The wives are still hunting. And now, it’s for the Emmys.
Variety has learned exclusively that the Lionsgate and 3 Arts Entertainment produced series, which streams on Netflix, will submit in the comedy categories for consideration for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards.
Add it to the growing list of shows blurring the comedy/drama divide at the Emmys, where genre continues to be a head-scratcher (and maybe that’s the point). Based on May Cobb’s bestselling novel, “The Hunting Wives” has always been a tonal hybrid, with a glossy, provocative dramedy that rides the line between social satire and psychological intrigue with equal commitment.
Premiering on Netflix in July 2025, the show follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a woman from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has relocated to suburban Texas for her husband’s job. Almost immediately, she meets her husband’s boss Jed (Dermot Mulroney), a right-wing political climber with his sights on the governor’s mansion, and his wife Margo (Malin Åkerman). Margo and Sophie’s relationship turns obsessive and sexual as their lives messily entangle.
That genre slipperiness was on full display earlier this month at the Gotham Awards TV nominations, where Åkerman picked up a nod for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series. Emmy voters, the thinking now goes, may respond more readily to the show’s sharper, funnier register.
Sources with knowledge of the strategy say it’s not a reinvention, rather a reframing. When “The Hunting Wives” tips one way, it tips funny, and the comedy field has been plenty welcoming to series that refuse to sit still.
Series stars Åkerman and Snow will both be submitted in the lead comedy actress race, where they’ll compete for what will likely be five slots alongside Emmy winners like Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”) and Jean Smart (“Hacks”), as well as their streaming counterpart Kristen Bell (“Nobody Wants This”). Snow will also have another shot at Emmy attention with her turn in another Netflix property, “The Beast in Me,” for which she’ll be on the ballot for supporting actress (limited).
The cast also includes Jaime Ray Newman, Evan Jonigkeit, George Ferrier, Katie Lowes, Chrissy Metz, Alexandria DeBerry, Joyce Glenn, Branton Box, Hunter Emery, Karen Rodriguez, Madison Wolfe and Chosen Jacobs. Confirmation on which actors will ultimately be put forth for consideration, either by the studios or self-submission, are ongoing.
Created and executive produced by Rebecca Cutter alongside Erwin Stoff and Cobb, the show has built its following on soapy intrigue and pointed observations about wealth, power and desire, all served with a wink of dark comedy.
The category curveball lands in a year when Emmy voters keep proving they’ve stopped policing the comedy/drama border. See the three consecutive noms (and one win) for FX’s “The Bear.” Half-hour, one-hour, dramedy, satire, all of it can play in either playground now. What used to be about runtime or multi-cam structure is mostly about where you choose to plant your flag.
The Emmy push also comes as “The Hunting Wives” gets ready to grow. Season 2 is set to premiere later this year on Netflix, a move that should put the show in front of an even much bigger crowd right as the campaign ramps up.
Whether voters bite is anyone’s guess. But let’s be honest, picking targets has never been a problem for Sophie and Margo.
Emmy submissions are due on May 7, with the nomination-round voting running from June 11 to June 22. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations will be announced on July 8.
