'The Pitt' leads with 25 Emmy nominations and 'Hacks' breaks record for comedies with 24

Emmy voters love a departing show, and have loved the tension-between-comedy-generations “Hacks” since its first season. Those two colliding phenomena let it run up the numbers as a fifth-year senior. Star Jean Smart has won best actress in a comedy for all four previous seasons and it would be stunning if she didn’t claim a fifth in September.

Her sidekick throughout the series Hannah Einbinder, who last year broke through and won supporting actress in a comedy in her fourth nomination, got a fifth Wednesday, as did her castmate, the show’s co-creator Paul W. Downs.

The day-in-the-life emergency room series “The Pitt” was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa.

Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again, as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif and Sepideh Moafi also got nominations, with “The Pitt” taking four of the seven supporting actress spots.

Three of their castmates were nominated for best supporting actor: Patrick Ball, Shawn Hatosy and Gerran Howell.

In an era when major Emmy contenders — like 2025’s top drama nominee “Severance” — tend to take years off between seasons, “The Pitt” came right back for another round, part of its game-changing model of marrying classic network tendencies with modern streaming prestige. And its claim on the acting categories was helped by the between-seasons absence of “The White Lotus,” whose ensembles have shown similar dominance.

Two new shows from AppleTV+, the one-woman-against-the-hivemind drama “Pluribus” and the horror comedy “Widow’s Bay,” both scored big in their first seasons.

“Pluribus,” from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan, got 18 nods. They included best actress in a drama for its only lead cast member Rhee Seahorn, who is considered the favorite to win the category.

“Widow’s Bay” got 19, second only to “Hacks” among comedies, including a best actor nod for star Matthew Rhys. Two other AppleTV+ shows got best comedy nods, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” whose stars Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer also got acting nominations, and “Shrinking.”

The top comedy categories have been a triumph in recent years for Apple, with big wins for “Ted Lasso” and “The Studio,” which last year won a record-setting 13 Emmys. Its absence this year left a big opening for “Hacks” and “Widow's Bay.”

The nominations for “Shrinking” included a best supporting actor in a comedy nod for Harrison Ford. Prognosticators are saying the force is strong with Ford, with many saying this will be the year the Hollywood legend finally wins an EGOT-tier award after a storied career. His castmate Jason Segel got a lead actor nomination for the show about therapists crossing boundaries.

Netflix’s “Beef” was tops in the limited or anthology series categories with 16 nominations. “Beef” had a dominant first season in 2023, and the anthology’s all-new grudge holders, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton, all got nominations.

Three HBO Max shows were nominated for the top prize of best drama series, “The Gilded Age,”; “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and “The Pitt.” Apple got three of its own, for “Slow Horses,” “Your Friends & Neighbors” and “Pluribus.”

“Euphoria” made its Emmys return after a long absence and got seven nominations. Zendaya, who won best actress in a drama for the first two seasons in 2020 and 2022, got a nod for the recently aired third season.

Recent winners Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller announced the nominees at the Television Academy in Los Angeles. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, airing on NBC, will be held Sept. 14 at the Peacock Theater, the longtime Emmys home that will soon also be home to the Oscars. Mariska Hargitay, who for decades has been one of NBC’s standard-bearers as the star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” will host and is a double nominee for directing and producing the documentary “My Mom Jayne.”