With two weeks to go before the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, the race for television's top honor has narrowed to a fight between an established prestige drama and a horror-comedy newcomer that arrived with almost no advance hype.
HBO Max's medical drama "The Pitt" leads all series with 25 nominations, including nods for Outstanding Drama Series and lead actor Noah Wyle, part of a night in which HBO and HBO Max properties accounted for 123 nominations combined. But the bigger story of the nominations round was Apple TV+'s "Widow's Bay," a haunted-island horror-comedy from "Parks and Recreation" writer Katie Dippold, which landed 19 nominations — the most of any new show this season, surpassing even Apple's own "Pluribus."
"Widow's Bay," starring Matthew Rhys as the mayor of a New England tourist town that may be fully haunted, is nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series alongside "Abbott Elementary," "The Bear," "Hacks," "Margo's Got Money Troubles," "Nobody Wants This," "Only Murders in the Building" and "Shrinking." Supporting nods went to Kate O'Flynn, Dale Dickey and Stephen Root, with guest-acting nominations for Hamish Linklater and Betty Gilpin. Analysts at Gold Derby have floated the show as a threat to break the single-season comedy-Emmy haul record of 13 wins that "The Studio" set just last year.
A final season, a new host
Elsewhere in comedy, "Hacks" enters its fifth and final season as a nominee, with Jean Smart in contention for what would be a record eighth acting Emmy for her role as fading stand-up legend Deborah Vance — a milestone no performer has previously reached in a single ongoing role.
The ceremony itself carries its own firsts this year. Mariska Hargitay will host, making her the first woman to host the Emmys since Jane Lynch in 2011 and the first host not primarily known as a comedic performer since Angela Lansbury in 1993.
"Bringing important stories into the light has been the heartbeat of my career. It's my great honor to host the 78th Emmy Awards."
Mariska Hargitay
The telecast has also been restructured, with five categories shifted to the untelevised Creative Arts Emmys on September 5 and 6, trimming the main broadcast from 26 award categories to 19. A new Legacy Award — the first major addition to the Emmys' honors in nearly two decades — will be presented alongside the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, going this year to Michael J. Fox for his advocacy and fundraising for Parkinson's disease research.
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards air live September 14 from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles on NBC and Peacock, produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, closing out a nominations season in which an untested horror-comedy pushed its way into the same conversation as television's most decorated veterans.
