Emmy 78, ceremony on Monday: The Pitt leads with 25 nominations, Mariska Hargitay to host
On September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, the American primetime television awards ceremony. The Creative Arts Emmys, spread across 101 categories, were already handed out on September 5 and 6.
This morning the newspaper opened its section on the Toronto festival. The international entertainment calendar, however, has a second upcoming appointment that the morning edition did not cover: on Monday, September 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, the 78th edition of the Primetime Emmy Awards takes place, honoring American primetime television programming broadcast between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026 (Wikipedia; Television Academy).
The ceremony begins at 8pm on the East Coast, 5pm on the West Coast, and airs live on NBC, with production handled by Jesse Collins Entertainment and streaming distribution on Peacock (NBC Insider). For the network it is the 26th time, in the year of its centennial.
Who is hosting
On stage is Mariska Hargitay. Since 1999 she has been the face of Olivia Benson in Law & Order: SVU, a role that earned her an Emmy in 2006; for fifteen years no woman had hosted the ceremony solo (NBC Insider). During the technical awards round, Hargitay won two Emmys for the HBO documentary “My Mom Jayne,” for directing and as best documentary or nonfiction special.
The nomination numbers
The nominations were announced by the Television Academy on July 8, 2026 (Deadline).
| Title | Nominations |
|---|---|
| The Pitt | 25 |
| Hacks (final season) | 24 |
| Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) | 19 |
| Pluribus | 18 |
| Beef (Netflix) | 16 |
Hacks’ 24 nominations constitute the record for a comedy series in a single season. The variety and reality competition categories were announced on NBC Today: among the nominations, Dancing with the Stars received its first nomination in ten years.
What has already been awarded
The Creative Arts Emmys — awards for technical categories, occasional supporting performances and short-form programs — were handed out on September 5 and 6, 2026, also at the Peacock Theater, across a total of 101 categories (Good Morning America).
Among the results of those two nights: Sabrina Carpenter earned her first Emmy as executive producer and performer for The Muppet Show, in the category of prerecorded variety specials; the late Rob Reiner was honored as best guest actor in a comedy series for The Bear.
Why Monday’s numbers matter
The distribution of nominations is already a piece of market information: 25 and 24 nominations for the two leading titles mean that the two main categories — drama and comedy — arrive at the ceremony each with a clear frontrunner and a high degree of concentration. The share held by streaming platforms is visible in the list: Apple TV and Netflix occupy two of the top five positions by number of nominations.
What can be verified on Monday night is how much of The Pitt’s 25 nominations converts into actual awards: nominations measure the consensus of the professional branches that cast them, awards reflect the vote of the entire Academy. These are two different electorates, and historically they produce different results.
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