The 78th Primetime Emmys will go down in history, remembered as the night Jean Smart completed the awards’ first ever perfect run for a lead actor, or the ceremony in which Widow’s Bay set a new record for most wins by a comedy series and its star, Matthew Rhys, notched a landmark achievement all his own. It may also be remembered as one of the TV Academy’s sloppiest presentations ever, when miscalculations and misfires led to a telecast that felt too short for the first hour and too long for the last 30 minutes, and the producers had the patience for a duet about finales and cancellations set to the tune of Supertramp, yet felt the need to play off Pluribus’ Rhea Seehorn as she basked in the victory of the Emmy she should’ve won for multiple seasons of Better Call Saul. With zero sleep and even less tolerance for the slack rhythms of that Taylor Swift x SVU sketch, The A.V. Club’s TV team looks back at all the good, bad, and strange that the 2026 Emmys had to offer.
Worst: The ceremony itself
The vibes were off from the start: A year after supposedly agreeable funnyman Nate Bargatze failed to bring America together by tying long Emmys acceptance speeches to withheld charitable donations, the Television Academy chose Mariska Hargitay—a beloved and talented actor, but one known more for the televised pursuit of sex criminals than for live, onstage razzle dazzle—as the ceremony’s next host. Shortly after that announcement, the entertainment industry’s continued bid to attract an imaginary audience that would tune in to more awards shows if it weren’t for all those gosh darn awards led to some lower-profile categories being banished from the main broadcast to nights one and two of the Don’t Call Them The Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Anymore. Both developments tempered my expectations for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, but I still wasn’t anticipating a night this ragged, rushed, and seemingly disinterested in itself or the medium it’s ostensibly celebrating. I mean, the whole thing kicked off with a tribute not to the nominated shows, actors, writers, and directors but the screens we watch them on.
The ceremony wasn’t a total disaster, as evidenced by some of the highlights pointed out below. But every flop-sweat-drenched comedic bit and abbreviated laundry list of thank-yous made it clear that very little was gained from keeping all those wins for The Muppet Show and DTF St. Louis off of NBC. You can’t make it to the final 30 minutes of your glitzy showbiz extravaganza with only two awards and an in memoriam left without making several deflating, irritating, tedious mistakes along the way. And that’s before there were 10 minutes left and Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey were ushered onstage to vamp through a hot-boxed elevator pitch for their upcoming Apple TV comedy Brothers. (What a way to cap off Apple’s first time as Emmys’ big winner.) The winners, for once, felt right. But the pacing, priorities, and production numbers of these Emmys were all wrong. [Erik Adams]
Weirdest: Who asked for all these song parodies?
Case in point: With Hargitay’s strengths as a host largely unknown, and with minimal effort put forth to unearth any hidden talents that might’ve lifted the show out of its frequent lulls, the writing for her segments leaned hard on some of the most memed details about her. She’s a New York Knicks fan! She’s friends with Taylor Swift! Does the latter lend itself to a secret proficiency with comically altered lyrics that even Michael Scott would have to admit are pretty forced? No? What if we told you these were parodies of songs from the mid- and late-’70s, the first of crams “Next I’m eating beef and watching Beef / Yeah, Beef” into the refrain of “I Love Rock ’N’ Roll”? Hey, where are you going? [EA]
Best: Comedy from the presenters and winners
Standards for comedic excellence are falling pretty low if the standout material is arriving in the presenter patter. But if those presenters are left to their own goofy devices—like Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet donning oversized glasses to discuss their roles as Ronald Friends and Tabitha Neighbors, “the hard-boiled detectives from Apple TV’s Friends And Neighbors”—then you just might end up with some genuine laughs. Ditto John Mulaney’s extended preamble to Lead Actor In A Drama Series, his latest, packed-with-reference-and-showbiz-minutiae audition for the awards hosting gig he’s too smart (and too prone to muted allusions to DJ Khaled’s stance on cunnilingus) to ever accept. Why, in these Emmys’ most desperate hours, you could even get a chuckle out of the poignant stuff, like those little reminders of Michael J. Fox’s impeccable comic timing sprinkled into his acceptance of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award—a distinction that, in honor of Fox’s puckish asides, ought to be renamed the Bob Hope And Lola Falana Humanitarian Award just this once. [EA]
Worst: Baywatch promo
We all expect some amount of awkward promotional material to be part of an Emmys ceremony (the Marriott logos splashed across the opening song, Mariska Hargitay shouting out Law & Order: SVU every five minutes, etc.). But the award for most hamfisted promo of the night goes to the cast of Baywatch, who somehow failed to make the evergreen concept and high-stakes of glamorous TV lifeguards feel exciting. The six cast members of Fox’s upcoming follow-up to the long-running David Hasselhoff series—Stephen Amell, Brooks Nader, Jessica Belkin, Noah Beck, Hassie Harrison, and Thaddeus LaGrone—lacked believable chemistry at the mic, likely due to the pressure of presenting the Outstanding Reality Competition award in front of a live audience. (As opposed to saving lives under the controlled circumstances of beachside melodrama). But it’s another reason to stop dropping these stilted notices of new programming smack dab in the middle of a ceremony that’s already threatening to drag on. That’s what the commercial breaks are for. [SG]
Weirdest: An argument for limiting the number of acting nominees per show
I assumed the Television Academy’s admiration of The Pitt circa 2025 would spill into this year, particularly with past winners Katherine LaNasa and Shawn Hatosy (the latter of whom was up for the supporting category instead of guest actor) in the running. However, everyone has learned a lesson about nominating multiple people from the same show because, yes, split votes do make a difference. As it turns out, neither LaNasa nor Hatosy—nor their nominated co-stars Sepideh Moafi, Fiona Dourif, Patrick Ball, and Gerran Howell—won. The Diplomat‘s Allison Janney and Task‘s Tom Pelphrey took home the trophy for Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor In A Drama Series, respectively—categories in which their peers from The Pitt were heavily favored. It is cool to see the love spread out to multiple shows, and it’s a reminder that perhaps the TV Academy needs to impose a proper rule about how many folks from the same show can snag a spot on the nomination list. It’s not just The Pitt; in recent years, The White Lotus, The Bear, and The Morning Show have done the same (as have a lot of other shows in the past, from Seinfeld to Game Of Thrones). My suggestion: Stop at two people per show to keep things interesting and avoid that split-vote phenomenon. [SG]
Best: A moving tribute to the singular Catherine O’Hara
There couldn’t possibly have been a dry eye in the room when Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy, and Dan Levy walked on to the stage to pay tribute to the late, great Catherine O’Hara. Heck, watching them talk again (and that cut to O’Hara’s SCTV co-star and longtime friend Martin Short) to write this made me sob all over again. Her onscreen kids from Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek had the loveliest things to say about the late O’Hara, whose absolutely unforgettable presence earned her nominations for The Studio and The Last Of Us just last year. They clearly spoke from the heart: Murphy talked about her fellow Canadians sharing their condolences for and impressions of O’Hara in the wake of the actor’s death, and Levy reflected on how much she contributed to the unflappable character (and wig wall!) of Moira Rose. Culkin phrased it best: “We will always remember her.” [SG]
Best: All those Widow’s Bay wins
The actual rhythm of the Emmys night was Widow’s Bay, alright. The show swept the comedy categories, save for Jean Smart nabbing the lead actress win (where no one from Widow’s Bay was nominated here). Kate O’Flynn kicked off the ceremony, shouting out all the Patricias in the world. Stephen Root, series creator/writer Katie Dippold, and director Hiro Murai also nabbed trophies in their respective categories, along with Matthew Rhys’ history-making win, before Widow’s Bay beat previous winners like Hacks and The Bear to take home the Outstanding Comedy Series trophy.
It’s noteworthy not only because Widow’s Bay becomes the third Apple TV original to win this award after its first season (the others being The Studio and Ted Lasso), but also because it beats their record-setting hauls with a smooth 14 wins. And the best part? All of season one wasn’t even eligible; the final three episodes will be eligible for next year‘s Emmys—O’Flynn could very well repeat on the strengths of her unyielding final girl act in “Your Baggage.” The least we can do now is have some sunset cocktails to celebrate. [SG]
Best: Rhea Seehorn wins at last
Up until this year, Rhea Seehorn was part of that poor, unfortunate roster of perpetual nominees who’ve never won an Emmy. (She was in good company alongside Keri Russell in Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series this year). The actor didn’t win a single Emmy for six seasons of playing Better Call Saul‘s formidable Kim Wexler. But thanks to Vince Gilligan—who created both BCS and Pluribus—Seehorn, at long last, found her way onto the stage at this year’s ceremony. She anchors Apple TV’s mystifying sci-fi series with aplomb, and it’s safe to say this member of the hive mind is glad that she can finally enjoy this accolade. And what a way to start the acceptance speech: “This is me on a beta-blocker. It’s pretty bad.” The only problem here was when the producers dared to play Seehorn off the stage. Much like Carol Sturka, though, she didn’t give in to the pressure. [SG]
Weird: The brief Buffy reunion
Nearly thirty years after the premiere of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, this was not the reunion we expected—we were holding out for that revival Hulu canceled earlier this year. Series stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz sneakily alluded to this in their introduction to Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie, noting that we’ll never find out if Buffy and Angel ended up together (thank you, camera operators, for capturing Michelle Pfeiffer’s reaction to that statement!). And if the chemistry the actors displayed in the moment is any indication, maybe it’s okay if we never find out if their characters’ “May-December romance” panned out. The two of them briefly took to the stage to also acknowledge how difficult the past couple of years have been on the beloved show’s cast and crew—not just in reference to the extremely tainted legacy of Buffy creator Joss Whedon, but also to remember cast members like Michelle Trachtenberg, Anthony Head, and Nicholas Brendon. (Although it must be noted that Brendon, whose personal post-Buffy struggles leave their own complicated legacy, was left out of the In Memoriam segment that aired later during Emmy night.) [SG]
Weird: The Ghoulies get their Emmys moment
The Muppets didn’t get to enjoy the spotlight of the Emmys’ mainstage, but a less storied troupe of puppets did: The nasty little freaks of ’80s cult favorite Ghoulies. In one of the evening’s requisite expressions of movies-versus-TV insecurity, Hargitay alluded to her big-screen debut alongside the Rat Ghoulie, the Cat Ghoulie, and the Fish Ghoulie—the last of whose jack-in-the-box routine with a toilet is seared into the memory of any scaredy-cat geriatric millennial who ever took a wrong turn while wandering the aisles of their local video store. The host then proceeded to throw to a clip from Ghoulies, in which one of her co-stars gets an eyeful of the Fish Ghoulie’s chompers, and a young Hargitay, as one does in this type of situation, screams bloody murder. Between this unexpected soupçon of VHS schlock and all those wins for Widow’s Bay, it was a good night for horror comedy. [EA]
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club’s TV critic.
Erik Adams is The A.V. Club’s senior TV editor.
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