2025 Emmy Documentary Series predictions: Megan McLachlan takes a look at what we might expect in this category.
One of my favorite Emmy categories is the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series category. We’re in a Golden Age for TV docs (I sometimes wish I could go back to life before Hannah Olson’s Mother God documentary just so I could experience watching it again for the first time — what a ride!).
Documentaries are more than true crime projects. As last year’s winner proved, they can be a glimpse inside a larger-than-life family like Beckham or about the beauty of the earth and its creatures like 2021’s winner Secret of the Whales. This category is often a hodgepodge of true crime, character studies, historical reflections, and nature. And they can be one of the most difficult to predict!
2025 Emmy Documentary or Nonfiction Series Contenders
To kick off this conversation, we need to go back to August 2024. Remember when Chimp Crazy was on everyone’s timelines? Eric Goode’s doc is a mixture of everything that is found in the documentary or nonfiction series category. It has true crime (Tonka is missing!), a character study (meet Tonia Haddix), historical elements (the culture around monkeys as pets), and nature (monkeys, of course!). This show got people talking in a really nuanced way, and I would put it in the top position for a nomination.
HBO’s Renfaire, about a Renaissance festival leader relinquishing his power, is another documentary series that was popular last year (maybe not as popular as Chimp Crazy, but up there) that I think could show up. HBO typically has at least one documentary series in this category, but last year they had three.
In the same way Quiet on Set secured a nomination in 2024, look for Investigation Discovery’s The Fall of Diddy to show up, especially for its revealing interviews with victims and way it tracks the culture that supported Diddy.
And then who gets those last two spots? This is where it gets hairier than Tonka the chimp!
NatGeo has The Secret of the Penguins which could get in and take that additional animal representation in the category; it also has the Idris Elba-produced Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color. At Netflix, they have American Murder: Gabby Petito and Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer as their true crime offerings in addition to Our Oceans narrated by Barack Obama (!!). At Hulu, there’s Scamanda and Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, while ID has A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read and The Curious Case of Natalie Grace as well as The Curious Case Of series (watch my interview with the creators). HBO also has the compelling An Update On Our Family three-part series. Meanwhile over at FX, they have Social Studies, which follows a group of LA teenagers and how digital media has shaped their lives. Also, you can’t count out past nominees like American Masters (PBS), 30 for 30 (ESPN), and Chef’s Table (Netflix).
2025 Outstanding Documentary Series Predictions
So where does that leave us? Here’s how I would position these contenders as of today:
- Chimp Crazy – HBO
- The Fall of Diddy – ID
- Renfaire – HBO
- Our Oceans – Netflix
- Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color – NatGeo
- Social Studies – FX
- An Update on Our Family – HBO
- The Secret of the Penguins – NatGeo
- American Masters – PBS
- Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer – Netflix
Stay tuned for more 2025 Emmys coverage!
