Emmy nominations announced, NBC sets 78th awards for Sept. 14

HBO Max’s The Pitt led the 2026 Emmy field with 25 nominations, while Hacks pushed past a record that had already stood for a year and set a new single-season comedy mark with 24. Those totals, announced Wednesday morning from the Wolf Theatre in Los Angeles, pointed to a TV business still driven by streaming platforms, durable franchises and a handful of titles that can dominate multiple branches at once.

Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller unveiled the nominations at 8:30 a.m. PT, with Television Academy chair Cris Abrego hosting the ceremony. The Academy said the race covered programs that aired from June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026, and that 555 programs were submitted across 14 program categories, down 7.5% from 600 last year. Jason Bateman landed four nominations across multiple productions, while Quinta Brunson, Paul W. Downs, Matthew Rhys, Jason Segel, Martin Short and Noah Wyle each received three.

The headline numbers reinforced how concentrated prestige television has become. The Pitt’s 25 nominations made it the top drama contender, and Hacks’ 24 gave the comedy field a new benchmark, surpassing the 23 nominations earned by The Bear and The Studio last year. The result also showed the staying power of repeat franchises, with Hacks now converting familiarity into scale rather than just another return on the ballot.

The Academy also used the 2026 cycle to redraw parts of the awards map. It merged talk and scripted variety back into one outstanding variety series category and made that category an area award, while renaming the TV movie category outstanding movie and expanding some eligibility rules. The changes arrived as the nomination pool shrank, a sign of a field that is still crowded but more tightly defined than it was a year ago.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are scheduled for Sept. 14, with NBC and Peacock carrying the telecast. Mariska Hargitay will host the ceremony, becoming the first woman to lead the show in 15 years.