Last year, “The Pitt” pulled off a surprise best drama win at the Emmy Awards, besting shows with bigger budgets, stars and ratings.
This year, “The Pitt” will enter the Emmy Awards in September as a juggernaut.
The HBO Max medical series collected 25 Emmy nominations on Wednesday, the most of any show, and nearly double its haul from last year.
The show’s stars, Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa, winners from last year, were nominated again, along with six other actors from the show.
“The Pitt” is the favorite to take best drama honors again, but it will face stiff competition.
The Apple TV rookie sci-fi drama, “Pluribus,” also had a big day, scoring 18 nominations. This tees up a second consecutive year that HBO Max and Apple TV will have a showdown for best drama (last year, Apple TV’s “Severance” competed against “The Pitt”).
Apple TV and HBO Max also had plenty of other good news.
In the comedy categories, the final season for “Hacks” went out strong, scoring 24 nominations, a record for the category. “Hacks” will compete against “Widow’s Bay,” the Apple TV horror-comedy that rode a wave of momentum just as Emmy voting opened in mid-June. “Widow’s Bay” earned 19 nominations.
Jean Smart landed yet another nomination for best actress in a comedy for her role in “Hacks,” putting her at the doorstep of history. If Smart wins, she will tie Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most acting Emmys won by a single performer. She will compete against Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Elle Fanning (“Margo’s Got Money Troubles”), Lisa Kudrow (“The Comeback”) and Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”).
In the limited categories, Netflix’s “Beef” scored 16 nominations, and HBO Max’s “DTF St. Louis” received 13.
The Television Academy unveiled nominations for the 78th Emmy Awards at the academy’s Los Angeles headquarters in an event hosted by Liza Colón-Zayas (“The Bear”) and Jeff Hiller (“Somebody Somewhere”). The prime time Emmys ceremony will be held on Sept. 14, in a ceremony hosted by Mariska Hargitay, the longtime star of “Law & Order: SVU.”
Steve Carell (“Rooster”) and Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”), somewhat inexplicably still in search of their first Emmy acting wins, both earned nominations in outstanding actor in a comedy. They will face off against Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Wonder Man”), Jason Segel (“Shrinking”) and Matthew Rhys (“Widow’s Bay”). That was the first of two acting nominations on Wednesday for Rhys, who was also nominated for outstanding actor in a limited series (“The Beast in Me”).
The lead actress in a limited series category is packed with stars and promises to be one of the most anticipated awards for September. Former Emmy winners Claire Danes (“The Beast in Me”), Sarah Snook (“All Her Fault”) and Sally Field (“Remarkably Bright Creatures”) will compete against Carey Mulligan (“Beef”) and Sarah Pidgeon (“Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette”).
Rhea Seehorn, the star of “Pluribus,” was nominated for best actress in a drama, and will be gunning for her first Emmy win after two unsuccessful tries for her role in “Better Call Saul.” (The beloved AMC series notoriously never won an Emmy, despite a whopping 53 nominations.) She will have lots of competition, however. Zendaya, a two-time winner, was nominated again for the final season of “Euphoria.” Carrie Coon (“Gilded Age”), Chase Infiniti (“The Testaments”) and Keri Russell (“The Diplomat”) also earned nominations.
The “Today” show also announced nominees for two categories earlier on Wednesday: best reality competition series and outstanding variety series.
In the variety category, “Saturday Night Live” will be up against “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” as well as “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Daily Show” and the — now canceled — “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which ended in May.
This will be one of the tightest races this year. Emmy voters gave Colbert a big win in 2025, so it’s an open question whether they want to anoint him once more. It’s possible they will support Kimmel’s show after so many in the industry rallied behind him when his show got suspended last year. Of course, Oliver, “The Daily Show” and “S.N.L.” are also plenty used to being in the winners’ circle, so the race could tip in any direction.
The TikTok-fueled resurgence of “Dancing With the Stars” earned the long-running ABC series a nomination in the reality category for the first time in a decade. It will be up against a two-time winner, “The Traitors,” along with “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Survivor” and “Top Chef.”
There is some cautious optimism in Hollywood this year, after several recent films saw unexpectedly robust ticket sales. But the TV business continues to be locked in a contraction and a state of anxiety.
There were 212 series submitted for Emmy consideration in the drama, comedy, limited series and TV movie categories, a 7 percent drop compared to last year, representing a fourth consecutive year of declines. Compared with 2022, when television was thriving in its so-called Peak TV era, the number of series eligible for a top program award is down a staggering 39 percent.
Other matters are causing concern as well. Paramount Skydance is closing in on a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which will almost certainly bring thousands of job cuts. The looming acquisition is also kicking off a new round of speculation about the future of HBO, a crown jewel of Warner Bros. Discovery and a perennial Emmy favorite.
Then there’s YouTube, which continues to widen its lead in streaming viewing time over Netflix, Disney and others. The N.F.L. is also negotiating new deals with its media partners, which could force some companies to divert more resources and money away from their programming departments.
Even the future of the Emmys telecast is up in the air. This is the final year of the “wheel deal,” a multiyear pact to rotate the Emmys telecast between the four broadcast networks. (The September telecast will be on NBC.) The broadcast rotation has been in effect for more than three decades, but it is not clear if ABC, NBC, Fox or CBS will make a collective bid for the award show again.
Nearly 100 Emmys, many of them in technical categories, will be given out at a pair of ceremonies in early September. The biggest awards — including best drama, comedy and limited series, and all of the major acting categories — will be unveiled during the live prime-time ceremony on NBC and Peacock on Sept. 14.