The 5 Biggest Snubs Of The 2026 Emmy Award Nominations

The nominees for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards have officially been announced. As always, this year’s crop is a blend of returning favorites (The Pitt, Hacks), buzzy newcomers (Widow’s Bay, Pluribus), and major surprises (Dancing with the Stars, The Testaments‘ Chase Infiniti, Remarkably Bright Creatures‘ Sally Field).

Of course, there can’t be winners without losers, and just as important are the names and shows not called out. What’s particularly noteworthy about this year’s biggest Emmy snubs is that many are from popular, previously nominated series in their final seasons. Normally, when it’s their last chance to nominate or award a show, Emmy voters are particularly generous — remember Game of Thrones winning Outstanding Drama Series for its universally maligned final season? Sadly for many shows in the 2025-2026 season, this was not the case.

Hosted by Law & Order: SVU‘s Mariska Hargitay, the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will air on Monday, September 14, 2026, on NBC and will be available for streaming on Peacock. While it’s always fun to predict the winners, the following names definitely will not be called.

Taylor Sheridan (The Madison, Landman)

Emerson Miller / Paramount+

Taylor Sheridan is no stranger to being snubbed by the Television Academy. The creator behind many of today’s most popular, recent prestige series has never had any of his shows nominated in an above-the-line category, and those thinking that the strong performances in this season’s Landman and The Madison may have been enough to finally turn the tide were, alas, proven wrong.

Hopes were highest for Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays matriarch Stacy Clyburn in the cast of The Madison. However, while she missed out on that one, she still managed to score her expected nomination for her performance in Margo’s Got Money Troubles. As for Sheridan, his shows weren’t shut out completely, as Tulsa King received a nomination for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming.

Stranger Things

Everett Collection

Though Stranger Things managed to score seven nominations for technical awards at this year’s Emmys, Netflix’s biggest show was completely absent from the above-the-line list read by Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller. While season 5 was not the most acclaimed, it was also Stranger Things‘ final outing, making it a surprise that previous acting nominees Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour did not return to their categories — though Harbour was nominated for his performance in DTF St Louis.

However, the sharpest sting is that the show’s final season missed out on a coveted Outstanding Drama Series nomination. This is especially brutal because all of Stranger Things‘ past four seasons achieved this honor. Though Stranger Things lives on through Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 and other projects in development, this is the end of the Emmys road for the show that started it all.

Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria)

Everett Collection

Though its third and final season was pilloried by critics and audiences alike, there’s no denying that Euphoria‘s cast delivered some excellent performances, and several actors were expected to receive Emmy nominations for their work. New cast member Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who won acclaim for his villain turn as Alamo Brown, was shut out, and the late Eric Dane was deprived of a posthumous nomination as the complicated Cal Jacobs.

However, the biggest snub was arguably Sydney Sweeney as Nate’s needy plaything turned OnlyFans superstar, Cassie Jacobs (née Howard). The actress had previously been nominated for the same role, which made her more likely to repeat this year, and while Sweeney’s R-rated Euphoria season 3 scenes may have been controversial, there’s no denying that she committed wholeheartedly to the unhinged, explicit material.

Jeremy Allen White & Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear)

Though The Bear was once an acclaimed series that broke Emmy records, love for the show has continued to diminish season after season, with voters growing increasingly frustrated that it continues to nominate itself as a comedy when it is essentially a drama. Despite its polarizing reception, voters have continued to nominate the cast, but this year, some prominent names were left off the list.

Those would be Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, both back-to-back winners who were still nominated for their work in the divisive season 3 last year. Though season 4 continued to lean further away from the comedy, the actors were still expected to be added to the ballot — White, because he is the face of the show, and Moss-Bachrach because he plays one of the only characters who is still funny. However, while they were snubbed, perennial favorites Ayo Edibiri and Jamie-Lee Curtis received nominations, as did the late Rob Reiner.

The Amazing Race

Perhaps the biggest Emmy nominations blow came to The Amazing Race. The long-running reality series has been one of the winningest series in Emmys history, enjoying a seven-year winning streak for Outstanding Reality Competition Program and earning a nomination in the category every year it’s been eligible — until now.

Yes, The Amazing Race‘s 23-year nomination streak comes to an end thanks to Dancing with the Stars, a returning nominee who’s clawed its way back after a hugely popular season. What’s particularly worrisome for The Amazing Race is that it got bumped out of a notoriously rigid category. Once voters pick nominees and a winner, they tend to stay that way. Time will tell if the show can recover, or if it’s been permanently eliminated from the Emmys race.

Location

The Peacock Theater, Los Angeles, CA

Dates

September 14, 2026