This year's Emmy documentary categories are dominated by projects centred on famous people, marking a marked shift from the genre's traditional focus on weightier social and historical subjects. Four of the five nominees for best documentary/nonfiction special and three of the five nominees for best documentary/nonfiction series are celebrity-focused, a stark contrast to past years when such nominees were rare. The trend reflects broader changes in how documentaries are funded and distributed, with streaming services increasingly favouring famous subjects to cut through crowded content and attract subscribers.

The nominated specials include Prime Video's "John Candy: I Like Me", Netflix's "Marty, Life Is Short", HBO Max's "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!" and HBO's "My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay", while the series nominees include Apple TV's "Mr. Scorsese" and Netflix's "Rafa" and "Sean Combs: The Reckoning". The article traces the genre's evolution from publicly funded, issue-driven programming through PBS's American Masters and HBO's Sheila Nevins-era specials, to cable-era hits like ESPN's 30 for 30, and finally to the Peak TV streaming boom of the 2010s, exemplified by ESPN's "The Last Dance" and Netflix's "Beckham". It also notes that the Film Academy's documentary branch, which governs the separate Oscars, has resisted this celebrity-driven shift, unlike the Emmys.