Emmys 2026: Highs and “Whys?”

Arts and Entertainment
Jack Garcevic’30
garcevicem@lakeforest.edu
Staff Writer

Argued by many to be the annual biggest night of TV, the 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards delivered TV’s biggest entertainment stars for its 78th year. “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay hosted the awards and started the night with a musical number, “I Love TV Screens,” a reimagining of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.” This rewritten parody featured celebratory praise of the year’s biggest TV shows, stars and nominees, as well as a cameo from New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson during the show’s kickoff. After the less-than-perfectly rhymed song-and-dance concluded, awards began to be announced.

Rhea Seehorn took home the “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” Emmy. After years of playing Emmy-nominated character Kim Wexler in AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” losing to the likes of Jennifer Coolidge in 2022 and Julia Garner in 2024, Seehorn finally took home a long-deserved win for her role as Carol Sturka in AppleTV+’s “Pluribus.” Seehorn’s Emmy win is especially vindicating for those who loved her Emmy-deserving work in “Saul” due to the show’s historic record of accumulating 53 nominations over six seasons at the Primetime Emmy Awards and losing every single one of them.

“Outstanding Drama Series” two-time winner “The Pitt” struggled to pull off an Emmy sweep due to a unique issue known as vote-splitting. “The Pitt,” a show with a large supporting cast, had four nominees in “Outstanding Supporting Drama Actress” and three nominees in “Outstanding Supporting Drama Actor.” Voters who want an actress from “Pitt” to win will likely spread out their votes among the four nominated actresses. Allison Janney (The Diplomat) ended up taking home the win over all four nominated “Pitt” actresses.

Widow’s Bay performed an “Emmy sweep,” setting new records in the process. Several actors and actresses took home Emmys for the first time. From AppleTV+ comedy-horror “Widow’s Bay,” two actors received their first Emmy: Stephen Root and Kate O’Flynn were awarded supporting actor and actress Emmys, respectively. Additionally, Matthew Rhys set a first-of-its-kind Emmy record: Rhys has won “Outstanding Lead Actor” in all three Primetime categories: “Drama” for “The Americans,” “Comedy” for “Widow’s Bay” and “Limited Series” for “The Beast in Me.” Rhys’ partner and famed actress Keri Russell hasn’t had the same luck: after being nominated six times for “Outstanding Lead Actress,” she has yet to win an Emmy award.

No “Primetime Acting” Emmys were awarded to performers of color. While the Creative Arts Emmy Awards featured two Black performers winning awards (Ernest Harden Jr. for guest actor on “The Pitt,” Octavia Spencer for narrating “Lost Women of Alaska” and Hiro Murai, a Japanese-American director, winning outstanding directing for “Widow’s Bay”) no actors of color won any major acting awards (Outstanding Lead/Supporting Actor or Actress for Comedy, Drama, or Limited Series) at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sep. 14.

The term “Emmys So White” originates from 2021’s Primetime Emmys, when, despite actors who identified with underrepresented communities making up 44% of all nominees, white actors won all 12 leading and supporting acting Emmys. Harden Jr., who attended the Primetime Awards to see “The Pitt” win Outstanding Drama Series, told USA Today that he “hadn’t realized he was the sole Black male actor” who won an Emmy in the whole year. Harden Jr., while appreciative of the support from the “Pitt” team and the award itself, claimed that “racism still rears its ugly head” in award shows. 

Additionally, Jeff Hiller, last year’s “Outstanding Supporting Actor” winner for “Somebody Somewhere,” was nominated for best guest actor this year for his performance in “Pluribus.” Fans of “Pluribus,” however, question his nomination due to his character Larry appearing for a single 15-minute scene in only one episode. Harden Jr.’s character Louie, for comparison, was in six of the fifteen episodes of “Pitt.” Fans of “Pluribus” had another name in mind for the guest actor nominee slot: Mauritanian-Dutch actor Samba Schutte not only played Koumba Diabate in longer scenes during two out of nine episodes of the show, but was heavily involved in the show’s promotion and image.