The folks in Culver City (and Cupertino) will be celebrating today after Apple landed 87 Emmy nominations thanks to huge hauls from new series including Widow’s Bay, Pluribus and Margot’s Got Money Troubles as well as returners including Slow Horses and Shrinking.

It will be particularly pleased that it landed three nominations in both the Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, including a somewhat surprising nod for Your Friends and Neighbors in the former.

Widow’s Bay landed 19 nominations including for stars Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn, in her incredible turn as eccentric assistant Patricia, Dale Dickey, for her chain-smoking sarcasm as Rosemary, and Stephen Root for his obstinate Wyck Crawford. Pluribus was just below with 18 nominations, the most Vince Gilligan has ever received for a first season of one of his shows. Shrinking added another nine, including one for Michael J. Fox, as did Gary Oldman-led Slow Horses and Margo’s Got Money Troubles got eight including for Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman.

The streamer, which came in third, managed all of this on far fewer show submissions than its rivals Netflix and HBO, which submitted 125 and 86 shows respectively, compared to Apple’s 31.

Deadline spoke to Matt Cherniss, Apple’s head of programming, about the nominations.

DEADLINE: Congrats on the 79 Emmy nominations. What’s the mood in the camp this morning?

MATT CHERNISS: Everyone’s really, really excited. It’s [nice] to take some time out for everyone to celebrate all the great shows, and the response from critics and the audience. These are nice days. Everyone does so much great work, and for them to get acknowledged, and to be able to call them and congratulate everyone as well, is a lot of fun. I talked to Katie [Dippold] early, just after the nominations, and she was thrilled.

DEADLINE: You had a great year last year with The Studio and Severance, did you expect to better that this year?

CHERNISS: I don’t know that I had an expectation about a specific number, I knew that we had some really good shows up for awards this year in a lot of the different categories. I think more than anything else, we just continue to believe in the quality over quantity strategy, and that’s the best path forward. I believe we had 15 different shows nominated this year, we had 31 [show] submissions, so that kind of track record, and that kind of conversion, I think is rewarding in that it backs up sort of our strategy.

DEADLINE: Widow’s Bay is one of the stories of the day, 19 nominations is a great haul for a new show.

CHERNISS: It’s a tricky thing, balancing the timing and deadlines for certain awards shows with the decision about where you think the show can be most successful on your service, and how you can get the biggest audience possible to it. I think that, in this case, we were looking at our schedule and looking for a moment in time that we felt like we could give the show everything that it deserved, and I’m definitely glad that we got the best of both worlds, and that we were able to have a later start than maybe is common, but also get the show the nominations and the kudos that Katie and Hiro and Matthew and the entire team deserved.

DEADLINE: You must also be pleased with the 18 nominations for Pluribus.

CHERNISS: Pluribus is an amazing show, and it’s been an amazing year to watch the audience and all of the awards’ notoriety that it’s gained, and Vince and everyone involved in that show has been fantastic. It’s been a fun ride.

DEADLINE: Slow Horses, which is a show that makes me miss London, also got its third straight nomination in Outstanding Drama Series. How long can that go on for?

CHERNISS: That show is produced out of our UK team, and Jay Hunt and her team does an amazing job with the show. Just as a fan of it, I’ll say, I hope it never stops. I think that the storytelling and the characters on that show are really one of a kind, and you know it’s no surprise to me that it continues to get acknowledged season after season. I think it just keeps getting better season after season.

DEADLINE: Not to bring the mood down, but any disappointments this morning? The Morning Show only got one nomination after landing an Outstanding Drama Series nod in 2024.

CHERNISS: I think that all these shows do incredible work, and they all deserve to be acknowledged. There isn’t one show that jumps out to me that I felt like that. I feel, frankly, they all should have gotten more, but I know there’s only so much to go around.

DEADLINE: Have you made a decision as to whether the next season of The Morning Show will be its last?

CHERNISS: That’s something that continues to be a conversation with producers. I think that we will be making those decisions in the near future, and talking to Jen and Reese and the team there about what they want the future of the show to be.

DEADLINE: Not to look too far ahead, but you’ll also have Ted Lasso back for next year’s Emmys.

CHERNISS: It’s great, I feel like we have the best comedy brand in the business, and to be able to go from a season with Shrinking and Widow’s Bay and Margot’s Got Money Troubles to next year with Ted Lasso and The Studio coming back. We’re in a really good place as a service. We feel really, really confident about our slate, and the shows, and we’re excited that the audience is coming along for the ride.

DEADLINE: Have you started on Season five of Ted Lasso yet?

CHERNISS: Jason’s still hard at work on season four, and I know he’s looking to jump into the next season soon, but to my knowledge, I don’t think we’ve gotten started on it yet.

DEADLINE: You mentioned the comedy strategy and you did very well in drama, now you just have to start doing more limited series, right?

CHERNISS: I think of them more as individual shows than categories, but I think we have some big ones for next year. I’ll just leave it at that.

DEADLINE: For years, the question has been asked, ‘Is The Bear a comedy?’. Is Widow’s Bay a comedy?

CHERNISS: For the purposes of these categories, I think that that’s a fair thing to do. I certainly laugh at the show. I guess at the end of the day, the audience will decide, or I should say the voters will decide, whether they feel like a show qualifies or not. They nominated this as a comedy, so I think that it is one of the scariest comedies I’ve seen, but, but I feel comfortable with the show in that category.

DEADLINE: To paraphrase Dale Dickey’s Rosemary, some people might have some qualms.

CHERNISS: Well, it’s fantastic people are quoting Dale.

DEADLINE: You must be pleased for the likes of Dale, Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root in supporting and Hamish Linklater and Betty Gilpin in guest spots.

CHERNISS: The casting on Widows’ Bay is amazing. Katie and Hiro’s instincts for the show, have just been incredible, and I think they hit the mark on every one of them.

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