Voting for the Emmy Awards has begun.
After weeks of For Your Think events and constant campaigning from the studios, voting for the 2026 Primetime Emmy nominations is officially open. Members of the Television Academy – some 24,000 industry professionals divided into 31 peer groups, including directors, producers and craftsmen – now have their ballots in hand.
Each member votes within their area of expertise, but all voters can vote for the top 14 program races: Outstanding Comedy, Drama, Limited or Anthology Series, Television Movie, Variety Series, Variety Special (Live), Variety Special (Prerecorded), Short Form Format (Comedy/Drama/Variety), Short Form Format (Nonfiction/Reality), Sponsored Nonfiction Series, Structured Reality, Unstructured Reality, Reality Competition and Game Show. According to the Academy’s rules, the number of candidates in each category is determined by the volume of entries. However, the Drama and Comedy Series categories are each guaranteed eight nominations, regardless of the total number of entries.
The race for this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards is being run in smaller groups. Television Academy members this year voted on 555 program submissions across 14 program categories, down from 600 programs last year and a decrease of 45 titles, or approximately 7.5%.
Most of that erosion goes back to a single category. The number of works submitted for variety specials (pre-recorded) decreased from 89 works to 66 works, a significant drop of 23 works, accounting for about half of the overall decrease for the year. The lane, once filled with stand-up time, has thinned considerably even though some strong names remain, including “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable,” “Nikki Glazer: Good Girl,” “Ricky Gervais: Mortality,” and “Tom Segura: Teacher.” The concert film “Taylor Swift: The Elus Tour – The Final Show” and the one-night-only event “Wicked: One Wonderful Night” brought the most brilliant musical work to the field.
Among the scripted series categories, the biggest decline was in the drama category, which fell from 126 to 110. Second seasons of hit shows such as HBO Max’s hospital drama “The Pit” and Hulu’s “Paradise” will be a big part of the mix, while new series like Apple TV’s “Pluribus” will once again join big-time series “Slow Horses,” “The Diplomat,” “Stranger Things” and “The Morning Show.”
Comedy bucked this trend, rising from 69th to 71st place. The category is anchored by annual nominees “The Bear,” “The Hux,” “Abbott Elementary,” and “Only Murders in the Building,” and newcomers include “The Paper,” Peacock’s workplace comedy spun from “The Office,” and Hulu sports comedy “Chad Powers,” starring Glen Powell.
The limited or anthology series category fell from 33 to 31, led by Netflix’s “Lord of the Flies,” “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” “Death by Lightning,” “Black Rabbit” and Peacock’s “All Her Fault.” The number of TV movie entries dropped from 39 to 34, including “Heads of State,” Tyler Perry’s “Straw,” “Play Dirty” and “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War.” As a result, there are 5 candidates.
This year, the breed landscape has been reshaped. The Academy combined the former talk and scripted variety races into a single category, Outstanding Variety Series, which attracted 18 entries. This was about the same as the 19 entries in the two categories combined 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” will all return. OpenAI also submitted its first work to the technology talk show TBPN, along with surprise entries such as Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” and the Byron sensation “Ziw: You’d Be an Iconic Guest.” As a result, there will be five nominations in this category.
SANTA CLARA, CA – FEBRUARY 8: Bad Bunny performs the halftime show during the Super Bowl LX game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Bob Kubbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sports Wire (via Getty Images)
In contrast, live variety specials increased slightly from 26 to 28 thanks to the year’s marquee broadcasts, including the Oscars, the 68th Grammy Awards, Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, and the 78th Tony Awards.
The short-form race was one of the few clear growth stories. Short comedies, dramas and variety shows increased from 14 to 18, with entries including Tom Segura’s dark comedy “Bad Thoughts” and the street life YouTube series “Subwaytakes.” Short-form nonfiction or reality rose from 27 to 31 with a wave of companion series such as “Stranger Things 5: Stranger Scenes” and “Inside the Pit” from the network’s marketing team itself.
The reality told a slightly more complicated story. Although the reality competition has been reduced from 50 to 45, it still boasts genre giants “Survivor,” which is in its 50th season, “Traitor,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “The Voice.” Structured Reality has dropped from 23 to 18, despite the field’s heavyweights “Shark Tank,” “Antiques Roadshow” and “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Unstructured Reality increased from 36 to 38, led by ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’, ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, ‘Love on the Spectrum’ and ‘Selling Sunset’.
The number of sponsored nonfiction titles has been reduced from 26 to 23, including “Somebody Feeds Phil,” “Tucci in Italy,” and “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” Among the names. Game shows have been tweaked from 23 to 24 shows, with “Jeopardy!,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “The Price Is Right” taking center stage, along with new formats like “The Floor,” “The 1% Club” and Dropout’s highly entertaining “Game Changer.”
Emmy nomination voting will continue until June 22nd.
