{"id":2669,"date":"2026-05-31T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/31\/kareem-rahma-wants-an-emmy-not-another-webby-nomination\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T18:00:00","slug":"kareem-rahma-wants-an-emmy-not-another-webby-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/31\/kareem-rahma-wants-an-emmy-not-another-webby-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"Kareem Rahma Wants an Emmy, Not Another Webby Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t\u201cI used to love arguing as a child and as a young man; I always found that to be my happy place,\u201d Kareem Rahma says with a slightly mischievous smile over Zoom. \u201cI can sit in the middle of an argument and have a conversation about something that I don\u2019t care about for multiple hours simply because it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThat\u2019s essentially what Rahma\u2019s been doing for the past three years as creator and host of the viral series Subway Takes<\/em>, in which everyday people \u2014 and, increasingly, well-known figures \u2014 share their most controversial opinions on everything from social issues to Botox and fillers during a train ride with the Brooklyn resident, who holds a New York City MetroCard clipped to a tiny mic up to their mouths. Before chatting with THR <\/em>late on a Friday afternoon, he\u2019d filmed 15 episodes earlier in the day with guests who ranged from an independent musician and a podcaster to a climate activist and \u201can old guy that I met.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no [criteria] like, \u2018Oh, they have this many followers.\u2019 \u2018They\u2019re working on this movie.\u2019 \u2018You should meet them because of this thing,\u2019 \u201d Rahma say of booking guests, which he does personally. \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2018Do I want to meet this person?\u2019 That\u2019s literally the test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe day before, Rahma shot with SNL<\/em>\u2019s Colin Jost and Hacks <\/em>star\u00a0 <\/em>Hannah Einbinder, an indicator of the show\u2019s ever-increasing popularity since its launch in July 2023. The series has 2\u202fmillion followers on Instagram and 945,000 subscribers on YouTube, with episodes, which are typically around 15 minutes, garnering hundreds of thousands of views \u2014 and more than a million in the case of Bill Burr\u2019s take that billionaires, not immigrants, are to blame for low wages and Riz Ahmed\u2019s stance that he should be the next James Bond. \t<\/p>\n

\tAside from hiring a bodyguard \u2014 just in case \u2014 because of his and the guests\u2019 rising profiles, episodes are filmed exactly as they were on day one, from the crew down to the $14,000 worth of camera equipment, including Sony FX3s, Rahma invested in. \u201cI haven\u2019t even gotten new batteries. I bought all of that on a credit card. I said, \u2018It\u2019s zero interest for a year. If it doesn\u2019t work out, I can always sell this stuff.\u2019\u202f\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tEven the shooting process is still guerilla-style-meets-man-on-the-street. \u201cIt\u2019s a super-small footprint. We get on the train, and sometimes we have to wait for seats to open up. Sometimes there\u2019s a guy sleeping in the corner and I don\u2019t want to disturb him. Sometimes we can\u2019t sit down because it\u2019s too packed, and sometimes the train\u2019s delayed. We don\u2019t get special treatment,\u201d Rahma notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tRahma and Riz Ahmed (right) during an episode of the web series.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tScreenshot\/YouTube<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tRemaining incognito in his day-to-day life isn\u2019t quite as easy these days for Rahma, who built Subway Takes<\/em> off the success of his first hit TikTok show, Keep the Meter Running<\/em>, in which he asks New York City cabdrivers to take him to their favorite place. \u201cI feel like the mayor,\u201d he says. \u201cEveryone knows me, and it\u2019s great. I love New York. I only felt like myself when I moved here,\u201d adds the transplant, who was born in Cairo and raised in a small suburb of Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tOf acclimating to the Midwest, Rahma says, \u201cThe small cultural differences that I noticed that were a really big deal to my parents were not a big deal to me, and it really allowed me to become both a fly on the wall as well as the center of attention. That I could toggle between those two when I felt like it \u2014\u00a0 a very observational person, but then, bang, right in the middle of the thing \u2014 is what led me to be a chameleon creatively.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tNow Rahma is hoping that creativity will be recognized by the Television Academy as he submits Subway Takes<\/em> in the categories of outstanding short\u202fform comedy, drama or variety series and outstanding performer in a short\u202fform comedy or drama series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI submitted for zero Webbys this year and the year before; I\u2019m done with Webbys,\u201d says Rahma. \u201cI\u2019m in the entertainment industry. I\u2019m not a creator, I\u2019m not an influencer, I\u2019m an entertainer. I\u2019m a creator of a show, I\u2019m a producer of a show, I\u2019m a writer of a show, I\u2019m a talent of a show,\u201d he adds, noting that any recognition would be both \u201can honor\u201d and \u201ca signal that the Emmys doesn\u2019t have their head up their own ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tConcludes Rahma: \u201cAwards<\/a> shows are navigating things and changing, and I think it\u2019s for the better. You can\u2019t put the genie back in the bottle.<\/p>\n

\tThis story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI used to love arguing as a child and as a young man; I always found that to be my happy place,\u201d Kareem Rahma says with a slightly mischievous smile over Zoom. \u201cI can sit in the middle of an argument and have a conversation about something that I don\u2019t care about for multiple hours simply because it\u2019s fun.\u201d That\u2019s essentially what Rahma\u2019s been doing for the past three years as creator and host of the viral series Subway Takes, in which everyday people \u2014 and, increasingly, well-known figures \u2014 share their most controversial opinions on everything from social issues to Botox and fillers during a train ride with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1589,1590,2,85,335],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-emmy-awards","category-emmys-2026","category-hollywood","category-tv","category-tv-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}