Emmy nominations led by The Pitt and Hacks, awards set for Sept. 14

HBO Max’s The Pitt led the 78th Primetime Emmy nominations with 25, while Hacks topped the comedy field with 24 and set a single-year record for a comedy series. The Television Academy announced the nominations Wednesday from its Saban Media Center and Wolf Theatre in Los Angeles, with Jeff Hiller and Liza Colón-Zayas helping deliver the live reveal.

The awards ceremony is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 14, at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. NBC and Peacock will carry the show, keeping the telecast in the same broadcast-and-streaming lane the Television Academy has leaned on for its top programming events.

This year’s Emmy race covers television released between June 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, a window that captured the most visible streaming and premium-cable series of the season. The Television Academy also changed the structure of the competition for 2026, merging the scripted variety series and talk series categories into a single outstanding variety series field after a smaller number of submissions.

The Academy’s calendar now points to final-round voting starting Aug. 17, followed by the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 5 and 6. The staggered schedule keeps the biggest categories moving toward the main telecast while technical and craft awards are handed out first.

The nominations were not rolled out all at once. Best variety series and reality competition categories were announced earlier Wednesday on TODAY, adding another layer to a day built around a gradual reveal rather than a single blanket announcement. Even so, the headline from the full list was clear: The Pitt emerged as the year’s biggest nominee, and Hacks pushed comedy to a new mark with the most nominations ever for a comedy series in one year.