The Pitt leads with 25 Emmy nominations and Hacks breaks record for comedies with 24

The Pitt leads with 25 Emmy nominations and Hacks breaks record for comedies with 24 The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on Sep 14 with Mariska Hargitay, the longtime star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, hosting, The Pitt led all nominees with 25 in a dominant sophomore season, while Hacks got a graduation party with a record-setting 24 to lead all comedies in its final season as Emmy nominations were announced Wednesday (Jul 8). The totals give HBO Max the top spot for both drama and comedy, with Hacks breaking the record for most nominations for a comedy series held jointly by The Studio last year and The Bear in 2024. HBO Max led all outlets with 122 overall nominations and has three shows up for both best drama and best comedy series. The nominees announced for 118 Primetime Emmy categories included the late Rob Reiner for his guest acting on The Bear, Bad Bunny for his Super Bowl halftime show, and newlywed Taylor Swift for The Eras Tour - The Final Show concert special. HACKS GETS A SPECIAL SEND-OFF AND THE PITT GROWS UP Emmy voters love a departing show, and have loved the tension-between-comedy-generations Hacks since its first season, allowing it to run up the numbers as a fifth-year senior. Star Jean Smart has won best actress in a comedy for all four previous seasons and it would be stunning if she didn’t claim a fifth. Her sidekick throughout the series Hannah Einbinder, who last year broke through and won supporting actress in a comedy in her fourth nomination, got a fifth. Her castmate, the show’s co-creator Paul W Downs, got three nominations, for acting, writing and producing. The day-in-the-life emergency room series The Pitt was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again for best actor (along with nods for his directing and producing) as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif and Sepideh Moafi also got nominations, with The Pitt taking four of the seven supporting actress spots and three supporting actor slots. In an era when major Emmy contenders – like 2025’s top drama nominee Severance – take years off between seasons, The Pitt came right back for another round. And its claim on the acting categories was helped by the between-seasons absence of The White Lotus, and its elite ensembles. A SOLID SHOWING FOR APPLE TV Two new shows from Apple TV, the one-woman-against-the-hivemind drama Pluribus and the horror comedy Widow’s Bay, both scored big in their first seasons. Pluribus, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan, got 18 nods. They included best actress in a drama for its only lead cast member Rhea Seahorn, considered the favourite to win. Widow’s Bay got 19, including best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who was also nominated as a producer and for his acting in the limited series The Beast in Me. Two other Apple TV shows are also up for best comedy, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, whose stars Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer got acting nominations, and Shrinking. The Shrinking nominations included best supporting actor in a comedy for Harrison Ford. The force could be with Ford, with many prognosticators saying this will be the year the Hollywood legend finally wins an EGOT-tier award. His castmate Jason Segel is up for lead actor. BIG DAY FOR BATEMAN, SHORT AND BRUNSON Many close observers also think this will be the year the perennially nominated Martin Short wins best actor in a comedy for Only Murders In The Building. He was nominated for three trophies, including nods for his producing of Only Murders In The Building and hosting The Match Game. A Netflix documentary about him, Marty, Life is Short, also got two nominations. Jason Bateman got four nominations, for his performing and producing on both Black Rabbit and DTF St. Louis. ABCs Abbott Elementary remained a rare bright spot for the traditional broadcast networks that have been marginalised in top categories by cable and streaming shows. Creator, star and two-time Emmy winner Quinta Brunson was nominated for three more, and the show got seven. REINER, SWIFT, BUNNY AND FOX ARE AMONG THE NOTABLE NOMINEES The vast range of Emmy categories brings unexpected stars and beloved figures into the mix. Rob Reiner, who was killed along with wife Michele Singer Reiner in December, has a chance at his third Emmy. He was nominated for guest actor for The Bear, about 50 years after winning two for his acting on All In The Family. Five-time Emmy winner Michael J Fox, also got a nomination in the same category for playing a patient with Parkinson’s disease, which the actor was diagnosed with in the 1990s, on Shrinking. The Super Bowl halftime show is nearly always nominated, but this year's featuring Bad Bunny on NBC went above and beyond with nine nominations. Swift's “Eras Tour” concert special got five nominations days after her marriage to Travis Kelce, one of them for the singing superstar herself as producer. She has one previous Emmy, for interactive media in 2015, to go with her 14 Grammys. And after a year of targeting from the Trump administration for late-night hosts and their shows, the now-off-the-air Late Show With Stephen Colbert got nine nominations and Jimmy Kimmel Live! got six. BEEF AND EUPHORIA ARE BACK IN THE MIX Netflix’s Beef was tops in the limited or anthology series categories with 16 nominations. Beef had a dominant first season in 2023, and the anthology’s all-new grudge holders, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton, all got nominations. Euphoria made its Emmys return after a long absence and got seven nominations. Zendaya, who won best actress in a drama for the first two seasons in 2020 and 2022, got a nod for the recently aired third season. Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller announced the nominees at the Television Academy in Los Angeles. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held Sep 14. Mariska Hargitay, the longtime star of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, will host and is a double nominee for directing and producing the documentary My Mom Jayne. LIST OF NOMINEES IN TOP CATEGORIES Drama series The Diplomat; The Gilded Age; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms; Paradise; The Pitt; Pluribus; Slow Horses; Your Friends & Neighbors Comedy series Abbott Elementary; The Bear; Hacks; Margo’s Got Money Troubles; Nobody Wants This; Only Murders in the Building; Shrinking; Widow’s Bay Limited series, anthology series or movie All Her Fault; The Beast in Me; Beef; DTF St. Louis; Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette Drama actor Sterling K. Brown, Paradise; Gary Oldman, Slow Horses; Mark Ruffalo, Task; Rufus Sewell, The Diplomat; Noah Wyle, The Pitt Drama actress Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age; Chase Infiniti, The Testaments; Keri Russell, The Diplomat; Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus; Zendaya, Euphoria Supporting actor drama series Patrick Ball, The Pitt; Billy Crudup, The Morning Show; Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt; Gerran Howell, The Pitt; Jack Lowden, Slow Horses; Tom Pelphrey, Task; Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Pluribus Supporting actress drama series Taylor Dearden, The Pitt; Fiona Dourif, The Pitt; Allison Janney, The Diplomat; Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt; Sepideh Moafi, The Pitt; Julianne Nicholson, Paradise; Karolina Wydra, Pluribus Comedy actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Wonder Man; Steve Carell, Rooster; Matthew Rhys, Widow’s Bay; Jason Segel, Shrinking; Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building Comedy actress Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary; Ayo Edebiri, The Bear; Elle Fanning, Margo’s Got Money Troubles; Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback; Jean Smart, Hacks Supporting actor comedy series Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons; Paul W. Downs, Hacks; Harrison Ford, Shrinking; Nick Offerman, Margo’s Got Money Troubles; Stephen Root, Widow’s Bay; Michael Urie, Shrinking; Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary Supporting actress comedy series Dale Dickey, Widow’s Bay; Hannah Einbinder, Hacks; Janelle James, Abbott Elementary; Kate O’Flynn, Widow’s Bay; Michelle Pfeiffer, Margo’s Got Money Troubles; Megan Stalter, Hacks; Jessica Williams, Shrinking Lead actor limited series, anthology series or movie Riz Ahmed, Bait; Jason Bateman, Black Rabbit; Charlie Hunnam, Monster: The Ed Gein Story; Oscar Isaac, Beef; Matthew Rhys, The Beast in Me Lead actress limited, anthology series or movie Claire Danes, The Beast in Me; Sally Field, Remarkably Bright Creatures; Carey Mulligan, Beef; Sarah Pidgeon, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette; Sarah Snook, All Her Fault Supporting actor limited, anthology series or movie Jason Bateman, DTF St. Louis; Richard Gadd, Half Man; David Harbour, DTF St. Louis; Richard Jenkins, DTF St. Louis; Charles Melton, Beef; Nick Offerman, Death by Lightning Supporting actress limited, anthology series or movie Linda Cardellini, DTF St. Louis; Dakota Fanning, All Her Fault; Laurie Metcalf, Monster: The Ed Gein Story; Joy Sunday, DTF St. Louis; Youn Yuh-jung, Beef; Constance Zimmer, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette