Here are a few unexpected names — and unexpectedly omitted names — from Wednesday morning’s mostly expected list of Primetime Emmy nominees.
See the full list of nominees for the 2026 Emmy Awards.
Surprise: ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’
Jonathan Tropper’s satire of suburban family life was on no one’s list of favorites for a drama series nomination for its second season. Apparently its jaundiced view of contemporary moral and sexual imperatives resonated with the people who mattered. The selection gave Apple TV three entries in the glamour category (along with “Pluribus” and “Slow Horses”), tying it with HBO.
Snub: Jon Hamm
Despite the love given to “Your Friends & Neighbors,” its star — whose “What, me worry?” insouciance is the show’s comic engine — was left out of the drama actor category.
Snub: ‘Half Man’
Richard Gadd’s follow-up to his 2024 Emmy magnet “Baby Reindeer” did not get a nod in the limited series category, and the star Jamie Bell was not nominated for actor in a limited series. (Gadd received a nod for supporting actor.) Maybe those who voted for “Adolescence” in this category last year thought it was too soon for another British critique of toxic masculinity.
Surprise: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Abdul-Mateen’s touching performance as a struggling actor with a comic-book superpower took a spot in the comedy actor field that was heavily favored to go to Jeremy Allen White, a two-time winner for “The Bear.”
Surprise: Chase Infiniti
Infiniti’s slightly surprising nod for her lead performance in the “Handmaid’s Tale” spinoff “The Testaments” probably came at the expense of Kathy Bates in “Matlock,” who went from being a favorite to win the drama actress award last year to being out of the field for her second season.
Snub: ‘The Amazing Race’
For only the second time since the reality competition award was instituted in 2003, CBS’s globe-trotting chase — winner of the category’s first seven awards — is not among the nominees. It was pushed out by “Dancing With the Stars,” which is back in the field for the first time since 2016. Maybe travel has gotten so unpleasant that we don’t even want to watch it.
Surprise: Ariana Madix
The cultural weight of dating reality shows was signaled in this out-of-nowhere reality host nomination for the presenter of Netflix’s “Love Island USA.” Phil Keoghan, Padma Lakshmi and the “Queer Eye” guys are all wondering what happened. Madix does have Emmys experience: She was a host of “Live From E!: Emmy After Party.”
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