After months of FYC screenings, panels, billboards, pop-up events, podcasts and ads, the 78th Emmy nominations are finally here. Previous Emmy winners Liza Colón-Zayas (“The Bear”) and Jeff Hiller (“Somebody Somewhere”) were set to announce this year’s nominees on Wednesday morning, along with TV Academy chair Cris Abrego.
The majority of the nominations were scheduled to be announced starting at 8:20 a.m. ET/5:20 a.m. PT from the Wolf Theatre at the Academy’s Saban Media Center. But two categories — outstanding variety series and outstanding reality competition — were set to be revealed earlier, on NBC’s “Today” show, at 7:45 a.m. ET/4:45 a.m. PT.
NBC and Peacock are broadcasting this year’s Emmys, set to air live from L.A. Live’s Peacock Theatre on Monday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. (NBC moves the Emmys to Monday when it airs the kudocast, due to Sunday Night Football.) As the network just announced, this year’s Emmys will be hosted by “Law & Order: SVU” executive producer/star Mariska Hargitay — repping the first time a woman has hosted the show in 15 years.
Among this year’s major rule changes, the TV Academy has merged talk and scripted variety back into one “outstanding variety series” field, but with a twist: the number of nominations coming from both fields will be tracked based on the number of submissions for each format.
And also, as part of the rule change, the Academy has also decreed that the outstanding variety series category will now be an “area” award. Nominees in “area” award categories aren’t competing against each other — they’re all independently trying to get at least 90% of Emmy voters to say “yes” when asked, “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?” Any nominated show will win an Emmy if 90% of voters agree. That means, potentially several winners could come out of this year’s nominee roster.
Among other Emmy rules changes the TV Academy announced in January are a new name for the TV movie category, which will now be known as “outstanding movie.” Also, the org revealed AI guidelines, made changes to the short form, sound mixing and music categories and also expanded eligibility in the casting, costume and lighting, camera & technical arts categories.
This year, 555 programs were submitted across the 14 program categories, down 7.5% from last year’s 600 entrants. That included 110 dramas, 71 comedies, 31 limited/anthology series, 34 movies, 18 variety series and 45 reality competition shows.
Expect some surprises with these noms in addition to a few sure things. What you shouldn’t expect is any nods for Crave/HBO Max’s “Heated Rivalry” (famously not eligible as it didn’t have a U.S. production partner) or a “The Morning Show” guest actor nom for Jon Hamm, who didn’t make the ballot due to a submission error.
Here are the nominees in major categories for the 78th Emmy Awards, which includes eligible shows that ran from June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026.
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Drama Series
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Comedy Series
Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series
Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series
Limited or Anthology Series
Outstanding Talk Series
Reality Competition Program
Outstanding Variety Series
Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay of Jesse Collins Entertainment are executive producers of the Emmy primetime telecast. The two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies, produced by Bob Bain Productions in association with the Television Academy, will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6.
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