Hacks leads Emmy nominations with record 24 nods in 2026

Hacks set a new comedy-series Emmy record with 24 nominations as the Television Academy unveiled the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards field on Wednesday morning. The Pitt led the drama contenders with 25 nominations, and the 23-nomination mark that The Bear and The Studio set last year no longer stands.

The nominations were streamed live on Emmys.com at 8:30 a.m. PT, 11:30 a.m. ET, with recent winners Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller joining Television Academy chair Cris Abrego for the announcement. The first categories revealed on NBC’s Today show were Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Reality Competition Program, setting the tone for a morning that quickly showed how tightly packed the race has become.

This year’s competition also reflects rule changes that are altering the shape of the Emmy field. The Academy merged scripted variety and talk series into a single Outstanding Variety Series category, renamed Outstanding Television Movie as Outstanding Movie, and expanded eligibility in casting, costume, lighting, camera and other technical arts categories. Final-round voting is set for August 17.

The nomination totals arrived against a smaller submission pool. A total of 555 programs were entered across the 14 program categories, down 7.5 percent from 600 the year before. That drop, combined with the category changes, shows an awards landscape that is becoming more concentrated even as the Television Academy broadens some technical fields.

The 78th Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled for Monday, September 14, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. NBC will air the telecast, and Peacock will stream it. The broadcast setting matters because the last Emmys drew more than 7.42 million viewers, the largest television audience for the show since 2021 and an 8 percent increase from the prior year.

That viewership rebound gives this year’s race a bigger commercial and cultural frame than a routine nominations morning. With Hacks, The Pitt and the revised category structure setting the pace, the 2026 Emmys enter the fall as a test of where prestige television is still concentrating its power.