Bela Bajaria on Netflix’s 2025 Emmy Nominees and the Squid Game Snub

The new Netflix campus in New Jersey might want to dedicate a bit more square footage to its trophy room.

On Tuesday morning, Netflix received 120 nominations for the 2025 Emmy Awards. That’s a ton, only outdone by the combination of HBO and Max (now HBO Max, again) — so first place may be a bit up for debate. This is all temporary anyway: Bela Bajaria vs. Casey Bloys (and maybe Matt Cherniss) won’t really be decided until Sept. 14.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the busy Bajaria a few hours after the Emmy nominees came out. She’s a busy woman, and 44 nominated shows make for a hell of a lot of text chains. Read on to find out which Netflix nominee Bajaria texted first, what show was her snubbiest snub, and if four nods for The Residence made her rethink the decision to cancel the one-and-done whodunit series.

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What’s your reaction to this morning’s results?

Look, I’m so happy and proud to have 120 nominations. But for me, really, the amazing thing is it’s also across 44 titles and 14 different programming categories. Why that’s also important and I’m excited about it — you know, we always aim for excellence in television across every different kind of category, because we know audiences love everything from animation to live to docs to unscripted to drama to comedy to limited to stand-up… To have those all being recognized — that work with all that talent across all of those categories is really exciting and rewarding.

I also love it when we work with this incredible talent who are first-timers, right? This is where they get their first Emmy nomination. And to have the range from somebody like [15-year-old Adolescence star] Owen Cooper — [Adolescence] is actually the first thing that he’s done, to having first-time nominations for people like Javier Bardem (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) and Adam Brody and Kristen Bell (both for Nobody Wants This) and Stephen Graham (Adolescence), who have such a long body of work, such an extensive body work, and then this is their first nomination. That is really rewarding and exciting for us.

You can’t exactly send Owen champagne…

(Laughs) Yes, exactly. He’s gonna get a nice sparkling apple cider or something.

Where were you when the nominations came in?

We do a really great, I think, really fun thing with the team. Many of us, get together in the home theater downstairs on Netflix. It’s PR and the awards team and marketing and executives and everybody from all over, cross-functionally. And we all sit in that room and we all cheer together — it’s so fun.

We’re either on the phone or live-texting our nominees as they get their news, which is so great. It’s a really fun thing because there’s a lot of people, cross-functionally, who work so hard on these — who care so much. Because I think the one thing that is lost sometimes is like, we greenlight something, you champion it, you believe in it… You’re in this journey through all of these shows and the launch and — everybody’s invested, and so it’s really great to kind of do that together in that way.

Who was your very first outgoing text?

OK, you’re keeping me honest here. I’m actually looking at my texts for you…My first one was to Kristen Bell.

My early ones were Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, Adam Sandler (Adam Sandler: Love You), Deb Cahn for The Diplomat — so it kind of went a little bit of like, you know, what [categories were] announced sort of early on — Charlotte Jones for America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. And then I did sort of a group one to to the Adolescence team, because we’re on a group chain.

How do you not make Beyoncé your first text? You wait for the Beyoncé category for that — everyone would understand.

(Laughs) Yes, exactly. I should just wait [for her category].

Never underestimate Queen Bey. Not surprised by Beyoncé Bowl nomination…I bet on Beyoncé all day long.

You probably were right to start with Kristen Bell over Sandler. She’s responsible enough to actually be awake and ready for her day.

(Laughs) Yes, yes.

Ryan Murphy was right in there because Ryan had lots for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story…

So you fell back to second place to HBO and Max — you guys seem to swap slots each year…

Well, look, there’s two different things. They have the combination right of two different things, right? It’s Max plus HBO, which gets them [an advantage]. We play a different game in the sense that we have so many members and an audience with lots of different tastes and moods, and we want to make sure that we have great programming in all of those areas, right? We know that people love to watch The Diplomat, Adolescence and America’s Sweethearts, right? And many of those people also, you know, watch (steampunk animated series) Arcane.

We’re just in a different — we just sort of look at what we’re doing, right? We’re also trying to do something that no one has ever done before — you know, making film and TV all around the world across as many genres, like all over the world in so many languages…we’re just doing it different. We’re one Netflix.

Did any specific Netflix Emmy “snubs” bother you more than others?

If Emmy nominations are supposed to be really about excellence in storytelling and something that is so amazing that people watch and talk about and love, and have the quality and acting and writing and directing and cultural impact, the one I’m disappointed about is that the world’s biggest show, Squid Game, did not get recognized. Obviously, it made Emmy history also already, but a show in Korean, made in that way so authentically, has become the biggest show in the world, and to be so groundbreaking in storytelling and just the cultural global impact it had. That’s the one to me that would be the disappointment for all the talent involved.

The news of the Residence cancellation came to us just two weeks ago — would have have rather that news held until after these nominations came out?

No, I don’t really look at when the news or not the news…I think was is great is — we love The Residence. We championed it, we made it. Uzo [Aduba] has been part of the Netflix family for a long time and has been recognized before for awards. So, she gave an incredible performance. Not surprised at all by her nom. We thought that she would and should absolutely get it. So, to me, that’s great, that work. That work was completed and people loved it, and she was amazing and then gets recognized for it. That’s great. That, to me, doesn’t change kind of the story. And moving forward, it’s like, “Isn’t it great that we made this, she was incredible and she got recognized.”

I know a lot of factors go into a cancellation, but does The Residence getting four Emmy nominations make you second guess that decision?

No, because I always knew she’d be recognized.

Will Netflix campaign for a show that has been canceled as hard as for one that hasn’t been?

We’re gonna support— yeah! I mean for her and the show, like, we did — of course. Here’s the thing: I think what people forget is, like I said before, we developed it, we championed it, we really marketed — we did all of the things. And they’re all people involved who we work with and continue to work with and will continue to — so we’re always going to support that, for sure.

You have five of the six variety special — prerecorded nominees. One of those is Your Friend, Nate Bargatze. Nate is hosting the Emmys, so you have to like your odds there…

(Laughs) Is that how it works when you have the host [as one of your nominees]?

Definitely, they just give you one.

Oh good. Yeah, they give you one. Right, right, right, right, right, yeah. So we have five of the six [nominees], and we’re definitely getting [that] one?

Yeah, they just give you one. It’s like when my dad coached Little League and he picked me as one of the team’s two all-stars — nobody can say anything about it.

Oh yeah, you get one. There you go.