‘The Pitt’ Leads 2026 Emmy Nominations, While ‘Hacks’ Breaks a Record for Comedies

The Pitt led all nominees with 25 in a dominant sophomore season, while Hacks got a graduation party with a record-setting 24 to lead all comedies in its final season as Emmy nominations were announced Wednesday.

The totals give HBO Max the top spot for both drama and comedy, with Hacks breaking the year-old record for most nominations for a comedy series set by The Studio last year.

Emmy voters love a departing show, and have loved the tension-between-comedy-generations Hacks since its first season. Those two colliding phenomena let it run up the numbers as a fifth-year senior. Star Jean Smart has won best actress in a comedy for all four previous seasons and it would be stunning if she didn’t claim a fifth in September.

Her sidekick throughout the series Hannah Einbinder, who last year broke through and won supporting actress in a comedy in her fourth nomination, got a fifth Wednesday, as did her castmate, the show’s co-creator Paul W. Downs.

The day-in-the-life emergency room series The Pitt was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa.

Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again, as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif and Sepideh Moafi also got nominations, with The Pitt taking four of the seven supporting actress spots.

Three of their castmates were nominated for best supporting actor: Patrick Ball, Shawn Hatosy and Gerran Howell.

In an era when major Emmy contenders — like 2025’s top drama nominee Severance — tend to take years off between seasons, The Pitt came right back for another round, part of its game-changing model of marrying classic network tendencies with modern streaming prestige. And its claim on the acting categories was helped by the between-seasons absence of The White Lotus, whose ensembles have shown similar dominance.

Two new shows from AppleTV+, the one-woman-against-the-hivemind drama Pluribus and the horror comedy Widow’s Bay, both scored big in their first seasons.

Pluribus, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan, got 18 nods. They included best actress in a drama for its only lead cast member Rhee Seahorn, who is considered the favorite to win the category.

Widow’s Bay got 19, second only to Hacks among comedies, including a best actor nod for star Matthew Rhys. Two other AppleTV+ shows got best comedy nods, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, whose stars Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer also got acting nominations, and Shrinking.

The top comedy categories have been a triumph in recent years for Apple, with big wins for Ted Lasso and The Studio, which last year won a record-setting 13 Emmys. Its absence this year left a big opening for Hacks and Widow’s Bay.

The nominations for Shrinking included a best supporting actor in a comedy nod for Harrison Ford. Prognosticators are saying the force is strong with Ford, with many saying this will be the year the Hollywood legend finally wins an EGOT-tier award after a storied career. His castmate Jason Segel got a lead actor nomination for the show about therapists crossing boundaries.

Netflix’s Beef was tops in the limited or anthology series categories with 16 nominations. Beef had a dominant first season in 2023, and the anthology’s all-new grudge holders, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton, all got nominations.