Updated August 1, 2023 2.5K votes 586 voters 43.8K views
Over 500 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Most Outrageous Emmy Snubs of All Time
Latest additions: Andy Griffith, Hugh Dancy, Phylicia Rashād
Most divisive: Roseanne
Think you know it all when it comes to the Emmy Awards? You may be surprised to learn that a number of favorite TV shows, actors and actresses who seemed deserving never won - and in some cases, were never even nominated - for major awards by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Yes, from long-running hit shows like Married...With Children (which was never even nominated for an Outsanding Comedy Series Emmy) and The Wire, to veteran actors like Michael Landon, Jim Nabors and Nick Offerman, many have been denied recognition by the Academy. Some of the snubbed actors and shows on this list may have managed to snag a nomination or two, but none of them ever won for their incredible hard work and talent. Even worse, many were never even nominated. Read on and be amazed at some of the biggest, most heinous Emmy snubs ever.
Despite snagging an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win, Steve Carell has never won an Emmy-- a fact that is especially heinous considering his tenure as the hilarious and iconic Michael Scott on The Office. He was nominated six times for playing well-meaning boss of a paper company, but never managed to bring home the statue. The show itself took home the prize for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2006.
In all, Angela Lansbury has been nominated for 18 Emmys, but she has never won. Lansbury is obviously best known for Murder, She Wrote, but she was also nominated for roles in Law & Order, and the TV movies The Blackwater Lightship and Little Gloria... Happy at Last.
HBO's The Wire was just a first-rate, brilliant series - yet for some absolutely inexcusable reason, it was completely ignored by the Academy, meaning no Emmy nominations EVER for Best Drama. Come on! Over five seasons, the show only got two Emmy nominations total - for writing in 2005 and 2008. (For the record, it lost both times.) Kudos, at least, for Idris Elba's 2011 Emmy nomination for the BBC mystery series Luther - awesome as he was as The Wire's Russell 'Stringer' Bell, the Academy never noticed.
Perhaps no character was more beloved or inspired more Internet love than Parks and Recreation's terse, libertarian Ron Swanson, probably the funniest fervent right-winger on TV since Alex P. Keaton. From his now-legendary "Pyramid of Greatness" presentation, his anti-government rant using a little girl's lunch as a visual aid, his attempts to eat despite suffering from a hernia and his imploring a waiter to bring him "all the bacon and eggs you have," 2011 felt like actor Nick Offerman's year. This one seemed like a lock. And he doesn't even score a nomination? It was nice of the Academy to recognize Amy Poehler's great work on the show, but this was a major oversight.
Cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer was never once nominated for a Best Dramatic Series Emmy award. The show was nominated frequently for technical achievements - including Outstanding Makeup, Visual Effects and Music Composition - and series creator Joss Whedon got a nomination in 2000 for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Still, it seems a crime that the show - and its ensemble cast of talented actors, including Sarah Michelle Gellar - never got recognized.
167 VOTESDespite snagging an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win, Steve Carell has never won an Emmy-- a fact that is especially heinous considering his tenure as the hilarious and iconic Michael Scott on The Office. He was nominated six times for playing well-meaning boss of a paper company, but never managed to bring home the statue. The show itself took home the prize for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2006.
232 VOTESIn all, Angela Lansbury has been nominated for 18 Emmys, but she has never won. Lansbury is obviously best known for Murder, She Wrote, but she was also nominated for roles in Law & Order, and the TV movies The Blackwater Lightship and Little Gloria... Happy at Last.
3120 VOTESHBO's The Wire was just a first-rate, brilliant series - yet for some absolutely inexcusable reason, it was completely ignored by the Academy, meaning no Emmy nominations EVER for Best Drama. Come on! Over five seasons, the show only got two Emmy nominations total - for writing in 2005 and 2008. (For the record, it lost both times.) Kudos, at least, for Idris Elba's 2011 Emmy nomination for the BBC mystery series Luther - awesome as he was as The Wire's Russell 'Stringer' Bell, the Academy never noticed.
