The Pitt will enter the 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards as the most-nominated programme of the year, with 25 nominations for its second season. The HBO Max medical drama is also defending its Outstanding Drama Series title, which it won in 2025.
The Television Academy will broadcast the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, 14 September. Mariska Hargitay will host the ceremony, which NBC will broadcast and Peacock will stream in the US.
The Pitt has already converted four of its nominations into wins during the Creative Arts Emmys, giving it momentum before the highest-profile categories are announced.
Noah Wyle leads acting nominees
The show is nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, while Noah Wyle is competing for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance as Dr Michael «Robby» Robinavitch. Wyle is also nominated as a director and producer, making him one of the ceremony’s most prominent multi-category contenders.
Katherine LaNasa, Sepideh Moafi, Taylor Dearden and Fiona Dourif also received supporting-actress nominations. Shawn Hatosy, Gerran Howell and Patrick Ball are all competing in the supporting-actor category.
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The programme also secured guest-acting nominations for Brittany Allen, Tal Anderson, Tina Ivlev, Ernest Harden Jr and Jeff Kober. Harden has already won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing Louie Cloverfield.
The Television Academy’s record shows that the drama also won Creative Arts prizes for casting, prosthetic makeup and the original song «Need Someone».
The Pitt has been recognised across acting, writing, directing, and technical categories, rather than relying solely on its lead actor or the main drama prize.
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The drama prize is far from settled
The Outstanding Drama Series contest includes The Gilded Age, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Pluribus, Slow Horses, Your Friends & Neighbors and The Diplomat.
Apple TV’s Pluribus is one of the closest challengers, arriving with 18 nominations and four early wins, according to the Boston Globe’s Emmy preview The Pitt nevertheless carries the advantage of incumbency after winning the drama series award last year.
The show has a real-time structure, with episodes following consecutive hours inside an overcrowded Pittsburgh emergency department, but its underlying themes — workplace pressure, difficult patients, and an ensemble of doctors and nurses — are purposefully familiar.
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