The nominations for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 8, 2026, at the Television Academy's Wolf Theatre in North Hollywood, with actors Jeff Hiller and Liza Colón-Zayas reading the list alongside Academy chair Cris Abrego. The drama series field is led by a familiar streaming sweep: "The Pitt," "The Gilded Age," "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," "Paradise," "Pluribus," "Slow Horses," "The Diplomat" and "Your Friends & Neighbors" all made the cut.
On the comedy side, "Abbott Elementary," "The Bear," "Hacks," "Margo's Got Money Troubles," "Nobody Wants This," "Only Murders in the Building," "Shrinking" and "Widow's Bay" contend, while the limited-series race includes "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette," a nomination that guarantees at least one heavily styled period piece on the September carpet.
The biggest reaction, though, came a day earlier. On July 7, 2026, the Academy announced Mariska Hargitay as the ceremony's host, honoring NBC's 100th anniversary with the lead of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Per the Academy's announcement, she is the first host who is not a comedian, comedy performer or television personality since Angela Lansbury in 1993, and the first woman to host since Jane Lynch in 2011.
This cycle also carries structural news. In January 2026 the Television Academy announced the Legacy Award, its first new major award in nearly twenty years, honoring programs with a lasting cultural impact, and the separate scripted-variety and talk categories were merged into a single Outstanding Variety Series field, where "Saturday Night Live" now contends directly with the late-night shows.
The ceremony is set for Monday, September 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock, with Jesse Collins Entertainment producing. For the nominated casts, the two months between announcement and telecast are the industry's most intense styling runway: press tours, FYC events and photo calls now feed an Emmy-night wardrobe plan that began, in some cases, the morning the nominations were read.
For more context, read Oscars 2026: a record field before the big carpet.
For more context, read bafta 2026.
For more context, read What a stylist actually does before a red carpet.