The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are here, and much like a passing glance at a cloudless night sky, the stars are out! But this is no time for puns! Television’s biggest night was hosted by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” icon Mariska Hargitay, and there were plenty of big wins and upsets.
See some of the night’s biggest snubs and surprises below. Despite being a more subtle character study compared to buzzy heavy hitters like the second season of “Beef” and the Matthew Rhys-led “The Beast in Me,” it ended up with seven statues, including top honors. My colleague Clayton Davis wrote about it at length, but every lead and supporting acting award went to a white performer this year.
Why is this still happening in 2026? Swift did indeed support her BFF Hargitay’s hosting gig, pre-taping a comedy sketch so she could also attend her husband Travis Kelce’s first game of the season with the Kansas City Chiefs. Isaac’s performance in “Beef” was predicted to win by the pundits, but Rhys pulled off a record win, taking both lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie and lead actor in a comedy series.
With starry and showy noms like Noah Wyle and Vince Gilligan, “Slow Horses” director Saul Metzstein sneaked in with a win for the episode “Scars.” While Allison Janney is brilliant, it’s likely that “Pitt” vote splitting opened the lane for her work on “The Diplomat” to be recognized. The writing category is always full of surprises, and the dramatic side of the category was no different, with Gilligan’s out-there “Pluribus” besting more down-to-earth storytelling. A bit of background: In 2015, outstanding variety series was broken into two categories: outstanding variety sketch series and outstanding talk series.
This year, the split was reversed; the categories were merged. Given all of the controversy about his show ending, Colbert certainly had a shot at winning the combined category, as he won talk series last year. But it had to squeeze by the juggernaut of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” which consistently won the variety sketch series statue.
It’s no surprise that Mulaney was funny, but his introduction to lead actor in a dramatic series squeezed so many laughs and inside-baseball showbiz jokes that it gave the night a great jolt. Also bonus for nominee Mark Ruffalo chuckling along in the crowd. That man deserves a hearty laugh!
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