HBO medical drama The Pitt, starring Noah Wyle, leads the 2026 Emmy nominations with 25 nods, while Hacks follows closely with 24, marking a record for most nominations ever received by a comedy in a single year. The announcements were made on Wednesday.
Apple's Strong Showing
Apple TV+ also had an impressive performance, with breakout horror comedy Widow's Bay earning 19 nominations and sci-fi drama Pluribus receiving 18. This year marks Apple's most successful Emmy season to date, with the highest number of nominations the streamer has ever received.
Best Drama Series Contenders
The Pitt and Pluribus will compete for the best drama series award alongside The Diplomat, The Gilded Age, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Paradise, Slow Horses, and Your Friends & Neighbors. Last year, the first season of The Pitt won the category.
Noah Wyle is nominated for lead actor in a drama series for the second consecutive year, facing competition from Paradise's Sterling K. Brown, Slow Horses' Gary Oldman, Task's Mark Ruffalo, and The Diplomat's Rufus Sewell.
In the lead actress in a drama series category, Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus), who won a Golden Globe for her role, will go up against The Gilded Age's Carrie Coon, The Testaments' Chase Infiniti, The Diplomat's Keri Russell, and Euphoria's Zendaya.
Comedy Series Race
The final season of Hacks, which has already won nine Emmys, will face Widow's Bay in the comedy series category, along with Abbott Elementary, Shrinking, Nobody Wants This, Margo's Got Money Troubles, Only Murders in the Building, and the fourth season of The Bear.
Jean Smart, who has won the lead actress in a comedy series Emmy for the last four seasons for Hacks, is nominated again. She will compete against Abbott Elementary's Quinta Brunson, The Bear's Ayo Edebiri, Margo's Got Money Troubles' Elle Fanning, and The Comeback's Lisa Kudrow. If Smart wins, it will be her eighth Emmy, tying her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for most acting awards by a performer.
Matthew Rhys, star of Widow's Bay and a previous Emmy winner for The Americans, leads the lead actor in a comedy series category. He is nominated alongside Wonder Man's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Rooster's Steve Carell, Shrinking's Jason Segel, and Only Murders in the Building's Martin Short.
Limited Series Categories
Rhys also received a nomination for his performance in the Netflix thriller The Beast in Me in the lead actor in a limited or anthology series or TV movie category. He will face Bait's Riz Ahmed, Black Rabbit's Jason Bateman, Monster's Charlie Hunnam, and Beef's Oscar Isaac.
The lead actress category for limited series includes The Beast in Me's Claire Danes, All Her Fault's Sarah Snook, Beef's Carey Mulligan, Love Story's Sarah Pidgeon, and Remarkably Bright Creatures' Sally Field.
The Emmy for limited or anthology series or TV movie will go to one of the following: All Her Fault, The Beast in Me, Beef, DTF St Louis, or Love Story.
Other Notable Nominations
The final season of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert received nine nominations, including for variety series, a recently merged category that now pits him against multiple winners Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Saturday Night Live. This is the most Emmy nods the show has ever received in a single year.
David Attenborough, at age 100, became the oldest Emmy nominee ever. He received two nominations for outstanding narrator for A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough and Ocean with David Attenborough.
Although the hit Canadian romance Heated Rivalry was not eligible, its star Connor Storrie received a nomination for hosting Saturday Night Live.
Snubs
Notable snubs include Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer follow-up Half Man, which scored just one nomination; Love Story's Paul Anthony Kelly; Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney; the second season of Jury Duty; the starry Taylor Sheridan dramas The Madison and Dutton Ranch; and the final season of Stranger Things, which only received technical recognition.
Television Academy president Cris Abrego said that this year's nominees help prove how television remains "one of our most powerful artforms."
The 78th Emmy Awards ceremony will take place on September 14, hosted by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay.
Last year's Emmys were dominated by wins from Adolescence, The Studio, and The Pitt.
