Awards Season is fast-approaching, with the nominations for the 2026 Emmy Awards being announced this morning to kick things off. Let's get into it!
The big story coming out of these nominations is that it is absolutely dominated by 2 shows: “The Pitt” in the Drama categories, and “Hacks” in the Comedy categories.
“The Pitt” landed 25 nominations overall, 13 of which was just for its actors alone, including: Noah Wyle for Lead Actor; Patrick Ball, Shawn Hatosy, and Gerran Howell for Supporting Actor; Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Katherine LaNasa, and Sepideh Moafi for Supporting Actress; Ernest Harden Jr. and Jeff Kober for Guest Actor; and Brittany Allen, Tal Anderson, and Tina Ivlev for Guest Actress.
Meanwhile, “Hacks” received 24 nominations, which is the most for any comedy series in a single year (breaking the previous record set by “Schitt’s Creek”), with, again, many of those nominations being owned by pretty much its entire central cast, including last year’s winner Jean Smart (Lead Actress), Hannah Einbinder and Megan Stalter (Supporting Actress), and Paul W. Downs (Supprting Actor), as well as Christopher McDonald, Leslie Bibb, Cherry Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Kaitlin Olson, and Lauren Weedman for their guest performances. And still, even with all these accolades, they couldn’t find room for scene-stealer Robby Hoffman? Tsk tsk…
And though “Hacks” seems like the runaway favorite this year, it will have to prove its mettle against smash-hit newcomer "Widow’s Bay", which earned a highly impressive 19 nominations for its first season, including Best Comedy Series and a slew of nods for its incredible cast. Speaking of…
Matthew Rhys finds himself a double acting nominee this year for two wildly different roles – the hapless mayor in “Widow’s Bay” and the sinister real estate mogul in the limited series “The Beast In Me”. Rhys hasn’t taken home an Emmy since 2018 (for his role in “The Americans”), so this seems like as a good a year as any to break that streak. He also has a nomination as a producer for “Widow’s Bay”.
But he’s not the only one who finds himself with multiple acting nominations this year – Colman Domingo (“Euphoria” and “The Four Seasons”), Nick Offerman (Margo’s Got Money Troubles” and “Death By Lightning”), and Laurie Metcalf (“Hacks” and “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”) are all competing against themselves in double acting categories.
And like Rhys, Quinta Brunson, Paul W. Downs, Jason Segel, Martin Short, and Noah Wyle all have 3 nominations as well, while Jason Bateman takes the cake with 4 nominations – 2 for acting and 2 for producing (“Black Rabbit” and “DTF St. Louis”). Sterling K. Brown, Claire Danes, Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning, David Harbour, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keri Russell, and Sarah Snook all have acting + producing nods, while Lisa Kudrow is a double-nominee for writing and starring in “The Comeback”.
After making a decent run at the tail end of last year’s awards season, seemingly a preview of things to come at this year’s Emmys, Vince Gilligan’s new series “Pluribus” landed 6 nominations, including Best Drama Series and a Lead Actress nod for Critics Choice and Golden Globes winner Rhea Seehorn. Can she finally reign supreme at the Emmys this year? It’s certainly possible, unless voters feel compelled to recognize Zendaya for her work in the final season of “Euphoria”.
Genre TV took a hit this year, with virtually no sci-fi/fantasy shows appearing in major categories – most notably the final seasons of both “Stranger Things” and “The Boys” were left out of major categories but did receive a handful of nods in creative and technical categories. The only breakthrough was the “Game of Thrones” spinoff/prequel “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, which did receive a well-deserved nom for Best Drama Series yet despite this did not break through into any acting, writing, or directing categories.
While the Limited/Anthology Series categories were dominated by one series the last couple years (“Beef”, “Baby Reindeer”, “Adolescence”), the pool seems a lot wider this year, with a slew of valid contenders up for awards, including “DTF St. Louis”, “All Her Fault”, “The Beast In Me”, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. Carolyn Bessette”, and Season 2 of “Beef”. There is no clear runaway frontrunner this year, which makes it more exciting. Of note, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to “Baby Reindeer”, “Half-Man”, only received a lone above-board nomination – for himself for Supporting Actor.
Smash hit hockey series “Heated Rivalry” was left out of the mix, but don’t worry, it wasn’t a snub – the series was not eligible as it is a primarily Canadian-produced production. Also, star Connor Storrie still came away with an Emmy nomination this morning, for hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live”.
Also of note, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show earned an incredible 9 nominations – the most ever for a halftime show!
In all, 28 first-time nominees appear in the lists this year, including Chase Infiniti (“The Testaments”), Sarah Pidgeon (“Love Story”), Leslie Bibb (“Hacks”), Charles Melton (“Beef”), Karolina Wydra (“Pluribus”), Kate O’Flynn (“Widow’s Bay”), and most of the “The Pitt” nominees. We love to see it!
Check out the full list of nominees here. Tune in to the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 14 on NBC and Peacock!
