The Real Emmy Winners Are Women Over 50

It’s not every year we can say this, so when we can, we say it with our full chests: It was a great year for women over 50 in TV.

At the 2025 Emmys, which will be broadcast this Sunday on CBS, 13 women over the age of 50 are nominated for their performances across the drama, comedy, and limited series categories. Four of the nominees—Jean Smart, Kathy Bates, Catherine O’Hara, and Deirdre O’Connell—are even over the age of 70. In an industry (and society, for that matter) which has historically discarded women after they’ve aged out of the “sexy love interest” role, this is a welcome win.

For decades, we’ve heard some of the most talented women in the game express fear that they will “age out” of Hollywood, or that there were no good roles available aside from “concerned grandmother” or “evil stepmother” or any other role that would certainly fail the Bechdel test. Back in 2014 Meryl Streep remarked on our “youth-obsessed” culture, telling People that after she turned 40 in 1989 she was “not offered any female adventurers, or love interests, or heroes, or demons. I was offered witches because I was ‘old’ at 40.”

At least this past year, things have clearly improved for both TV and movies; 4 of the 10 women actors who were nominated for Oscars in 2025 were over the age of 50—including three in the leading actress category.

However, the awards show circuit doesn’t always reflect reality. In 2024 Ms. Magazine bemoaned the dearth of roles for women over 40, citing a study from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which found these roles had decreased 6 percent between 2015 and 2022. In their recently released 2024–2025 report, the Center found that women characters have remained younger than their male counterparts (though, as anyone who’s ever watched a teen drama knows, actors will often play younger than they are in real life).

Jean Smart as Deborah Vance and Paul W. Downs as Jimmy LuSaque in Hacks

Jake Giles Netter/Max

And there is another truth that we can’t ignore when it comes to visibility in Hollywood, which is that many of these actors have had access to some of the most advanced beauty technology, from the latest (and least detectable) cosmetic and skin care procedures to cutting-edge beauty products and experts who apply them. The people, and especially women, on our screens have always represented the ideal—and that often means representing an ageless ideal.

The irony is that the more women engage with the beauty industrial complex, the more intense the pressure for “maintenance” becomes. The pursuit of beauty is a Sisyphean one, as Deborah Vance—the character that earned Smart her Emmy nomination—will be the first to tell you. This is not to take away from the nominees, but rather to point out that they don’t exist in a vacuum. It’s a real don’t hate the player, hate the game, kind of thing.

Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary

Gilles Mingasson/ABC

Whether or not this impacts the roles available to older women remains to be seen. An ebb and flow of projects for women over 50 is expected to some degree. All we can hope for is that when we zoom out, the graph is trending upwards. With the success of TV shows like Hacks and The White Lotus, which explore the beautifully complicated, often messy inner lives of women who don’t fit the ingenue mold, perhaps more production companies will take chances on similar shows. Listen—throw me another icon like Deborah Vance or Barbara Howard to look up to, and I’ll be seated.

To see all the looks from the 2025 Emmys red carpet, and for more of Glamour’s live show coverage, click here.