Tonight the 78th Emmys: "The Pitt" leads with 25 nominations, "Hacks" has 24

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are scheduled for today, Monday, September 14, 2026, honoring programs that aired between June 2025 and May 2026. The ceremony is broadcast by NBC and streamed live on Peacock, hosted by “Law & Order: SVU” actress Mariska Hargitay.

Nominations are led by HBO Max’s hospital drama “The Pitt,” with 25 nominations. Next is “Hacks” with 24 nominations for its fifth and final season: a new record for a comedy series in a single year. Third is Apple TV’s “Pluribus” with 18. Also competing are titles such as “Paradise,” “Shrinking” and “Task.”

What has already been decided

A substantial portion of the awards was handed out on September 5 and 6 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, over the two Creative Arts Emmy evenings; a televised recap of the two nights aired on September 12 on FXX.

The top winner of the second evening was Apple’s “Widow’s Bay,” with eight awards, including guest performance for Betty Gilpin, casting, production design, cinematography and sound. Accepting the award, Gilpin said: “Let’s all lean more toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman” (transl. from English).

On the first evening, “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” took home seven awards, including the live variety special category. “The Traitors” received six, with Alan Cumming confirmed as best host, and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” earned five in its final season.

Technical categories and surprises

“DTF St. Louis” won both supporting actor awards in the limited series category — Linda Cardellini and David Harbour — along with directing and writing for creator Steven Conrad: it is the first time both limited-series supporting acting awards have been given at the Creative Arts ceremony. Prime Video’s already-cancelled “Spider-Noir” collected awards for stunt coordination, main title design, special visual effects, cinematography and sound editing.

South Park won the award for outstanding animated program: the fifth in its history and the first since 2013. “Remarkably Bright Creatures” was honored as the best television movie. “Antiques Roadshow” won its first Emmy after 24 nominations, in the structured reality program category.

A posthumous Emmy went to Rob Reiner for his guest role in “The Bear,” met with a standing ovation. Mariska Hargitay, who hosts tonight’s main ceremony, has already won two awards for “My Mom Jayne,” for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special and for directing.

The host of the main ceremony takes the stage with two awards already in hand — a circumstance the Creative Arts ceremonies rarely produce.

What we don’t know

We don’t know the winners of the top categories — outstanding drama series, comedy series, limited series, lead acting performances — which are awarded tonight. We don’t know how much weight “The Pitt“‘s 25 potential awards will carry: the number of nominations indicates the breadth of consensus within the Television Academy, not the outcome of the final vote.

The complete list of winners will be known at the conclusion of the broadcast on NBC and Peacock.

Sources: TVLine; TV Insider; Deadline; Gold Derby; Television Academy; Wikipedia (official Television Academy calendar).