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; four of the ten 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 in Film, which found these roles had decreased six percent between 2015 and 2022. In their recently released 2024-25 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
