An electromagnetic (EM) telemetry system includes an EM transmitter configured to transmit EM signals downhole and multiple sensors each configured to communicate with the EM transmitter and with another of the multiple sensors. Each sensor is placed a distance from another sensor along a length of a wellbore in the EM telemetry system. The EM telemetry system also includes a processor configured to select two or more sensors of the multiple sensors based on a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of an EM signal received from the two or more selected sensors, a depth of the EM transmitter, or both.