Emmy voting has begun.
After weeks of For Your Consideration events and nonstop campaigning from studios, voting for the 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations is officially underway. Members of the Television Academy — nearly 24,000 industry professionals divided among 31 peer groups, including directors, producers and artisans — now hold ballots in hand.
Each member votes within their professional field, but all eligible voters may cast ballots in the 14 top program races: outstanding comedy, drama, limited or anthology series, television movie, variety series, variety special (live), variety special (pre-recorded), short form (comedy/drama/variety), short form (nonfiction/reality), hosted nonfiction series, structured reality, unstructured reality, reality competition and game show. According to Academy rules, the number of nominees in each category is determined by the volume of submissions. However, the drama and comedy series categories are guaranteed to have eight nominees each, regardless of the total number of entries.
The race for this year’s Primetime Emmys is running with a smaller pack. Television Academy members opened their nominating ballots to 555 program submissions across the 14 program categories this year, down from 600 last year — a decline of 45 titles, or about 7.5%.
Most of that erosion traces to a single category. Submissions for variety special (pre-recorded) tumbled to 66 from 89, a 23-title plunge that accounts for roughly half the year’s overall drop. The lane that once overflowed with stand-up hours thinned considerably, even as marquee names stayed in the mix — among them “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable,” “Nikki Glaser: Good Girl,” “Ricky Gervais: Mortality” and “Tom Segura: Teacher.” The concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour – The Final Show” and the one-night event “Wicked: One Wonderful Night” gave the field its glossiest and most musical entries.
The drama race contracted the most among the scripted series categories, falling to 110 from 126. The sophomore seasons of hit shows carry weight such as HBO Max’s hospital drama “The Pitt” and Hulu’s “Paradise,” alongside new series like Apple TV’s “Pluribus” join returning heavyweights “Slow Horses,” “The Diplomat,” “Stranger Things” and “The Morning Show.”
Comedy bucked the trend, ticking up to 71 from 69. Perennial nominees “The Bear,” “Hacks,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Only Murders in the Building” anchor the category, joined by newcomers including “The Paper,” the Peacock workplace comedy spun from “The Office,” and the Hulu sports comedy “Chad Powers” with Glen Powell.
The limited or anthology series field slipped to 31 from 33, led by Netflix’s “Lord of the Flies,” “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” “Death by Lightning” and “Black Rabbit,” along with Peacock’s “All Her Fault.” Television movie submissions fell to 34 from 39, with “Heads of State,” Tyler Perry’s “Straw,” “Play Dirty” and “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War” among the entries. There will be five nominees as a result.
The variety landscape was reshaped this year. The Academy folded the former talk and scripted variety races into a single category, outstanding variety series, which drew 18 submissions — essentially flat compared with the 19 the two categories combined drew a year ago. “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “The Daily Show” all return. OpenAI also has its first-ever submission with the tech talk show “TBPN” along with surprise entries like Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” and the viral sensation that is “Ziw: You’d Be an Iconic Guest” being on the list. As a result, there will be five nominees in the category.
SANTA CLARA, CA – FEBRUARY 08: Bad Bunny performs the halftime show during the Seattle Seahawks versus the New England Patriots Super Bowl LX game on February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. (Photo by Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Live variety specials, by contrast, edged up to 28 from 26, powered by the year’s tentpole broadcasts — “The Oscars,” “68th Annual Grammy Awards,” the “Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” and the “78th Annual Tony Awards.”
The short-form races were among the few clear growth stories. Short form comedy, drama or variety rose to 18 from 14, with entries such as Tom Segura’s dark comedic “Bad Thoughts” and the man-on-the-street YouTube series “Subwaytakes.” Short form nonfiction or reality climbed to 31 from 27 on a wave of companion series, including “Stranger Things 5: Stranger Scenes” and “Inside the Pitt” coming from the networks marketing teams themselves.
Reality told a bit of a mixed story. Reality competition slipped to 45 from 50 but still boasts the genre’s giants — “Survivor,” marking its 50th season, “The Traitors,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “The Voice.” Structured reality fell to 18 from 23, even with stalwarts “Shark Tank,” “Antiques Roadshow” and “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in the field. Unstructured reality rose to 38 from 36, led by “The Kardashians,” “Welcome to Wrexham,” “Love on the Spectrum” and “Selling Sunset.”
Hosted nonfiction dipped to 23 from 26, with “Somebody Feed Phil,” “Tucci in Italy” and “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” among the names. Game shows nudged up to 24 from 23, anchored by “Jeopardy!,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “The Price Is Right” alongside newer formats “The Floor” and “The 1% Club” and the wickedly funny “Game Changer” from Dropout.
Emmy nomination voting runs through June 22.
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