Emmy Awards Snubs and Surprises: ‘Hacks’ Comes Up Short; John Oliver Shut Out; Allison Janney Scores Unexpected ‘Diplomat’ Win

Hacks went into the 2026 Emmys with a record 24 nominations for its fifth and final season, the most for any comedy series in a single year for its final season. But the HBO Max hit came up short with this year’s awards and took home only two Emmy trophies: for best actress Jean Smart, who became the first woman to win the best actress Emmy for every season of a TV series, and a picture-editing prize during the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend.

Instead, Widow’s Bay dominated the comedy categories. While awards experts predicted star Matthew Rhys to win best actor in a comedy series and perhaps for the Apple TV newcomer to win best comedy series (with Hacks as a possible spoiler) and a supporting prize or two, Widow’s Bay took home 14 of the 19 Emmys for which it was nominated, including in all of the comedy categories (save best actress) presented Monday night.

Other comedic series that underperformed at the Emmys were onetime juggernaut The Bear, which only won for guest actor for the late Rob Reiner, who received an emotional tribute from Jamie Lee Curtis in Monday’s broadcast, and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which despite its past dominance in the variety series categories went home empty-handed this year with the final season of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show winning the now-combined best variety series category and best writing for a variety series. Another surprise came with the result of the variety series competition. After making the category an “area” award, with the possibility of multiple winners, leading to speculation of all or most of the nominees winning, Colbert’s show was the only one to win.

Also in the variety field, Saturday Night Live holds the record for most Emmys of all time, but it added only one more award to its lifetime tally this year, for best makeup, with the show failing to win on any of its other 11 nominations.

In the limited series categories, while DTF St. Louis took home the top prize of best limited series, that was the show’s only televised win as its awards for best supporting actor and actress and writing were moved to the Creative Arts Emmys. A number of awards experts thought 16-time nominee Beef, specifically star Oscar Isaac, could snag the limited series and actor in a limited series categories, but it came up empty-handed in all of the major categories, just three years after the anthology series cleaned up at the 2023 Emmys, winning eight awards, including both of the lead acting awards. Instead, Beef season two won only three awards, all in the technical categories presented at the Creative Arts Emmys. Fellow limited series nominees that were shut out despite multiple nominations and periods in the zeitgeist over the past year include Love Story and All Her Fault.

Top nominee The Pitt had a strong showing, winning best drama and drama actor (Noah Wyle) as part of its total of six awards after scoring 25 nominations, a number of which were in the same categories. But it still failed to win in the writing and supporting actress categories where it won last year.

Instead, Emmy viewers got an early surprise when Allison Janney won best supporting actress in a drama for her role in The Diplomat as fictional president Grace Penn.

Another surprise came with Slow Horses‘ best directing win, continuing a tradition of the Apple series triumphing in writing and directing categories, which it’s done since 2024.