Everything You Need To Know About The 2026 Emmy Awards

Who's in the running, how voting works and what to watch for this year.

What are the Emmy Awards?

The Emmy Awards honor excellence in the television industry, acting as television's equivalent to the Academy Awards (Oscars) for film. They recognize outstanding work in major categories like comedy, drama, and limited series, celebrating both on-screen talent and technical production.

Who has been nominated in 2026?

This year is the 78th Emmy Awards. Leading the pack is The Pitt with 25 nominations, followed by the final season of Hacks with 24. That’s a new record for a single comedy season. Apple TV's Widow's Bay picked up 19 nominations, followed by Pluribus with 18 and Netflix's Beef with 16.

When it comes to streaming services, HBO Max scored the most nominations overall with 122, ahead of Netflix with 111 and Apple TV with 87.

There are also a few changes this year. The Television Academy has introduced a new Outstanding Variety Series category, which combines talk show and scripted variety.. Meanwhile, Dancing with the Stars picked up its first nomination in a decade in the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category.

Want to see every nominee? Check out the full list here.

Why is my favourite show not nominated?

Scrolling through the nominations and wondering where your favourite show is? There are a number of reasons why, and it all comes down to the Emmy eligibility requirements.

Take Heated Rivalry, for example. Despite its popularity, the series isn't eligible under Academy rules because it was fully funded and produced by Canadian company Crave. Instead, the show is eligible for the 54th International Emmy Awards Gala, taking place in November, with nominations to be announced in September. For fans of the series, here's hoping it earns recognition with an International Emmy nomination.

A number of other highly anticipated shows also missed out because they aired outside the Emmy eligibility window, which closed on 31 May. That includes Every Year After, Elle and the latest season of House of the Dragon.

There’s another catch: for most drama and comedy series, at least six episodes must air before the deadline to qualify. That's bad news for Dutton Ranch, which aired only four episodes before 31 May. 

Things get even trickier for shows that only partially air within the eligibility window. Apple TV's Widow's Bay qualified because seven episodes were released before the cutoff, but its final three episodes aired afterwards. These are known as "hanging episodes" and can't be considered during this year's Emmy voting.

That can have a major impact on categories like directing, editing and cinematography, which are judged using specific episodes. It can even rule out guest actors who only appeared in episodes released after the cutoff date.

Even after nominations are announced, Emmy voters can only consider eligible episodes when deciding winners. Those hanging episodes remain off-limits throughout the entire awards season.

Then there's The Bear. For the second year in a row, the show's newest season missed the eligibility window entirely. That means voters are judging it based on Season 4, even though Season 5 only just premiered in June. On the bright side, having a fresh season on everyone's watchlist could help keep the series top of mind when final voting rolls around.

How does a show or actor get nominated?

The Emmy voting process happens in two stages: choosing the nominees and choosing the winners. In the nomination round, Academy members vote for the shows and people they think deserve a spot on the ballot. The entries with the most votes become the official nominees. Actors vote for acting categories, directors vote for directing categories, writers vote for writing categories and so on. For major program categories, such as Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, all active Academy members can vote.

Here’s another quirk, not every Emmy category has the same number of nominees. While Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series always have eight spots, most categories have between five and eight nominees depending on how many entries are submitted.

They’ve got a nomination. What happens next?

Once nominations are locked in, nominees submit episodes for voters to watch. Actors choose one episode that best showcases their performance, while TV series submit a selection of episodes. Academy members are encouraged to watch these submissions before casting their final votes, that's a lot of television to get through!

How is the winner decided?

In the final voting round, 26,000 members across the TV industry will belong to specialist groups such as actors, directors, writers and producers and cast their votes for the nominee they think deserves to win.

What happens next? The key Emmy dates to know.

This year's 78th Emmy Awards are stacked with fan favourites, from The Pitt and The Bear to Wednesday, Stranger Things, Love on the Spectrum and even Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - The Final Show. Whether you're backing a prestige drama or your latest binge-watch obsession, there's plenty to get excited about.

If you've got some catch-up watching to do, don't forget to check out our Disney+, Prime Video and BINGE offers.

Want to make a night of it? Round up your friends, lock in a watch party and keep these key Emmy dates in your calendar:

• 8 July 2026: The Television Academy announces the Emmy nominations.
• 17 to 26 August 2026: Final-round voting takes place to decide the winners.
• 5 to 6 September 2026: The Creative Arts Emmy Awards celebrate the behind-the-scenes talent, from editing and sound design to visual effects.
• 14 September 2026: The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will air live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

With voting still to come and plenty of tight races across the major categories, expect a few surprises before TV's biggest night rolls around 🍿📺🏆

Image credit: (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)