If the Emmys Were a Popularity Contest, ‘Fallout’ Would Be a Shoo-in on Sunday

Walton Goggins is a terrific character actor who we believe is long overdue for an Emmy. He may not be the favorite to take home the Best Actor in a Drama Series trophy on Sunday, but he’s a winner in Nielsen’s book.

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With probably too much time on their hands, the researchers at the TV ratings company ranked the nominees in the top seven Emmys categories by the number of hours that Americans viewed during the Emmys eligibility period , June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024. The results bare almost zero correlation or causation to what will happen this weekend, but it’s fun?

Goggins had one hell of an eligibility period and led the lead-actors group with 363.9 million viewing hours during the 12-month period. “Fallout” was the biggest single slice of the pie, but Nielsen also counts here “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 3, the “Justified” sequel series , and anything else Goggins has ever been in — so long as the viewing matched the eligibility period. All of that catch-up viewing of “Justified” (2010-2015; Goggins got his only other Emmy nom in 2011) ahead of “Justified: City Primeval” or earlier “Gemstones” seasons (or even “Vice Principals,” our recommendation) counts as well.

With 162.1 million viewing hours, “Fallout” Season 1 topped “The Crown” Season 6 (100.1 million hours), and “Shōgun” Season 1 (99.7 million hours). Though Nielsen counted almost anything viewed within the Emmys eligibility period for actors and actresses, it only counted the current nominated season for shows themselves.

After its tip of the cowboy hat to Goggins, Nielsen curtsied to Jennifer Aniston.

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Aniston, nominated alongside Reese Witherspoon for Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show,” amassed a massive 1.7 billion viewing hours for the year. But that has very little to do with Alex Levy and everything to do with Rachel Green.

Whether or not you find “The Bear” to be a comedy, the Emmy Awards do. Lead actor Jeremy Allen White’s 500 million viewing hours in the eligibility period are credited more to “Shameless” on Paramount+ than his chef dramedy on Hulu. No shade to “The Bear” — Season 2 led the other Best Comedy noms with 97.6 million viewing hours.

For Nielsen, Best Actress in a Comedy should go to Selena Gomez (164.8 million viewing hours) of “Only Murders in the Building” over White’s current co-star Ayo Edebiri (158.4 million hours).

Nielsen did not forget about you, limited series. In a bit of a surprise, “True Detective: Night Country” bested “Baby Reindeer” by just a few million hours of viewing. It helped that the latest “True Detective” install had a few more months of availability in the Emmys window than Richard Gadd’s sensationalist Netflix sensation.