In a very special episode of the Contending at the Water Cooler podcast, Megan McLachlan is joined by freelance writer Joshua Axelrod to discuss all five 2026 Outstanding TV Movie Emmy contenders.
Notably, the Outstanding TV Movie category is completely unpredictable, with past winners including Rebel Ridge, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. There is no one type of TV movie.
In terms of the 2026 Outstanding TV Movie category, this year we have a buddy comedy with John Cena and Idris Elba (with Priyanka Chopra as the third wheel), a rom-com that steals from When Harry Met Sally, the latest Jack Ryan film entry, a film that explores the beautiful relationship between a sentient octopus and a cleaning lady, and a dramaedy that explores the not-so beautiful relationship between a grieving woman and her son’s assistant.
Remarkably Beautiful Creatures is the clear frontrunner, but special guest Joshua Axelrod thinks there’s a better movie in the bunch.
Watch or listen below, where we recap each film, list what we like and didn’t like, and then rank the films in terms of likelihood to win.
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