Emmy Awards 2026: Date, Host and How to Watch

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.

The Pitt goes in as the favorite, on nomination count and on last year's win in the same category. The main counter-argument is Severance, which awards forecasters keep flagging as a live threat in drama. Predictions are exactly that, and the drama category has produced late upsets before. Sources: Gold Derby, Variety.

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.