Abbott Elementary and Only Murders In The Building Eye Emmys Opening
Only Murders in the Building has a clearer path back into Best Comedy Series contention after The Studio dropped out of this year’s race by filming its second season. Abbott Elementary is in the same lane, and the category now looks more open than it did when The Studio won in 2024.
Hacks Sets the Target
Hacks won Best Comedy Series for its third season in 2024, after losing to Ted Lasso in its first two seasons. It returned after a year off because of the WGA and SAG strikes, and Gold Derby’s prediction data currently makes it the odds-on favorite again.
That leaves Abbott Elementary and Only Murders in the Building trying to work through a race that has already rewarded repeat contenders. The category has done that before: Schitt’s Creek could not even get nominated until its fifth season, then swept the comedy categories for its sixth and final season in 2020.
Emmy History Favors Patience
Veep kept collecting lead actress wins for Julia Louis-Dreyfus in its first three seasons before taking down Modern Family in Season 4 in 2015. Modern Family had already been a five-time comedy series champ by then, which is the kind of ceiling Abbott and Only Murders are trying to break through now.
Seinfeld did not win Best Comedy Series until its fourth season in 1993, after first being nominated the year before. Friends won for its eighth and final season in 2002, while Everybody Loves Raymond first competed in 1999 during its third season before winning in Seasons 7 and 9, in 2003 and 2005.
A Rare Open Lane
Barney Miller finally got its due with its eighth and final season in 1982, another reminder that Emmy voters have often waited before moving a comedy to the front of the line. This year’s opening is simpler: The Studio is busy filming its second season, so the field no longer has last year’s winner sitting in the way.
That makes Abbott Elementary and Only Murders in the Building the shows to watch in a category that has a history of late-arriving winners. The cleanest read is that the race is open enough for a long-running series to slip through, but not open enough to give anyone a lock while Hacks still sits on top of the predictions.
