The Emmys 2026 are heading towards a ceremony shaped by two unusually competitive contests: The Pitt against Pluribus in drama, and Hacks against Widow’s Bay in comedy.
On nomination numbers alone, HBO Max appears to have the advantage. The Pitt leads all programmes with 25 nominations, while the fifth and final season of Hacks has 24, the highest total ever recorded for a comedy in a single Emmy year. But results from the first two nights of awards have complicated that picture, particularly after Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay collected eight trophies before the main ceremony.
The 78th Emmy Awards will be held on September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with Mariska Hargitay hosting. The ceremony will air live on NBC and stream on Peacock.
By then, several programmes will already arrive with trophies in hand. What remains unresolved is whether those early wins point to wider support among Television Academy voters — or whether the major acting and series categories will favour the established leaders.
The Pitt enters as the drama favourite
Few shows enter this year’s Emmys with a stronger position than The Pitt. The HBO Max medical drama leads the field with 25 nominations for its second season, including Outstanding Drama Series, lead actor for Noah Wyle and multiple nominations across supporting performances, writing and directing. Wyle alone has three nominations this year, as an actor, director and executive producer.
The series also carries the advantage of being the reigning drama-series winner, making it the known quantity in a field that includes The Diplomat, Slow Horses, The Gilded Age, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Paradise, Pluribus and Your Friends & Neighbors. AP identifies The Pitt as the favourite to retain the top drama prize.
Its early performance has done little to weaken that position. The Pitt picked up four awards during the first Emmy ceremonies, including guest actor in a drama for Ernest Harden Jr. It also won in areas including prosthetic makeup, suggesting that Academy support extends beyond the programme’s most visible performers.
That breadth matters at the Emmys. A series that receives nominations across acting, writing, directing and production categories is often demonstrating support from several different branches of voters rather than relying on enthusiasm from one group. But The Pitt does not have the drama field to itself.
Pluribus gives the drama race a serious challenger
Apple TV’s Pluribus, created by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, has emerged as its most significant rival.
The first-season drama received 18 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and lead actress for Rhea Seehorn. It has already converted four of those nominations into wins, including recognition for sound mixing and other production categories.
The more closely watched contest, however, may involve Seehorn.
Her nomination for playing Carol Sturka is her fourth career Emmy nomination. Her previous three came for Better Call Saul and Cooper’s Bar, but she has yet to win. This year she faces Carrie Coon, Chase Infiniti, Keri Russell and Zendaya in the lead drama actress category.
For years, Seehorn’s failure to win for Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul remained one of the more frequently discussed omissions surrounding that programme’s long awards history. Pluribus now gives her a different route to recognition, and AP considers her a strong favourite for her first Emmy.
A Seehorn victory would not automatically mean Pluribus wins best drama. But if the show begins collecting major prizes early in the televised ceremony, the gap between it and The Pitt may appear considerably narrower than the original nomination totals suggested.
That makes drama a contest between continuity and arrival: one series trying to confirm its position at the top, another attempting to establish itself there immediately.
Hacks has history on its side
The comedy race carries a similar tension.
Hacks enters its final season with 24 nominations, setting a new record for the most nominations received by a comedy series in a single year. The previous record was 23, shared by The Studio in 2025 and The Bear in 2024.
For a programme approaching its conclusion, the number is significant. Emmy voters have not treated the final season as a ceremonial farewell; they have recognised it across acting, writing, directing and production categories.
At the centre remains Jean Smart.
Smart is nominated once again for lead actress in a comedy for her performance as Deborah Vance. She has already won the category for Hacks four times — in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025 — and a victory this year would give her a fifth lead-actress Emmy for the role.
The strength of that record makes her one of the evening’s clearest individual favourites. Her competition includes Quinta Brunson for Abbott Elementary, Ayo Edebiri for The Bear, Elle Fanning for Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Lisa Kudrow for The Comeback.
But the larger question is whether affection for Smart and the final season translates into another Outstanding Comedy Series victory. That is where Widow’s Bay has complicated the race.
Widow’s Bay has already changed the comedy contest
Few new programmes have entered an Emmy weekend with the kind of early momentum generated by Widow’s Bay.
The Apple TV horror-comedy received 19 nominations in its debut season, including Outstanding Comedy Series, lead actor for Matthew Rhys, supporting actress nominations for Dale Dickey and Kate O’Flynn, writing for creator Katie Dippold and directing for Hiro Murai.
Then came the early awards. Widow’s Bay won eight Emmys, more than any other series during the second night of awards, with victories across cinematography, sound, music and production design. Betty Gilpin also won guest actress in a comedy for the programme.
Those wins do not guarantee success in Outstanding Comedy Series. Different sections of the Television Academy vote in different categories, and technical dominance does not always translate into the top award.
What it does show is that voters have responded to the programme across several disciplines.
That gives Widow’s Bay something more important than the label of newcomer: evidence of broad support.
The series now enters September 14 with eight wins already secured, while Hacks has the advantage of history, a record nomination haul and one of television’s most consistently rewarded lead performances.
That is a considerably closer race than it appeared on nomination morning.
Harrison Ford could finally add an Emmy
Away from the four leading series, one of the evening’s most closely watched acting categories will involve Harrison Ford.
Ford is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Paul in Apple TV’s Shrinking. It is his second consecutive Emmy nomination for the role. Despite a film career that stretches across more than five decades, he has never won a competitive Primetime Emmy.
AP lists Ford among the strong contenders in the category, giving the awards another potential career milestone alongside Seehorn’s attempt to win for the first time.
The attraction of those contests is not simply longevity. Both illustrate one of this year’s recurring themes: familiar performers being recognised in programmes that have given them new phases in their careers.
Wyle is another example. Long associated with ER, he now finds himself at the centre of the year’s most nominated television programme, with nominations spanning performance, directing and producing.
An Emmy race divided between established success and new arrivals
The Emmys 2026 arrive during a period in which the television industry is producing fewer obvious consensus winners.
Instead, this year’s major categories bring together programmes with very different histories.
The Pitt is seeking to confirm that its first-season success was not temporary. Pluribus is trying to convert an acclaimed debut into the biggest drama prize on television. Hacks is approaching the end of its run with a record number of comedy nominations. Widow’s Bay has already established itself as the breakout awards performer of the early ceremonies.
The numbers tell part of the story: 25 nominations for The Pitt, 24 for Hacks, 19 for Widow’s Bay and 18 for Pluribus.
The early wins have made those numbers less predictive.
That is why September 14 is no longer simply a question of whether the nomination leaders will collect the biggest trophies. The more interesting question is whether Television Academy voters ultimately reward the shows they already know best or use the ceremony to recognise a new generation of contenders.
In drama, The Pitt remains the programme to beat, but Pluribus has the acting and technical support to make the result uncertain.
In comedy, Hacks has the strongest record, but Widow’s Bay has already demonstrated that its 19 nominations were not merely an enthusiastic welcome for a new show.
By the time the final awards are presented, the 78th Emmys may ultimately be remembered not for one dominant programme, but for an awards race in which television’s established favourites were forced to share the stage with newcomers that arrived ready to win.
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