The Pitt, Hacks and newcomers Widow’s Bay and Pluribus lead 2026 Emmy nominations

The second season of the hit hospital drama The Pitt and the final season of Hacks dominate this year’s Emmy nominations, announced on Wednesday.

The Pitt leads with 25 nominations while Hacks has 24, both scoring a big win for HBO, the latter series also breaking an Emmy record for most nods ever received by a comedy in a single year.

But Apple also had an impressive showing for the first seasons of breakout horror comedy Widow’s Bay, which follows with 19 nods, and sci-fi drama Pluribus with 18. It marked Apple’s most successful year yet with its most ever Emmy nominations.

The Pitt and Pluribus will battle it out 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 took home the award.

Its star Noah Wyle is also hoping to take home lead actor in a drama series for the second year in a row and this year faces Paradise’s Sterling K Brown, Slow Horses’ Gary Oldman, Task’s Mark Ruffalo and The Diplomat’s Rufus Sewell.

Rhea Seehorn, the Pluribus star who won the Golden Globe for her role, will compete in the lead actress in a drama series category with The Gilded Age’s Carrie Coon, The Testaments’ Chase Infiniti, The Diplomat’s Keri Russell and Euphoria’s Zendaya.

The final season of Hacks, a show that has already picked up nine Emmy wins, will face off against Widow’s Bay in the comedy series category alongside 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, the Hacks star who has won the lead actress in a comedy series Emmy for the last four seasons, will go up 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 in total and she will tie Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for most acting awards for a performer.

Matthew Rhys, the Widow’s Bay star who has previously won an Emmy for The Americans, heads up the lead actor in a comedy series category competing with Wonder Man’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Rooster’s Steve Carell, Shrinking’s Jason Segel and Only Murders in the Building’s Martin Short.

Rhys also scored a nomination for his performance in Netflix thriller The Beast in Me in the category of lead actor in a limited or anthology series or TV movie. He will face off against Bait’s Riz Ahmed, Black Rabbit’s Jason Bateman, Monster’s Charlie Hunnam and Beef’s Oscar Isaac.

The lead actress category for this field features 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 All Her Fault, The Beast in Me, Beef, DTF St Louis or Love Story.

The final season of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert also 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. It marks the most Emmy nods that the show has ever received in one year.

David Attenborough also became the oldest ever Emmy nominee at the age of 100. He received two nominations for outstanding narrator for A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough and Ocean with David Attenborough.

While the hit Canadian romance Heated Rivalry wasn’t eligible, its star Connor Storrie received a nomination for hosting Saturday Night Live.

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 scored technical recognition.

The television academy president, Cris Abrego, said that this year’s nominees helped to prove how television remains “one of our most powerful artforms”.

This year’s ceremony will take place on 14 September with the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay hosting.

Last year’s Emmys were dominated by wins from Adolescence, The Studio and The Pitt.