The Bear didn’t quite cook in season three, but it (still) has a nice simmer going.
The hit FX series landed 13 Emmy Award nominations on Tuesday — an impressive total, until you consider the prior Emmys. This time last year, season two of The Bear set a new comedy series record with 23 Emmy noms. (Whether or not you consider The Bear a comedy, the Television Academy does.) The feat broke 30 Rock’s prior record of 22 nominations set in 2009. (No one doubts 30 Rock’s genre.)
Newcomer The Studio season one just tied The Bear’s season-two comedy record with 23 nominations of its own.
Last year, only Shōgun — another FX series — had more nominations than The Bear, with 25. This time around, seven shows have more nominations than The Bear season three: Severance, The Penguin, The Studio, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, Andor and Hacks. Adolescence and The Pitt both tied The Bear with 13 nominations apiece.
Specifically, the third season of The Bear was nominated for casting, directing (Ayo Edebiri), picture editing, lead actor (Jeremy Allen White), lead actress (Edebiri), supporting actor (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), supporting actress (Liza Colón-Zayas), guest actor (Jon Bernthal), guest actress (twice, for Olivia Colman and Jamie Lee Curtis), sound editing, sound mixing, and the biggie, outstanding comedy series.
While last year was an embarrassment of riches in terms of nominations for The Bear, it didn’t actually win the awards at the same pace as it did with season one.
At the September 2024 Emmy Awards, Moss-Bachrach won for supporting actor in a comedy series, his second in the category for the show; White won the Emmy for actor in a comedy series. Colón-Zayas won her first Emmy for supporting actress in a comedy series, making history as she became the first Latina to win in the category. Christopher Storer took home the Emmy for best directing for the “Fishes” episode. Bernthal and Curtis won the Emmy in their respective guest categories at the Creative Arts Emmys. The Bear season two lost in the comedy series category to Max’s Hacks — the FX program won the trophy its first time out.
All told, The Bear season two won 11 Emmys; season one won 10 (out of 13 nominations).
The Bear season three was not as well-received as the first two. Season four, which premiered recently with very little promotion, recovered a bit among general audience scores, according to Rotten Tomatoes — but it was down some from the prior season among critics. As a summer show, The Bear is basically a year behind in awards season vs. actual TV season — so check back with us about season four nominations in exactly one year.
The 77th Emmy Awards, hosted by Nate Bargatze, will air live on September 14, 2025 on CBS.