Gilligan and Porter earn Emmy nods for *Pluribus* theme

Apple TV’s spy thriller “Pluribus” just landed 18 Emmy noms, and buried in the stack are three nods for composer Dave Porter — Outstanding Music Composition, Sound Mixing, and the Original Main Title Theme Music. Porter, 54, has spent the last 18 years turning Vince Gilligan’s creative instincts into sound, making their partnership one of television’s quietly essential collaborations.

The math is simple: eight seasons of “Breaking Bad,” two seasons of “Better Call Saul,” and now “Pluribus,” Apple’s 15-episode entry into the spy genre. Gilligan, the showrunner behind the golden age of prestige TV, has repeatedly turned to Porter because they share a taste for slow-burn tension and quirky melody. Porter’s main theme for “Pluribus” — a wandering, circular guitar riff that feels like a spy walking into a room he shouldn’t — arrived almost fully formed after a single late-night session. It’s now being used in promos, social clips, and even Apple’s keynote teasers, proving a theme can outlive the episode that birthed it.

Porter’s string of noms caps a stretch where he’s moved from background player to front-row credit. His “Better Call Saul” score won him an Emmy in 2022, and the main theme has been streamed more than 100 million times across platforms. Critics call it addictive: the way Porter lets silence hang before the first distorted note, or how a single synth line can feel like a fingerprint. Behind the scenes, Porter still writes on paper, sketches in pencil, then records piano demos at home before refining in the studio with a full orchestra. Gilligan, who also learned music in school, sits in during sessions, nodding or scribbling notes — a rare moment where showrunner and composer trade roles.

The next stop is the September ceremony. If Porter wins, he’d become the first composer to sweep all three music-related Emmys for the same series in a single year. Either way, “Pluribus” has already cemented their partnership as television’s longest-running composer-showrunner duo still active today.