How new seasons of ‘The Bear’ and ‘Squid Game’ will impact their Emmy hopes for previous seasons

LennanEntertainment2025-07-031120

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways

You're only as good as your last season at the Emmys — even if that season is not eligible.The strategy of dropping a new season of a show while you're competing for the previous season is nothing new, especially with cable and streaming series unburdened by the September-through-May broadcast season schedule. Voters have something new to chew on while they're technically voting for the previous season (Emmy eligibility is June 1-May 31). Mad Men's first four seasons premiered in in July or August, around the Emmy nominations announcements or Phase 2 voting. The AMC show, of course, won Best Drama Series for those four seasons.Four years ago, Apple TV+ shrewdly scheduled Season 2 of Ted Lasso to premiere on July 23, 10 days after nominations and 11 months after the series premiere. After becoming everyone's comfort show during the pandemic, Ted was already the comedy front-runner, but Season 2 locked in Brett Goldstein's Best Comedy Supporting Actor win over three costars for Season 1 with the Roy Kent showcase episode "Rainbow."It was déjà vu two years ago when Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) got his own standout showcase, "Forks," in Season 2 of The Bear, which dropped right before Phase 1 voting closed. That lifted Moss-Bachrach to a Best Comedy Supporting Actor win for Season 1, one of 10 Emmys the breakout hit bagged for its maiden season. "Forks" was Moss-Bachrach's "Rainbow." And last year, "Napkins" was Liza Colón-Zayas' "Forks."That was the Bear star's Tina-centric installment in the uneven third season that premiered after nominations voting end and likely contributed to its shocking Best Comedy Series loss for its beloved second season to Hacks.Which brings us to this year. The Bear dropped all 10 episodes of its fourth season on June 25 (say what you will about The Bear, but it delivers annual seasons — it produced three seasons between Severance's first and second seasons.) Phase 1 voting closed on June 23, so Season 4 has no effect on the nominations for Season 3, which will be announced July 15, but it could impact Phase 2. Squid Game, which won Best Drama Actor for Lee Jung-jae and Best Drama Directing for Hwang Dong-hyuk for Season 1 in 2022, is in the same boat; Squid Game in Emmy contention for its second season and premiered its third and final season on June 27. The commonalities run deeper, though, because both shows are seeking a booster shot for their Emmy-eligible seasons that didn't live up to expectations. But what happens when the new seasons also aren't quite up to par?The Bear's wheel-spinning, Fak-heavy third season lost a lot of the goodwill the show built through its acclaimed first two outings, which only magnified the discourse over the show's classification as a comedy. After its Emmy loss — again, for Season 2 — to Hacks, The Bear flopped at the winter awards, where it contended for its divisive third season. If you're a ride-or-die for The Bear, you probably hoped a strong fourth season landing in the summer would buttress Season 3's Emmy chances. That hasn't exactly happened. The reception to Season 4, by critics and fans, has been... OK. On Metacritic, its critics score is 73, which is down from the 80 it got for Season 3. On Rotten Tomatoes, Season 4 sits at 85 percent, a 4 percent drop from Season 3. That's obviously not disastrous, but it's also not the euphoric acclaim the first two seasons received. Meanwhile, Squid Game Season 3 got comparatively softer reviews, netting a 66 on Metacritic, a four-point increase on Season 2, and 78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, down from Season 2's 83 percent. Unlike The Bear, Squid Game was never as much of a critical darling as The Bear was, but it compensated by being a massive hit its first season, surpassing Bridgerton as Netflix's most-watched show at the time with 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first four weeks. It was loud and noisy, and people loved it, just like they loved The Bear's first two seasons.But now the bloom is off the rose for both. Regardless of the critical reception, the fan reception has not been there, and that's more damning to their potential Emmy bumps. Fan reaction has been mixed at best for The Bear Season 4 and Squid Game Season 3, similar to the reception for their respective third and second seasons. (Squid Game is still generating a ton of eyeballs in Netflix terms, but just because a lot of people are watching, that doesn't mean everyone who watched it loves it.) And worse, neither show has captured the zeitgeist the way their well-received earlier seasons did. Think of how many times you saw that clip of Richie singing "Love Story" recirculated the first weekend of The Bear Season 2. Or everyone tweeting about how much "Fishes" triggered them. Nothing from Season 4 has inspired that level of interest. Squid Game, unfortunately, has the opposite problem, in which the series is prompting viral posts criticizing its A-list cameo, its ending, and this season's cringe VIPs.Now, you might say that fans don't vote for the Emmys. They don't, but buzz matters, especially in an era when voters are watching, like, four shows max. The Bear and Squid Game are big, Emmy-winning series, so it's not a visibility issue, but if a voter was disappointed by their Emmy-eligible previous seasons, they need a reason to check out the new seasons. To have FOMO. To be part of the conversation. And an averagely received season that isn't sparking excitement is not going to get the job done. The Bear, which was renewed for a fifth season on Tuesday, will get a bunch of Emmy nominations. It dropped to fourth place in the Best Comedy Series odds, but it ought to be safely in, in addition to multiple acting categories. Squid Game is in a more precarious position, sitting in eighth place in the Best Drama Series odds, while Lee, currently in seventh place, is not predicted to return to the Best Drama Actor lineup. But no matter the nominations each show gets, their new seasons are leaning more toward "slump" than "bump" for Phase 2.