• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 16, 2025

Premium, diverse TV/streaming original shows -- now more than ever -- get needed marketing/promo spin when they win Emmy awards.

This is the case even with TV shows and performers that were previously and/or lesser honored with Emmy awards.

Overall, the top Emmy award earners per company/streamer are Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO/HBO Max) and Netflix. Each pulled in 30 Emmy statuettes, followed by Apple TV+ with 22.

Even continuing shows -- not just shiny new TV series -- see spikes after the Emmy awards show in early September.

Take HBO Max’s “Hacks,” for example, completing its fourth season.

Last September, "Hacks" -- which already was a big winner in previous seasons -- averaged 5.4 million weekly minutes watched from September 6-12 2024, according to Luminate streaming viewership.

The following week of the Emmys broadcast, it more than doubled viewing to 13.3 million minutes, then went up another 48% in the next week to 19.7 million minutes.

This year, Jean Smart won her fourth Emmy for Best Actress in the Comedy Series. Should we expect more of the same?

New HBO Max “The Pitt” was the big winner this past Sunday night, winning the Best Drama award, three awards in total. Analysts say expectation is assured that bigger audiences will tally up for the show now.

Last year, Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” rocketed from 8.4 million weekly minutes the week before the Emmy show to 48.8 million -- and doubled that the following week. The show won six Emmys last year.

Even heavily nominated TV shows that don’t win the biggest awards (drama or comedy show, actor/actress) also get a boost, even if they don’t eventually win any -- or many -- awards.

This year, Apple’s “Severance” -- which just completed its third season (2022 to 2024) -- tallied 27 nominations, winning two awards for best lead actress and best supporting actor. It also won five Creative Arts Emmy awards.

The show was nominated for 14 awards after its first season. Although it won no awards that year, Season Two viewing minutes soared 218% versus Season One.

Advertising/promo for TV shows comes in all shapes and sizes. What might also need to factor in is a show’s release schedule.

Netflix is one of few streamers that continues to release an entire season of episodes all at once -- where “binging” can quickly pull in loyal viewers but may have lesser effect on casual viewers. Parrot Analytics has said: “It’s clear that more weekly-based shows seem to resonate more overall."

But there is another side to the argument. Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said at a UCLA law event 2023: "There's no data to support that weekly is better, and it's not as good of a consumer experience.”

Apart from major hardware wins for Netflix now, consider the in-season promo efforts -- including advertising messages -- that viewers absorb while on Netflix's ever-popular home page/navigation operating system.

For Netflix, continued in-season spikes in viewing is a massive ad tool for the streamer in the long-term effort for pulling in viewers to watch certain shows.

Winning a few high-profile industry awards doesn't hurt either.