Team Contending gathers around the Water Cooler to spill the tea on the Emmy nominations 2026 edition, led by HBO Max’s The Pitt.
Today, the Television Academy unveiled their Emmy nominations 2026. HBO Max’s The Pitt led all series by nearly doubling its take from last year with 25 nominations. The medical series overcame some relatively quiet naysayers to get in across the board including series, direction, writing (2 noms), and a bevy of performance nominations. But that wasn’t HBO Max’s only great news of the morning. It’s own Hacks broke the record for the most nominations by a comedy series in a single year with 24 nominations. That’s a record previously held by Apple’s The Studio and FX’s The Bear with 23.
What was once thought to be a 2-woman race in the Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category suddenly looks to be Jean Smart’s to lose. Fellow nominee and beloved contender Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback failed to perform quite as well as many were anticipating. Still, Kudrow received her third nomination for playing the perpetually optimistic Valerie Cherish.
Team Contending gathers to break down these nominations and share their reactions to some of the biggest surprises of the day. Join us, won’t you?
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Hi,
I have just gotten approx 13mins into your podcast and I’m suddenly confused. You have stated that dtf received 4 acting noms, when my understanding is that, with the exception of Linda, the other actors were all snubbed?!
Hello!
Thanks for your question. No, all of the major performances were nominated, including two surprise nominations for Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday. DTF St Louis ultimately received five performance nominations alone.
You can see the noms here: https://thecontending.com/emmy-nominations-2026/