaut quite yet, but this year's Emmy nominations made one thing abundantly clear: It’s no longer the underdog. With Severance nabbing 27 nominations and The Studio cleaning up with 23 in the comedy categories, Apple has planted itself firmly in the upper echelon of prestige television. 

Yes, HBO (which includes HBO Max) is still the critical top dog overall, racking up 142 nominations. Netflix follows with 121. Apple trails with 79, but similar to when an undeniably impact album doesn’t hit on the albums charts, the numbers aren’t what matters the most here. What Apple TV+ lacks in quantity, it more than made up for in punch. Both Severance and The Studio dominated not just critical conversation but fan culture. They’re Reddit rabbit holes about what the fuck Severance is actually about. They’re X-ready memes birthed straight from The Studio still populating your timeline. These shows were truly inescapable. 

Apple TV+ is curating a cohesive roster of programming that feels like it was built to consume you brain for weeks on end, something HBO, at its peak, was the master of. While it never had the quantity, it dominated Sunday nights by way of series like The Sopranos and The Wire—shows that changed serialized storytelling and influenced almost every piece of so-called “prestige TV” in their wake. Memes drawn from both still dot the timeline—Wee-Bey’s reaction to Stringer telling him he shot a cop will live forever—but they’ve ceded space to newer moments from Apple TV+ and other platforms. 

Severance, with its Kafkaesque commentary on corporate life, has become the kind of show viewers obsessively rewatch for clues. The Studio, meanwhile, walks toes the line between smart and silly, which shouldn’t be a shock, considering it was birthed by the minds of Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg. Add some other hits, including Slow Horses and Shrinking, and you’ve got a roster that can’t be denied. 

To be clear, HBO is not slouching—The Pitt is a bona fide cultural event, and Apple TV+ doesn’t have the decades-long catalog or audience scale of its competitors. But Apple’s current rise signals that “prestige TV” arms race has a new frontrunner.