78th Primetime Emmy Awards
2026 American television programming awards
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The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will honor the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2025, until May 31, 2026, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.[1] The awards ceremony will be held live on September 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, and will be preceded by the 78th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 5 and 6. The ceremony will be produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment and broadcast in the United States by NBC and Peacock.[2][3][4][5] NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay will host the event.[6]
- September 14, 2026 (Ceremony)
- September 5–6, 2026 (Creative Arts Awards)
- Peacock Theater
- Los Angeles, California
| 78th Primetime Emmy Awards | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster | |
| Date |
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| Location |
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| Presented by | Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |
| Hosted by | Mariska Hargitay |
| Most nominations |
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| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | |
| Produced by | Jesse Collins Entertainment |
Key dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August 10–16, 2026 | Final-round videos available for viewing |
| August 17, 2026 | Final-round voting begins |
| August 26, 2026 | Final-round voting ends |
| September 5–6, 2026 | Creative Arts Awards and Governors Gala |
| September 14, 2026 | NBC Telecast and Governors Gala |
Winners and nominees
Winners will be listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[a] For simplicity, producers who received nominations for program awards have been omitted.
Programs
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Acting
Lead
Supporting
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Directing
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Writing
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Multiple nominations and wins
For the purposes of the lists below, "major" constitutes the categories listed above (program, acting, directing, and writing), while "total" includes the categories presented at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony. Programs and networks must have multiple wins or major nominations or at least five total nominations to be included.
By program
By network
Ceremony information
The nominations for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 8, 2026, at the Television Academy's Wolf Theatre in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, hosted by actor Jeff Hiller and actress Liza Colón-Zayas, along with Television Academy chair Cris Abrego.[7][8][9] The nominations for Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Reality Competition Program were announced three hours before the rest of the categories.[10] On July 7, actress Mariska Hargitay was announced as the ceremony's host.[6] NBC and the Television Academy considered talent both within and outside of NBCUniversal for the role, but ultimately hired NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's lead actress in honor of the network's 100th anniversary. This will be the first Primetime Emmys ceremony that the host is not a comedian, comedy performer, reality host or television personality since Angela Lansbury in 1993, and the first time that the event will be hosted by a woman since Jane Lynch in 2011.[6]
Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay of Jesse Collins Entertainment will serve as executive producers of the telecast.[11] To avoid conflicts with the network's broadcast of NBC Sunday Night Football, the event was scheduled to a Monday night, instead of a Sunday, which NBC had previously done when they aired the awards ceremony every four years since 2014.[2]
Category and rule changes
In January 2026, the Television Academy announced plans to present its first new major award in nearly twenty years with the creation of the Legacy Award, which will be presented annually to television programs that have made a "profound and lasting impact" on audiences, and remain relevant to culture, society and the industry.[12] Additionally, Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Talk Series were merged into Outstanding Variety Series. The new Variety Series category is tracked, meaning the number of nominees from each format is proportional to the number of submissions, and it became an area award where voters select any and all nominees they believe deserve an award, with the potential for multiple winners.[13][14][15]
In July, the Television Academy voted to move five categories to the Creative Arts ceremonies on the preceding weekend: Outstanding Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Directing, and Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and Writing for a Variety Series. Abrego justified the changes as a way to add other elements to the show such as musical performances or comedy segments, with the moves selected to "be as balanced and as equitable as possible".[16][17][18] A joint statement from the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and SAG-AFTRA criticized the changes and commented, "The decision to eliminate these categories from the prime-time broadcast devalues the contributions of the talented people the Academy is meant to honor."[19][20][21] "The move doesn't make much sense. All they've done is piss off a lot of the people and stars they are trying to court and attend their ceremony. I think this will blow up in their face", one outraged awards strategist told Variety.[22] Additionally, Outstanding Variety Special (Live) was shifted back to the Creative Arts ceremonies, leaving 19 categories for the main ceremony (a decrease from last year's 26).[23]
Notes
- The outlets listed for each program are the U.S. broadcasters or streaming services identified in the nominations, which for some international productions are different than the broadcaster(s) that originally commissioned the program. Programs broadcast by HBO or HBO Max were listed under both services in the nominations list; only the original broadcaster is listed below.