Noah Wyle in 'The Pitt,' Jean Smart in 'Hacks,' Stephen Colbert on 'The Late Show,' Taylor Swift in 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — The Final Show' and Colman Domingo in 'Euphoria.' Warrick Page/HBO Max; Courtesy of HBO Max; Scott Kowalchyk/CBS; Kate Green/Getty Images; Eddy Chen/HBO A NOTE FROM SCOTT: On Wednesday morning, the TV Academy announced its finalists for more than 100 Primetime Emmy Awards categories, as selected by the organization’s 27,000 voters from 31 different peer groups.
As I anticipated in my final pre-nominations forecast, HBO Max’s drama series The Pitt and comedy series Hacks, Apple TV’s comedy series Widow’s Bay and Netflix’s anthology series Beef all had great showings. Underperforming expectations were FX/FX on Hulu’s comedy series The Bear and limited series Love Story, as well as CBS’ reality competition program The Amazing Race. And there were plenty of other eyebrow-raising inclusions and omissions, as well — for instance, Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors landed a best drama series nom, but no other mentions, whereas HBO’s Task received nods for acting, writing and directing, but not a nom for best drama series. I dissected it all at length in my analysis post.
Now, it is time to begin looking ahead.
We are less than six weeks away from the start of final voting period, which will run Aug. 17-26. Obviously, a lot can change between now and then. From the looks of my inbox, a lot of nominees — or at least their publicists — are anxious to hit the campaign trail hard. But for the time being, here is where I think things stand in 63 categories encompassing programs, acting, writing, directing, music, casting and more.
PLEASE REMEMBER: These forecasts do not necessarily reflect Scott’s personal preferences. His aim is not to advocate for what he thinks the members of the Television Academy should do, but rather to project what they will do.
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Best Drama Series
Image Credit: Warrick Page/HBO Max Projected Order of Finish 1. The Pitt (HBO Max, s. 2, 15 eps., Jan. 8-April 4, 2026) 2. Pluribus (Apple TV, s. 1, 9 eps., Nov. 7-Dec. 24, 2025) 3. The Diplomat (Netflix, s. 3, 8 eps., Oct. 16, 2025) 4. Slow Horses (Apple TV, s. 5, 6 eps., Sept. 24-Oct. 29, 2025) 5. Paradise (Hulu, s. 2, 8 eps., Feb. 23-March 30, 2026) 6. The Gilded Age (HBO, s. 3, 8 eps., 6/22/25-8/10/25) 7. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO, s. 1, 6 eps., Jan. 18-Feb. 22, 2026) 8. Your Friends & Neighbors (Apple TV, s. 2, 10 eps., 4/3/26-6/5/26)
