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Emmy nomination morning had a clear winner before a single trophy was handed out. HBO Max’s The Pitt led the field with 25 nominations on Wednesday (July 8), including 13 acting nods, per Variety, nearly double its total from last year. Noah Wyle is up for lead actor in a drama.
Hacks is right behind with 24 nominations for its fifth season, the most ever for a comedy, beating the 23 held by The Bear and The Studio. Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, the haunted-island horror comedy, leads all new shows with 19, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Pluribus has 18, Beef 16 and DTF St. Louis 13, and SNL and Spider-Noir have 11 apiece.
The music crossover is where it gets fun. Taylor Swift earned a nomination as performer and producer for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show, her Disney+ concert film, in outstanding variety special (pre-recorded), ABC News reports. The film filmed in Vancouver at the tour’s last show and has five nominations in all, including directing for Glenn Weiss. It’s Swift’s second Emmy nomination; her first came in 2015 for the interactive program AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience. She faces Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable, The Muppet Show, Nikki Glaser: Good Girl and Wicked: One Wonderful Night.
Rolling Stone adds that Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show picked up nine nominations, making him eligible for his first Emmy. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert earned nine just months after CBS ended it. Euphoria had a rough exit: its final season was largely shut out of the major categories, though Zendaya and Colman Domingo were both nominated. The late Rob Reiner received a posthumous nomination for a guest turn on The Bear.
Read moreTaylor Swift, SZA and Phoebe Bridgers: The 2027 Best Original Song Race, Explained
One rule change matters for the variety fields. Variety reports that the outstanding variety series category is now an “area” award, where each nominee only needs 90% of voters to answer yes to “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?” That means more than one show can win.
The 78th Emmys air live on NBC and Peacock on Monday, Sept. 14, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, with the Creative Arts ceremonies on Sept. 5 and 6. We followed the results: Bad Bunny’s halftime show won big at the Creative Arts, and Emmy night belonged to The Pitt and Widow’s Bay.
- Announced
- Wednesday, July 8, 2026
- Ceremony
- Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, NBC and Peacock, hosted by Mariska Hargitay
- Most nominations
- *The Pitt* 25, *Hacks* 24, *Widow’s Bay* 19, *Pluribus* 18, *Beef* 16
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
