Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change in response to buzz and events.
Predictions are updated every Thursday. Primetime Emmys Predictions Commentary All Categories (Updated: Aug. 14, 2026): Final Emmy voting begins Monday, Aug. 17, to determine who takes home statuettes over Labor Day weekend and then on the live telecast. HBO Max enters Phase 2 of the Emmy race as the most-nominated network, carrying the year’s two most-nominated series and a rare chance to capture television’s top drama and comedy prizes while potentially making history across all three major program categories.
Close behind is “Hacks,” which earned 24 to become the most nominated comedy series in Emmy history. The next closest is Apple TV’s horror-comedy “Widow’s Bay,” with 19. The platform’s current dominance marks its first time leading both genres since 2017.
Few programmers in Emmy history have consistently produced the leading drama and comedy contenders in the same ceremony. History, however, shows that nomination dominance does not always translate into Emmy glory. Among the 18 instances in which a single network led the Emmy nominations in both drama and comedy, that network won one of the two top series prizes only four times (22%).
By comparison, the most-nominated program series of the Emmy year has won its corresponding top category 41 times across 73 eligible ceremonies (56%). Last year delivered a rare exception when “Severance,” with 27 nominations, lost drama series to “The Pitt.” Before that upset, the most-nominated series had won its corresponding top category every year from 2015 through 2024. While “Hacks” leads the comedy field in nominations and already owns the comedy series trophy for its third season, the most-nominated comedy has historically converted at a lower rate than its drama counterpart.
The most-nominated comedy series has won 25 out of 59 times in the current category format (42%). The front-runner has proved especially vulnerable in recent years, losing five of the past eight ceremonies, including 2023, when “The Bear” fell to “Hacks.” Also worth noting: the last comedy series to win in nonconsecutive years was “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which took the prize for its seventh season in 2003 and again for its ninth and final season in 2005, with “Arrested Development” winning in between. Other comedies to accomplish the feat include “Murphy Brown,” “Cheers,” “All in the Family” and, in the category’s earliest years, “The Jack Benny Show.” In limited series, HBO Max’s “DTF St.
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