Why this year's TCA awards bring a tinge of sadness for a disappearing media era – ERIC DEGGANS | Journalist. Author. Pundit. Public Speaker.

The TV Critics Association’s online announcement of its annual award winners serves notice of a fast-changing TV industry

The Television Critics Association has given out its 2025 TCA Awards for excellence in television, announcing today results of 235 members voting to honor high-quality shows like The Pitt, Sesame Street, Adolescence, The Studio and performers like Kathy Bates, Bridget Everett and Noah Wyle.

But this year is a bit different — because the group isn’t having an in-person press tour this summer, the presentations and acceptance speeches rolled out entirely online. Which feels like another example of how media institutions have degraded in the modern age.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

And it’s ultimately another case where fans of TV and pop culture may not even know what they’re missing until the dust settles and it’s already gone.

I’ve been a member of the TCA since 1997, when I began covering television as a critic for the then-St. Petersburg Times (now known as the Tampa Bay Times). And in those early days especially, the TCA Awards were a unique spot in the industry landscape.

Well aware of how compromised and hacky awards shows like the Golden Globes could be, TCA members insisted our awards would not be televised and we would let those who won know in advance. That meant the night was much more a celebration of the winners than other shows, where all nominees show up and the egos of those who lose must be managed as the night wears on.

For much of the time that we had them in person, the winners usually showed up, feeling freer to say whatever they wanted, knowing that cameras weren’t capturing the moment to circulate in an out-of-context clip later. And TCA members were free to vote their conscience and pick the shows they loved with a minimum of influence by stars, producers, studios and executives.

That led to some great moments for me: Watching a tee-totaling Martin Sheen hold court after the awards had ended, telling showbiz stories to a rapt handful of critics who had stuck around, sitting at one of the banquet tables. Seeing a clutch of worshipful critics trailing along after Daily Show host Jon Stewart as he worked the buffet table, shrugging off compliment while dropping insights about media and politics.

Handing an award to uber producer Ryan Murphy for his work on American Crime Story, many years after we worked at the same school newspaper at Indiana University. Entertaining Donnie Wahlberg enough when I presented an award at a different ceremony, that he complimented me. Getting misty-eyed as Shogun star Anna Sawai gave an emotional acceptance speech after winning Individual Achievement in Drama last year — her first major honor before winning at the Emmys and Golden Globes.

And handing one of our most prestigious honors, the Heritage Award, to Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost last year at the most recent in-person TCA awards, less than a year before the show’s other co-creator and visionary director David Lynch would die from complications of emphysema.

It was just another way of elevating the voices of a group of ornery critics who weren’t worried about fueling a popular TV show or currying favor with TV networks – presenting an awards ceremony focused on the shows, performances and cultural impact of the most important medium in modern history.

Here’s the roster of this year’s TCA winners, with links to YouTube videos of the presentations and acceptance speeches. Still well worth watching and a great roster of the best work currently available on TV.

2025 TCA Award winners