IndieWire's 2026 Emmy Will Win and Should Win Picks
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- The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards air September 14 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE, with IndieWire's Marcus Jones predicting winners and Ben Travers selecting who should win across top categories.
- For Outstanding Comedy, "Hacks" is Jones's pick to win, citing Jean Smart's Television Academy Hall of Fame induction and final-season nostalgia; Travers backs "Widow's Bay" to reward originality over category stalwarts like "Abbott Elementary" and a weak "The Bear" Season 4.
- "The Pitt" is Jones's frontrunner for Outstanding Drama as the nominations leader; Travers says he'd vote for "Pluribus", noting no sci-fi series has won the drama Emmy since "Lost" in 2005.
- In Limited Series, Jones leans toward "Beef" Season 2 citing Netflix's three-year winning streak and voter recency bias, while Travers argues "DTF St. Louis" should win for its genre-deconstructing originality.
- "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" could benefit from its final-season status in the Variety Series race, where Jones says multiple winners are possible because voters check off every nominee with 90%+ approval; the FCC-Kimmel controversy and John Oliver's continued strength also favor their respective shows.
- "Survivor" has never won Outstanding Reality Competition Program despite the category existing because of the CBS series; Jones sees "The Traitors" as the safer pick due to its all-star cast drawn from competitor shows.
Why it matters: Because IndieWire publishes these predictions while final ballots are still being returned, the picks double as a last-minute pitch to Television Academy voters — particularly for underdogs like 'DTF St. Louis' and 'Pluribus' that the writers argue deserve recognition over safer, more familiar choices.
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