Apple TV has emerged as the streaming platform to beat this awards season, capturing half of the Best Drama series nominations at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards unveiled Monday — a remarkable achievement that signals the tech giant’s arrival as a major force in prestige television.
Three of the six nominations in the coveted Best Drama TV series category belong to Apple — the mind-bending workplace thriller Severance, the darkly humorous espionage drama Slow Horses and the breakout new sci-fi series Pluribus. That puts Apple ahead of streaming rivals Netflix and HBO Max, which each landed only one drama series nomination in the category.
Apple TV eclipses Netflix and HBO in prestige TV with Golden Globes nominations
Apple’s dominance in TV drama Golden Globe nominations — as well as scads of past nominations and awards — highlight its carefully calibrated approach to content. Rather than flooding the market with hundreds of titles like some competitors, Apple TV (formerly Apple TV+) has focused on fewer, higher-quality productions featuring A-list talent and acclaimed creators.
This strategy appears to be paying dividends. In the Best Drama category, Apple’s three nominations dwarf Netflix’s single entry (The Diplomat) and HBO Max’s contenders The Pitt and The White Lotus. While The White Lotus led all TV shows with six total nominations, Apple’s dominance in the drama category — arguably the most prestigious television honor — represents a significant shift in the streaming landscape.
Netflix secured 22 TV nominations overall and 35 total nominations across film and television, the most of any distributor. However, Apple’s concentration of nominations in top-tier categories, particularly drama series, suggests a different kind of success — one focused on critical prestige rather than sheer volume.
3 distinct visions, 1 dominant platform
Each of Apple’s nominated dramas brings something unique to the table. Severance, now in its second season, continues to captivate audiences with its dystopian premise about employees whose memories are surgically divided between work and personal lives. Adam Scott leads the cast as Mark Scout, earning himself a Golden Globes Best Actor nomination, while Britt Lower secured a Best Actress nod and Tramell Tillman received recognition for Best Supporting Actor. The show’s intricate exploration of work-life balance and corporate control has resonated deeply with critics and viewers alike.
Slow Horses brings a darkly comic take on espionage to the awards conversation. The series follows a team of British intelligence agents relegated to a dumping-ground department of MI5 after career-ending mistakes, led by the brilliant but irascible Jackson Lamb, played by Academy Award winner Gary Oldman. This marks Oldman’s third Golden Globe nomination in this category for the role, underscoring the show’s consistent quality across multiple seasons.
The newest addition to Apple’s drama slate, Pluribus, represents perhaps the most intriguing entry. Created by Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad fame and starring Rhea Seehorn, who stood out in Gilligan’s Better Call Saul spinoff, the “genre-bending original” follows “the most miserable person on Earth” who must “save the world from happiness.” Seehorn earned a Best Actress nomination for her lead performance, adding to the show’s buzz as one of the season’s most talked-about debuts.
Apple’s broader awards haul
Beyond the drama category dominance, Apple TV secured 14 total nominations across six titles, demonstrating depth across multiple genres. The Studio, which recently became the most Emmy-winning freshman comedy ever, picked up a Best Comedy Series nomination along with acting nods for Seth Rogen and Catherine O’Hara.
Apple’s acclaimed feature film F1 also made waves with nominations for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Best Original Score for Hans Zimmer. The Brad Pitt-led racing drama has already broken records as “the highest-grossing sports feature of all time” and collected seven Critics Choice Award nominations.
The Morning Show continued its awards momentum with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Billy Crudup — his third in the category, reflecting the show’s sustained quality over multiple seasons.
Building on Emmy success
The Golden Globe nominations build on Apple’s recent awards momentum. The platform garnered 72 Emmy nominations in 2024, with The Studio and the beloved comedy Ted Lasso among the winners. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have accumulated 658 wins and 2,958 award nominations.
Previous Golden Globe wins include Lily Gladstone’s groundbreaking 2024 victory for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Paul Walter Hauser’s 2023 win for Black Bird. The platform’s Oscar success includes the Best Picture win for CODA, cementing Apple’s credentials as a serious player in both film and television.
What’s behind the success?
Industry observers point to several factors driving Apple’s awards success. The company’s willingness to give creators substantial budgets and creative freedom has attracted top talent like Gilligan, who could have taken Pluribus to any platform. The prestige of working with Apple — combined with the resources to realize ambitious visions — creates a virtuous cycle.
Apple’s integrated approach also helps. The company doesn’t just produce content. It creates entire ecosystems where shows benefit from promotion across Apple devices and services. This built-in distribution advantage, combined with a subscription model free of ads, allows for the kind of risk-taking that produces awards-worthy content.
The nominations also reflect savvy timing. All three drama series represent either highly anticipated returns (Severance, Slow Horses) or buzzworthy debuts (Pluribus), giving voters plenty of recent material to consider.
Looking ahead
The 83rd Golden Globe Awards ceremony will air on January 11, 2026, when Apple will learn whether its nominations translate into wins. Even if the platform doesn’t sweep the night, the nominations represent a significant milestone in Apple’s entertainment evolution — from tech company dabbling in content to a dominant force in prestige television.
For rivals Netflix and HBO, Apple’s rise presents a formidable challenge. The streaming wars are increasingly becoming quality wars, where critical acclaim matters as much as subscriber counts. In that battle, Apple TV has just demonstrated it can compete with, and even exceed, the industry’s most established players.
As Apple’s press release proudly noted, the platform “became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut.”
With half the Golden Globe drama nominations now under its belt, that claim rings truer than ever.
Watch great dramas on Apple TV
You can stream Severance, Slow Horses, Pluribus and more on Apple TV. It’s available by subscription for $12.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
In November 2019, “Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 658 wins and 2,958 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
Those include multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy Ted Lasso and historic Oscar Best Picture winner CODA.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
