Emmy Awards 2026: Full Winners List and Highlights

Widow's Bay won Outstanding Comedy Series, The Pitt won Outstanding Drama Series for the second year in a row, and DTF St. Louis won Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. In the lead acting categories: Matthew Rhys (comedy, Widow's Bay), Jean Smart (comedy, Hacks), Noah Wyle (drama, The Pitt), Rhea Seehorn (drama, Pluribus), Matthew Rhys again (limited, The Beast in Me) and Sally Field (limited, Remarkably Bright Creatures). Sources: Television Academy, TVLine, NPR.

Widow's Bay, with 14 wins across the Creative Arts weekend and the primetime telecast, a record for a comedy series in a single year. Apple TV's horror comedy converted 19 nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series, lead actor for Matthew Rhys, both supporting comedy awards for Kate O'Flynn and Stephen Root, and the comedy writing and directing awards. Sources: TVLine, CNN, Television Academy.

Yes, twice over. He is the first performer to win two lead acting Emmys on the same night, for Widow's Bay in comedy and The Beast in Me in the limited series category. With his 2018 win for The Americans, he also becomes the first actor to hold lead Emmys in drama, comedy and limited series. Sources: Television Academy, CNN, TVLine.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, ten months after CBS announced it was cancelling the show. It beat The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live in a category the Television Academy created this year by merging outstanding talk series with outstanding scripted variety series. The final season won six Emmys in all, the most the show ever took in a single year. Sources: Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Billboard.

He used it to get his former staff hired: "I just want to point out that if you like the comedy tonight, my old writers wrote it." The Late Show ended on May 21, 2026 and roughly 200 people lost their jobs with it. Sources: TheWrap, Forbes.

The Pitt, HBO Max's real-time medical drama, for the second consecutive year. It went into the night with 25 nominations, the most of any show, and Noah Wyle also repeated as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Sources: Television Academy, NPR, TVLine.

Widow's Bay, Apple TV's first-year horror comedy from Katie Dippold, which beat the final season of Hacks in the category most forecasters had given to Hacks. Hacks did not leave empty-handed: Jean Smart won lead actress for the fifth time. Sources: TVLine, Hollywood Reporter, Gold Derby.

In comedy, Stephen Root and Kate O'Flynn, both for Widow's Bay. In drama, Tom Pelphrey for Task and Allison Janney for The Diplomat. In the limited and movie categories, David Harbour and Linda Cardellini won at the Creative Arts ceremonies for DTF St. Louis. Sources: Television Academy, Variety, Gold Derby.

Across the two nights of September 5 and 6 at the Peacock Theater, the biggest winners were The Pitt, DTF St. Louis, Widow's Bay and Pluribus. David Harbour and Linda Cardellini took the supporting acting awards in the limited or anthology series and movie categories for DTF St. Louis, Ernest Harden Jr. won outstanding guest actor in a drama series for The Pitt, and Rob Reiner won for his role as Albert in The Bear. Sources: TVLine, Hollywood Reporter.

Yes, two, and before she even takes the stage as host. At the Creative Arts Emmys she won outstanding directing for a documentary or nonfiction program and outstanding documentary or nonfiction special for her HBO film My Mom Jayne, about her mother Jayne Mansfield. She hosts the primetime ceremony on September 14. Sources: NBC, Television Academy.

Yes, his first. The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show won seven Emmys at the Creative Arts ceremonies, including outstanding variety special (live). It is the most decorated halftime show in the award's history to date. Sources: NBC.

24, for its fifth and final season, which is a single-year record for a comedy series. Only The Pitt, with 25, has more nominations this year. Sources: TVLine, Television Academy.

Yes. They go into the same tally as the primetime telecast, which is why network, studio and platform win totals for the year are only final after the ceremony on September 14. The Creative Arts nights cover most craft, guest acting, documentary and variety categories, roughly three quarters of all Emmys handed out. Sources: Television Academy.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are on Monday, September 14, 2026. The ceremony airs live from Los Angeles starting at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT and usually runs about three hours. Sources: Television Academy, NBC.

Mariska Hargitay, best known as Captain Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, hosts the 2026 ceremony. It is a first for her and a natural fit for NBC, the network she has worked with for more than 25 years. Sources: NBC, TVInsider.

The show airs live on NBC in the United States and streams live on Peacock, so a cable subscription is not required. Peacock also carries it on demand afterwards. Internationally the rights vary by country, with local broadcasters and streamers picking up the feed or a delayed broadcast. Sources: NBC, Television Academy.

At the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, part of the L.A. Live complex next to Crypto.com Arena. It is the same venue that has hosted the ceremony in recent years, with a capacity of around 7,100. Sources: Television Academy, NBC.

Because of the network calendar. NBC has Sunday Night Football in September, and awards shows on the broadcast networks get slotted around live sport. The Emmys have moved between Sunday and Monday nights for years depending on which network holds the rights that cycle. Sources: NBC, Variety.

The Pitt, the HBO Max medical drama, leads the field with 25 nominations. The final season of Hacks follows with 24, a record for a comedy series, ahead of Apple TV's Widow's Bay with 19 and Pluribus with 18. Nominations were announced on July 8, 2026. Sources: Deadline, Variety, Television Academy.

Final-round voting by Television Academy members ran from August 17 to August 26, 2026. Results are sealed by an accounting firm until the envelopes are opened on the night, which is why nothing that circulates before September 14 is more than a prediction. Sources: Television Academy, Hollywood Reporter.

At the 77th ceremony in September 2025, The Pitt won outstanding drama series, The Studio won outstanding comedy series with a record haul for a comedy in one season, and Netflix's Adolescence took outstanding limited or anthology series with six wins overall. Sources: Deadline, ABC News.

They are the technical and craft awards, given over two nights before the main show: Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, 2026. Casting, editing, production design, guest acting, stunts, documentary and animation categories are all handed out there, and the totals often reshape the narrative going into the Primetime ceremony. Sources: Television Academy, Hollywood Reporter.

Members of the Television Academy, roughly 25,000 industry professionals, split into peer groups by discipline. Nominations are chosen within each peer group, actors nominate actors, editors nominate editors, and then the full active membership votes on the winners in the final round. The public does not vote. Source: Television Academy.

Yes, twice in the categories that matter most to it. Rhea Seehorn won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as Carol Sturka, her first Emmy after two losing nominations for Better Call Saul, and Vince Gilligan won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episode 'We Is Us'. The series itself lost Outstanding Drama Series to The Pitt. Sources: Television Academy, TVLine, NPR.

Yes. Red carpet coverage typically starts a couple of hours before the telecast, on E! and on the Television Academy's own channels, with the arrivals stream running free online. Fashion coverage from the Emmys carpet now reliably outperforms most of the actual award categories in engagement. Sources: Television Academy, Variety.

On July 8, 2026. The Pitt came out on top with 25 nominations, ahead of the final season of Hacks with 24, a record for a comedy series, then Widow's Bay with 19 and Pluribus with 18. Sources: Television Academy, Deadline, Variety.

The Creative Arts ceremonies on September 5 and 6 are not part of the NBC telecast. They hand out the craft categories, guest acting, animation, documentary and reality awards over two nights, and an edited highlights special has traditionally aired separately in the days afterwards. The Television Academy confirms the broadcast arrangement each year. Sources: Television Academy.

Not on NBC or Peacock, both of which are geo-restricted to the US. Internationally the ceremony is picked up by local broadcasters and streaming services, and the arrangement changes country by country and year by year, so check your national listings rather than assuming last year's channel still has it. Clips and the full winners list go online within minutes of each announcement. Sources: Television Academy, NBC.

The televised ceremony runs about three hours, from 8 p.m. ET, with red carpet coverage starting a couple of hours before on E! and the Television Academy's own channels. The Creative Arts weekend on September 5 and 6 is separate and spread over two evenings. Sources: NBC, Television Academy.

A winged woman holding an atom. The wings stand for the muse of art, the atom for the electron of science, the two halves of what the Television Academy considers television to be. The design dates from 1948 and is credited to television engineer Louis McManus, who used his own wife as the model. Sources: Television Academy.

No. Neither returned inside the eligibility window, so both are out of the 2026 race entirely despite having dominated the acting categories a year ago. That absence is a large part of why The Pitt was able to take 25 nominations and why the drama acting fields look so different from 2025. Sources: TVLine, TheWrap.

In the acting race, yes. Jean Smart won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the fifth and final season of Hacks, her fifth win for the role and her eighth career Emmy, meaning she has now won for every season of her own show. But the series prize went to Widow's Bay, so the record 24 nominations did not convert into Outstanding Comedy Series. Sources: Hollywood Reporter, TVLine, ABC News.