Image: Jujutsu Kaisen, JNN
The 2024 Emmys ceremony is set to air this Sunday, September 15th. This year, fewer franchise shows were nominated, leaving room for other high-profile series to shine, such as FX’s “Shogun” and “The Bear,” two titles with a leading number of nominations. While the nominated shows were recently covered in another article, this one will focus on one of the most anticipated categories: Best Actress and Actor in a Drama Series.
Among the 10 nominated actors, the question arises: who has made the most impact on audiences, and could that influence their chances of winning? Popularity alone isn’t enough to determine this. It’s also essential to consider how audiences sentiments about each actor. That’s where Parrot Analytics’ Audience Solutions data comes in, revealing the emotions driving demand for each talent.
By combining demand data with audience sentiment, we see that Jennifer Aniston was the most in-demand actress during the first half of 2024 and had the second highest level of positive sentiment. Aniston, a household name for over 25 years since her role as Rachel on “Friends,” is nominated for her performance in Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show.”
On the other hand, Donald Glover, the most in-demand actor, nominated for Prime Video’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” showed a different trend. Despite his high demand, Glover had the lowest level of positive sentiment among the nominees¹. When multiplying demand by the share of positive sentiment to create a combined metric of popularity and sentiment, Glover still ranks highest among the male nominees but trails behind Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon overall. His co-star, Maya Erskine, had the second-lowest positive sentiment.
Actors who have both high demand and high positive sentiment are positioned in the top right quadrant of the analysis. Beyond Aniston, this group includes well-known names like Reese Witherspoon, Gary Oldman, Walton Goggins, and Idris Elba.
A surprising standout is Anna Sawai, nominated for her role in “Shogun.” She had the highest level of positive sentiment among all nominees, despite having lower demand than most. Though not as widely known as her peers, Sawai has an engaged and growing fan base.
High demand might indicate broad popularity, but actors like Anna Sawai show that deep, positive sentiment can be a powerful force, even with a smaller fan base. As the 2024 Emmys approach, it will be interesting to see whether popularity or positivity (or both) wins out in the end.
¹Audience sentiment is divided between positive, neutral and negative sentiments. The chart shows only the share of positive sentiment. This means that the remaining sentiment share for each actor is divided between neutral and negative.
