emmy nomination

In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, Chase Infiniti discusses her meteroic rise, her Emmy nomination for “The Testaments” and nurturing the ambition to become an actor since age 10.

Kelvin Washington: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s episode of The Envelope. You have myself, Kelvin Washington, alongside my usual suspects, Yvonne Villarreal, Mark Olsen as well. It’s been a week, so I’m trusting everybody’s good. Yvonne, we’re coming to you here because you’re going to help us break this down. Don’t bug the eyes. Yes, we’re coming to you. The [TV] Academy, they’re making some changes when it comes to the live broadcast, and it can be a little bit confusing. That’s why we got you here. Tell us more.

Yvonne Villarreal: They announced that they will be moving five categories that are usually handed out during the ceremony, the Primetime [Emmys] ceremony, to a week prior and handing them out during the Creative Arts Emmys’ weekend. They say the decision is sort of to make space to innovate the live show and incorporate new things. You know, viewership is always something that they’re after. But it’s causing a stir in Hollywood because we’re losing some mainstays of the show, and that’s writing for a variety series, but also taking a big hit is the limited series or movie categories. We’re losing supporting actor, supporting actress, but also writing and directing. And people have a lot of thoughts. Mark, I want your thoughts. Kelvin, I want your thoughts.

Mark Olsen: I feel like there’s a disconnect between the people who watch award shows and the people who make and produce award shows, where I feel like those of us who watch them, we just want more sort of genuine moments from the talent, from the nominees. I want more speeches! And so taking away five categories, there’s going to be that much fewer speeches. I just can’t help but think of like Linda Cardellini, who’s one of the people nominated, she was on our roundtable earlier this year and just like a great presence, a stalwart TV actor, and to have to take away that chance for her to potentially get up onstage be really genuine, why would you not want that as part of your show instead having these kind of like canned comedy bits or, you know, hacky reunions plus canned comedy bits that nobody particularly wants.

Villarreal: It’s an awards show.

Washington: True, but maybe I’m Nobody in this case. We were talking about this a little bit earlier, you guys were making fun of the 1990s reunions there. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing, I think it was maybe two years ago, when they had “Martin” up there and they had never been invited; they were kind of joking, “Oh, we never got invited” or “We never won an Emmy.” And so I think it’s been pretty cool. And I will say that this is the challenge for productions, when you’re trying to appease everyone. Is it about the awards? It is about the length of time — just speed this thing up? Is it about having the magical moments? And then you see the Grammys try to get these things right as well. You’re never gonna be able to please everyone. So I think it’s always a difficult balance. So we’ll see how it works out this year. But I’m looking at you, Mark, some people might enjoy those. And you too, those nerdy little reunion shows.

Villarreal: But in a time when it’s already hard to get a show visibility in this marketplace, and so many people don’t know what’s nominated anymore, when you’re taking away an access point for them to discover something or not tell them about a show, it’s a short-sighted change I think.

Washington: The only response I would add to that is that’s kind of where we are. Even if you keep up with television, movies and music, it seems to be a lot more word of mouth than historically where things are plastered everywhere. And even if you didn’t care about the particular thing, you saw it, you heard it. Now it’s like word of a mouth and just watercooler or just the algorithm telling you what to like.

With that being said, somebody who’s having a great run right now, Chase Infiniti. I know you had a chance to speak with her. Of course, “Handmaid’s Tale” did so well. Then there’s the spinoff, “The Testaments.” Tell me a little bit more about your chat with her.

Villarreal: Talk about, like, a breakout nomination this year. Chase has really been a star on the rise. She made her debut in Apple TV’s adaptation of the legal thriller, “Presumed Innocent” playing Jake Gyllenhaal’s daughter. And in recent projects, she’s played this young revolutionary, both in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and now in “The Testaments,” which takes place after the events of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She’s the daughter of a high-ranking commander, but she’s also the biological daughter of June, who’s Elisabeth Moss’ character. And this show is really about seeing the rebellion of young teenage girls and how they are sort of key to the inside resistance of toppling this regime. And so we talked a little bit about that.

Washington: All right, well, you got me a little nervous. You’re talking about the rebellion of teenage girls. You know, I’ve got a 9, a 7, and a 5-year-old, so that could be my future.

Villarreal: Let’s hope it is. They’re the future.

Washington: You’re right, you’re right. Yvonne and Chase, here they are now.

Chase Infiniti, photographed in late March ahead of “The Testaments” premiere.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Yvonne Villarreal: Chase, thanks so much for being here. Congratulations on your Emmy nomination. What do you want to remember about this moment, this feeling?

Chase Infiniti: Oh. I don’t know. I’m trying to take little pictures in my brain of everything and remember all of the influx of emotions that I felt that entire time, but also throughout the whole journey of making Season 1 of “The Testaments.” There’s so many things about it that I’m like — I just never want to lose that feeling. There’s a lot of [memorable] moments I had on set and also during the press tour and then even finding out about the Emmy nomination, which feels very crazy to say. But even finding out about that, there’s so many little things that I’m like, “I never want to lose that feeling. I want to keep it in my brain forever.”

Villarreal: Is it as thrilling as what you remember feeling when you booked that first role in a local production of “Hairspray,” when you were 10?

Infiniti: It definitely does. I also feel very grateful that with my job and with everything I get to do, I really try to keep intact how much I love the work and how much I love creating. That’s what helps it keep that same energy as me finding out I’m playing Crystal in “Hairspray” versus me finding out that I have an Emmy nomination.

Villarreal: Were you on Cloud 9 getting the news of Crystal?

Infiniti: Oh, yeah. I was so happy because I was it was the first time I ever had a name in a musical. And I remember when I was a kid, I watched the movie version of it every night for six months. Not a lie. Me and my sister would turn it on religiously after school and we would start singing “Good Morning, Baltimore.” It got to the point where we knew almost every line in the movie.

Villarreal: I feel old asking which version of “Hairspray”… Zac Efron? What was it about it?

Infiniti: It’s just catchy — everything about it. It just makes me happy, When I hear “Run and Tell That,” I just want to do twirls in my room. I love musicals so much and they make me so happy. If I’m ever down or need a little pick-me-up, I’ll literally just blast that soundtrack. I blast the soundtrack to “Pippin” or … “Shrek: The Musical.” I remember being in the production and it kind of brings me back to those happy memories I had ,or productions that I saw that I was like, “Oh, my gosh, this really makes me want to work towards being in something like that.” I love musicals.

Villarreal: It was just two years ago where the general public was starting to learn your name with your debut in Apple TV’s “Presumed Innocent.” Since then, you’ve navigated the film award season with “One Battle After Another,” and now the TV awards season with “The Testaments.” How do you make sense of what this moment is? Are there still things you’re getting used to? What have you enjoyed about this part of the job?

Infiniti: There’s a lot of things I’m still getting used to. Especially with “One Battle,” I think the biggest adjustment I had was people knowing me before I walked up to them — people that I’m massive fans of. I met Angela Bassett at something, and she came up to me and said my name, and I was like, “You’re Angela Bassett, and you know who I am?” That was like an “Oh, my gosh” [moment]. I’m still really adjusting to that. I feel like there’s a disconnect in my brain between like what I think people know of me versus what reality actually is. And my friends bring it up all the time and they’re like, “Chase, these people know who you are.” But I can’t wrap my head around that. It’s very strange, especially going from like a 0 to 100 situation. That’s something that I’m still trying to find an adjustment on in my brain.

[What have I] enjoyed about it? I’ve gotten to meet all of my superheroes, in a way. All the people that I’ve grown up watching on the screen and on the stage, [I’ve encountered at] all of these different events and in passing, and everyone could not be kinder and just getting to meet them and just pour into them how much they’ve shaped my life and shaped the creative work I want to do. Another adjustment thing is hearing them pour back into me too. That’s something that I’ve been getting used to. But meeting the superheroes of it all in my brain has been something I’ve really loved. Also getting to meet people who’ve watched “The Testaments”; like younger girls who’ve watched it and then really found a connection point with it, and it’s had an impact on them and their friends. That’s something I really cherish about getting to do what I get to do. I had it with “One Battle.” It’s really cool to see it happening again with “The Testaments.” That’s a very wonderful gift.

VIllarreal: Before we delve further into “The Testaments,” I do want point out this moment onstage at the Academy Awards. When “One Battle After Another” won best picture, Paul Thomas Anderson singled you out, calling you “My American girl” and the “heart of this movie.” Place me in that moment as Chase.

Infiniti: Well, I didn’t hear him. I just heard him say my name. I remember he was going down the list and saying names of different people, and I thought that it was something like that. I was touched that he even mentioned me onstage. Obviously, that movie has quite literally changed my life and that entire cast. And I love Paul so much. So I didn’t hear him onstage, and it wasn’t until afterwards that my parents had sent me a screenshot of the [closed] captions from that night. They were like, “This is what Paul said about you.” I just remember feeling so honored that I got to be a part of something that changed my life, but [it was a film that] also really, I think, changed a lot of people’s lives as well; they connected with it. I can distinctively remember every single day on that job. I just remember feeling such a rush of emotions after reading [what he said] because I love that movie and I love Paul so much. I could not be more grateful for that opportunity and for the opportunity to play Willa, let alone get to be a part of the crazy world that is a Paul Thomas Anderson set. But I learned so much. There’s so much I could say about it.

Villarreal: How did playing Willa inform how you thought about Agnes, who’s also this young revolutionary in the making, as you were putting yourself on tape for “The Testaments”?

Infiniti: I signed on to it with one script in mind. Obviously, I had read the book beforehand, so I had an idea of what she was going to go through, but I didn’t necessarily know how it was going pan out onscreen. The biggest help Willa [provided] beforehand going into that is, I feel like I, by nature, have a little bit of a rebellious spirit, but I really had to turn it up with Willa. I think that being able to access that through Willa and then shape it differently for Agnes, given the circumstances of where she is, was the biggest key between the two. They do share the strong sense of rebellion. Granted, Agnes doesn’t know where it comes from. She doesn’t really know how to handle it, necessarily. But I think that that was a nice way into Agnes and creating her world mentally of where she is and also the inner turmoil of, “I know that there’s this thing happening inside me, but I don’t really understand it.” I think [that] was the biggest cheat code from Willa to Agnes.

Villarreal: What was it about “The Testaments” that spoke to you and made you want to tackle the material?

Infiniti: Just from that one script alone that I read before I signed on, it was hidden that it was “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but you can get a sense of what the world is based off of that initial script. I just fell in love with how detailed it was. It didn’t feel like there were any question marks in the world, and I think that diving into something [like] that felt very interesting because it’s not otherworldly but it feels otherworldy in the sense of the way that they speak and the way Gilead itself looks on paper versus on the screen. That was something that I found to be very interesting. But I think with Agnes specifically, I really love the amount of love that she has for her friends, because that’s something that I feel very strongly about. My friends and my family, but especially my friends, are the people I cherish most in my life. My loved ones are near and dear to my heart, and I will do anything for them. That’s something that I really loved about Agnes. That makes me very happy to see, that even in a world that’s so dark and so dim — even if she doesn’t view it as that, it is dark and it is dim for a young girl in Gilead —she still has so much love and so much hope for her friends. And I found that to be very inspiring.

Villarreal: Did you have any hesitation about the heaviness of this fictional world?

Infiniti: I don’t think that that necessarily terrified me, because I think that I have this very privileged ability to step into this world that seems like it’s so far outside of what we are, I guess, used to — but it’s really not. Nothing that Margaret Atwood writes is fiction. It is all based off of history or things that are happening at the time that she’s written it. I knew that it was going to be very relevant. I’m in this very privileged position where this isn’t my reality, but this is the reality of so many women around the world. And I thought when I read this script that this was a way for people to not, I guess, become desensitized to seeing these things, because I think that we’re in a world where it’s so easy to just turn off your phone, scroll past something, and just ignore what’s actually really happening. With “The Testaments” and with the things that these girls go through, I truly feel heartbroken. But if this in any way can wake people up, can help people continue to ask questions and really question their own environments, that was something that I wasn’t scared of. And I really felt empowered to join something that was doing that. And I am also grateful that on that set, it never felt like the material was too heavy for a day because our entire cast and our entire crew kept the energy on set very light. And if there was ever a point where a day was extra heavy, I knew that I could turn to Lucy [Halliday, who plays Daisy] and she would always be there for me. I know that I can turn to one of the directors and they would always be there, or even one of the [production assistants]. Everybody on set was very forthcoming with kindness and always very open. That was something that helped to keep the heaviness of the subject matter [from] going home with us.

Villarreal: Agnes has only known obedience and repression. She’s very controlled with her emotions. As somebody with roots in musical theater, did you have to curtail some of those instincts that you might’ve had to be a little more expressive? How was it settling into Agnes?

Infiniti: It was honestly pretty easy because you get into the space, you get into the world, and you instantly are transported and you get little context clues based off of the things that you see in Agnes’ room versus the things that you’ve seen in the school — or the absence of things. The absence of things really helped to start to put me in a box in a way — not the negative connotation of that — like putting the costume on. It really helped for me to feel the restriction of the world to understand what Agnes’ mind is, and getting to see that from the outside and then getting to step into it. It wasn’t that hard to shut off that part of my musical theater brain, but I think part of that is also I’ve learned how to maneuver through that just based off of “Presumed Innocent” and “One Battle,” because both of those parts are also very, very much so not musical theater-y at all. So I think that was also something that I had the privilege of learning on both of those sets.

Villarreal: Something that stands out with Agnes is we’re witnessing her awakening. Gilead is all she’s ever known. And she’s very dutiful to the practices of that society. But she’s grappling with coming into her identity and feeling this gap of her internal thoughts and feelings and what society tells her to be. What was important to you in having those two realities live side by side?

Inifiniti: The one thing I never wanted her to lose was her sense of love. She is a character who that is at the root of most of her decisions, especially when it comes to the final episodes with Becka [played by Mattea Conforti]. I think the love that Agnes has in this world is something baseline I never want to lose. I really tried to maintain that throughout.

There’s so much that you keep to yourself — your inner thoughts, your inner personality in a way — versus what you outwardly show the world. I just had to turn up the extremes when it came to Agnes, and really make sure to keep those things that she keeps close to her heart guarded. And put on this almost armor in a sense of what she views to be the most perfect version of herself for the outside world. And then watching that kind of crumble, those layers are peeled apart based off of what happens to her and what she sees happen to her friends. But also, there’s a point in everyone’s life where they realize, “Oh, what I had been raised under the belief of is actually not the reality. Whether it be something like that or whether it be an idea or an ideal that you have about the world or about yourself or your morals, just based off of what you’ve been raised with. I think that everybody has a point in their life where they have to face a version of reality that they’ve been told versus what actually is reality. There’s things that I’m still learning, and there’s still things that I’m questioning just based off of what I see in my personal life, and then also with my friends or what my family goes through.

Villarreal: A key character in the show is menarche and the menstrual cycle. We see how it’s weaponized, but we also see how it gives these young girls their power. What was it like to explore that?

Infinti: The thing I honestly really enjoyed about it is the openness of it. Like, you know when you go to the bathroom — and this is perfect podcast talk — and you’re taking your pad or your tampon to go change, but you’re hiding it because you’re like, “I don’t know if I want anybody to see it” [or hear] the crinkling of everything. But I think that the openness of everything in the show — granted, circumstances are completely different — but the openness that they have with it, I found to be very freeing and refreshing in a way. That was something, especially when we started shooting, that we all talked about, because we were like, “We’ve never been in a place where it didn’t feel like there was a stigma against it.” It felt like we were almost encouraged to talk about it. Getting to put this show out into the world and letting girls see that there isn’t something that they should be afraid of, but also letting them see that this is normal. This is not something that we should be scared of, let alone try to hide, because it’s a part of womanhood. It’s also a part of girlhood and a point of connection between younger girls. Getting to see it on the screen and see the way that these girls talk about it, ignoring the society of Gilead and the amount of pressure that the men put on them in this society, that connection that they have with those few things that span across culture, that is something that we were all very happy to kind of have that openness with something that we’ve felt so scared to talk about, especially at like 14 and 15.

Villarreal: Scared to experience too.

Infiniti: I remember when I got my period for the first time I was like, “What is happening? I don’t know what is going on.” The first person that you call, if it’s not your mom or another maternal figure in your life, is your friends. Because they’re normally the person closest to you in proximity if you’re at school or if you were at an after-school activity or something like that. Getting to have that openness felt very refreshing to have on set.

Villarreal: There was so much openness that there was a menarche playlist curated by director Mike Barker. Tell me the backstory on this.

Infiniti: We did. I’m trying to remember how we found out about this playlist. We were doing a camera test for the costumes, and I remember Mike just putting on this playlist and he’s like, “I like putting up these songs for everyone to listen to” because there was no dialogue in this little camera test between me, Mattea, Rowan [Blanchard], Lucy, Brad [Alexander], Amy [Seimetz] and Mabel [Li] — I can’t remember if I might be forgetting somebody else, and I’m so sorry if I am. But it was a bunch of the cast and then there was also some pinks in there just to see how everything looks on camera. And we were hearing all these different songs playing. We’re like, “Wow, this is great. Thanks for putting together a playlist, Mike.” At some point, Lucy went to grab his phone to look at what the song was and his playlist was open, and she’s like, “Why is the playlist called ‘The Menarche Playlist’? And after that, it just became us trying to get him to approve a song that we would suggest.

Villarreal: I remember you telling me Britney Spears’ ”… Baby One More Time” was on it. But I had wondered who else made the cut.

Infinti: “… Baby One More Time” was on it. I think that was the first song on it, but there would be points in lunch — we’d all eat lunch together — and we’d be like “OK, Mike, what about this one for the menarche playlist, or what about about this one?” We would all secretly hope that they would get added to the show.

Villarreal: Did one of your suggestions get added?

Infiniti: There are songs on there that I don’t even remember. So one of them probably did get added. I just don’t remember what it was.

Villarreal: Agnes is somebody that doesn’t really experience culture. We don’t know what kind of music she likes, what kind of TV or film she likes. And you’re someone that’s very much into culture, at least from what I’ve seen. Were you thinking about what she might like? How did you think about her backstory with that kind of absence?

Infiniti: I was really just relying on what you saw of her in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and that was the extent of what I would let a part of her backstory be because she doesn’t remember much about her childhood. Once she becomes conscious, in a way, in Gilead, all I did was rely on the things that I knew that she liked and really try to remind myself, “She doesn’t know what a movie is. She knows what ‘Jaws’ is, but she doesn’t really have an understanding of what watching a movie is like. She doesn’t know what YouTube is, she doesn’t know what a phone is.” I had to keep reminding myself, especially at the beginning, to not put those things in the forefront of our minds, unless, of course, like you’re a Pearl girl who has prior knowledge of everything. A lot of it was just reminding myself, “You don’t know what this is, she doesn’t know what this is.” If I were to meet Agnes right now, she would probably think I was crazy because she just doesn’t understand a lot the things I’ve seen, and the things that we use in our day-to-day life, and I really tried to make sure to keep that intact, but also relying on the bits of information that I had from “The Handmaid’s Tale” going back to the show. And also, of course, we had Bruce Miller, so I could ask him anything.

Villarreal: What would you, Chase, expose her to? If she were to come to you, what she should be listening to or watching, what’s the guide you’d give her?

Infiniti: The crash course to being 14? I would show her One Direction. I’m sorry. That is something that is so quintessential to being a 14-year-old, especially me being 14. I would be like, “Agnes, I see the things that you love and you’re obsessed with. I’m going to show you the thing that I was in love and obsessed with when I was your age.” I would be very curious to see how she would react to hearing One Direction for the first time; hearing “What Makes You Beautiful,” that would be interesting to see. I would show her something that is representative of me being her age. I still am a fan. I’ve always been a fan my whole life, but especially One Direction, that’s probably something I would show her.

Villarreal: Who was Chase at 14? You talked earlier about having a little bit of that rebellion in you. And after playing these two characters back to back, what have you sort of learned yourself, about your power or finding your voice, especially in an industry like Hollywood?

Infiniti: Something that I realized when I was probably about 13 or 14 is, I used to be very upset when people would underestimate me. I found a way to, I guess, not make it my superpower … but use it as opposed to [letting it be] something that would defeat me. [I would] use it as something to continue to motivate me to work towards the goal that I already had because there’s always gonna be people that underestimate you. There’s always going to be people in the world that want to pour negativity into you when you’re truly just living your life, working towards the things that you want. That was something that I realized pretty young because I knew at 10 that I wanted to be an actor. And so at that point, I kind of made a shift in my mind where I was like, “OK, I need to start working towards the thing that I want to do.” At 13, people were like, “Why are you so motivated to do this? It’s a bit embarrassing that you want to be an actor. What makes you think you can do that?” And I was like, “Because I want to do it.” I never had a doubt in my mind that this would be the thing that I would get to do because that was something that my parents always told me. They were like, “Dream big because the dreams that you’re imagining can be your reality, especially if you work hard enough towards it.” And I feel very lucky that I get to do the thing I’ve always dreamed of doing.

Villarreal: How does that live side by side with also learning how to deal with rejection so young?

Infiniti: It’s a lot of tears, a lot of sad days, sad weeks, conversations with my friends, conversations with parents. But from being underestimated, I remember my dad being like, “You have to get comfortable with ‘no.’ And it’s not going to be fun. It’s not gonna be something that you’re excited to hear, because no one’s excited to hear that they didn’t get something that they really wanted.” Now I’m at a point where I’ve really learned how to process it and not let a no or a rejection affect my view of myself or affect my view of a performance or my abilities to do anything. It took a long time to learn, and I’m still nowhere near perfect, but I’m definitely at a place that’s better than when I was 13 because it is hard for somebody that young to get that amount of rejection. It’s also hard for somebody at my age to handle that level of rejection, especially when you get so close to something. I have to give that credit to processing those things to my parents because that is all them. I had many tear-filled nights when I was a kid because I was so sad that I didn’t get a solo in something, and they’re like, this doesn’t mean that you’re not talented. I’m also somebody who believes the right things will find you. And they’re [my parents] also the people that kind of instilled that in me too.

Villarreal: Does that reframing of no also give you the confidence to approach Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro and say, “Will you make a TikTok with me?”

Infiniti: It honestly was like a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I was very specific. I did lots of research because I also was like, “I want it to be something that they can look at and also laugh at.” They can enjoy it.

Villarreal: Do you think you’ll get there with Ann Dowd? A TikTok?

Infiniti: I would love to. I don’t know what it would be, but I would love to make a TikTok with Ann Dowd one day. If it could be like all the girls on set making a TikTok, I would be very happy. I do have some planned. So, we’ll see.

Villarreal: Margaret Atwood makes a cameo in the finale of Season 1. How do you even talk to Margaret Atwood when you meet her? What was that experience like for you?

Infiniti: The person who was probably the most shocked was Lucy because Lucy Halliday is the biggest Margaret Atwood fan I think I’ve ever met. I had the gift of getting to witness Lucy meeting Margaret for the first time. But meeting her — she’s so kind. [Producer] Warren Littlefield says this all the time where he’s like, “You can’t talk to Margaret Atwood and not learn something with every conversation.” I just remember being very quiet and listening to her talk and listening to her ask questions of me, ask questions of Lucy, but we would just pour into her and be like, “Thank you so much for your work because you truly have touched millions.” She’s also so funny and so witty and very charismatic. I remember being very nervous beforehand, but she made it very easy for our nerves to go away. The highlight was getting to see Lucy meet Margaret.

Villarreal: You’re about to head out to Canada to start production on Season 2. You’ve seen two scripts. What do you hope to see for Agnes in Season 2?

Infiniti: I hope Agnes is happy, and I hope that she can continue to push and find her happiness. I hope that she doesn’t lose her spark, and I hope that’s something that she continues to explore and understand why she is the way that she is. Those are two hopes that I have.

In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, “The Pitt’s” Noah Wyle reflects on 25 Emmy nominations for the series, responds to criticism of casting decisions, and previews Season 3 of the HBO Max medical drama, now in production.

Kelvin Washington: Hello, and welcome back to The Envelope. It’s been a little while. Kelvin Washington alongside Yvonne Villarreal. We also have Mark Olsen. Good to see you. This is one of my favorite things, because I learn so much from you two. And by the way, I got a big shout-out from somebody at the other job that I do —

Yvonne Villarreal: You have another job?

Washington: Which one do you want to talk about? I have 17 of them. But she was saying how she was listening to something and then she said, “I want to hear more about it.” So she Googled, we came up and she was blown away to see it, and we did such great jobs. So she’s a big fan of you two. Shout out to Larissa if she watches again. But let’s get into, of course, Emmy nominations. You have surprises, you have ones you kind of expected, snubs, the whole nine. Let’s start with you, Yvonne. Anything jump out?

Villarreal: Leading the pack was “The Pitt,” which I think everyone expected, and coming in close second was “Hacks.” But I think the third most-nominated show that was thrilling to see have a big showing was “Widow’s Bay.” It was this latecomer to the race, and it’s just this show that has taken people by storm. The word of mouth has really grown. And I know, Mark, you got Matthew [Rhys] in an upcoming episode here. It’s just nice to see how that show’s performed.

I was a little bummed that we didn’t get a [big] showing of “The Comeback,” the third season. That was maybe my snub mark.

Mark Olsen: Not that it’s a causal thing, but I was excited to see a guest from the [podcast], Riz Ahmed, was nominated for the show “Bait,” [which is] kind of like a meta-psycho-emotional biography of an actor caught in conflict between his community and his career. And then also, I have to say, Meg Stalter from “Hacks,” I thought was exciting. For no other reason than to have her on that red carpet, to maybe get a little time on the telecast and the chaos that that just promises.

Villarreal: I want to know who she’s going to come dressed as. She always stuns on the red carpet with who she is sort of making fun of.

Washington: You need a little bit of that, a little chaos. That’s what makes those things interesting. For me, I was just thinking about, again, how we’ve had so many folks who were known for films now all of a sudden becoming television stars. Seems a little weird to say it, but Jason Bateman being one of them, nominated for a couple of shows. So it’s just been incredible to see some people’s transition into that, where 15, 20 years ago, it‘d almost be the downfall of your career to do so much TV. Now it’s a cool addition to your career. Let’s get into it. You mentioned “The Pitt,” Yvonne. And Noah Wyle, you had a chance to have a chat with him. Tell me a little bit more about it.

Villarreal: They got the big news about their 25 nominations while on set. They’re in production on Season 3. And when we caught up with Noah, he had just wrapped filming the episode that he wrote and directed this season, Episode 3. And it was really fun to catch up with him, especially considering how much he’s shouldered in portraying Dr. Michael Rabinovitch, a.k.a. Dr. Robby. You know, this is a character that’s had a really deep mental health journey the past two seasons. Season 2 picked up with him on the eve of a three-month sabbatical, and we think he’s finally going to get this break that he needs to deal with some of the things he’s been going through. But as the season progresses, we see him really confronting just how much of a mental breakdown he’s at right now. And we talked about that. He shared a lot about what’s coming up in Season 3. And we also get into some of the advocacy efforts he’s been involved with.

Washington: You know what I find interesting about that is, when you look at the folks from “Law & Order: SVU” and some other shows, [they’re] just a character, but all of a sudden folks really look at you as this advocate and they’ve turned around and become very passionate about those things, and I can see how that would be the case [here] as well. All right, let’s get into it. Yvonne and Noah, here’s their conversation.

Wyle on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank in June.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Yvonne Villarreal: Noah, thanks so much for taking the time. We’re on the Warner Bros. lot inside an office space because you are deep in the throes of production on Season 3 while navigating the awards circuit. Tell me what that’s like. What is your headspace right now? Have you learned anything from last year?

Noah Wyle: It feels like we’ve just come back, even though today we started shooting Episode 4 already, which is amazing that we’re almost a third of the way through the season. It feels really good to be back. It’s odd that this is Season 3. It still feels like a new show. Everybody’s still energetic and excited to be there. The awards stuff hasn’t really kicked into overdrive yet, so it hasn’t been too much of a distraction. It’s just been really exciting, especially for our cast and crew who are so well represented in the nominations.

Villarreal: It was really staggering. Is there a moment from the last award season that stands out? An interaction or an experience going through that?

Wyle: The first one that comes to mind was an impromptu meeting I had with Stephen Graham after the Emmys where we bumped into each other on the street and he said some lovely things to me, and I said some lovely things to him. It was the first time I’d ever met him, then Keith David walked by, who was an old friend. It was a very collegiate moment. That was the time I actually took a breath that night and was like, “Hey, look at this — oh, my God, look at all of this.”

Villarreal: Where are the trophies?

Wyle: They’re on the mantle at the moment, at home.

Villarreal: Next to the Golden Globe made by your daughter?

Wyle: Yep, it’s right there in the center.

Villarreal: I want to review the show’s chart. “The Pitt” leads this year’s Emmy nominees with 25 nominations overall. You are nominated in the lead actor category, as well as directing. Do you feel like you’re better equipped or prepared to deal with the spotlight and attention that the show’s receiving now versus when you were doing “ER” at the height of its moment?

Wyle: Oh, I thought you were going to compare it to last year. Comparing it to 30 years ago, yes, I’m way better equipped.

Villarreal: Tell me.

Wyle: Just older, wiser. You’ve been to the dance before, know it for what it is. There’s nothing that’s going to be shocking about the process. Also, I have enough life perspective to just be extremely grateful and present for it and just be really excited about it.

Villarreal: How aware are you that the spotlight is on you? What does that feel like?

Wyle: I’m not that aware of it because I feel mostly cloistered once we start production on Soundstages 21 and 22. Occasionally the tours go by and I see [people] get all excited. But for the most part, I live a pretty hermetic life when we’re working. So except for when I Instagram scroll or one of my kids brings me news from out there, I don’t really get out much.

Villarreal: Your mom is a nurse. What does she think of this moment? Does it feel any different than during your “ER” days?

Wyle: Yes. I think back then it was just a novelty that she was working in a hospital and her son was on this extraordinarily popular medical drama at the same time. Now we’ve had an opportunity, especially the last couple years, through the [medical apparel] company Figs, to go to Washington and do some lobbying together, which allows her career, my career, to sort of work hand in hand. And for me to have a different perspective on who she was as a woman while she was a nurse working, because I only really saw her as Mom through those years. To answer your question, how was her perspective different? I think she’s, dare I say it, maybe a little more proud of me than she used to be. She’s said as much. I think in the old days she was proud of me being successful in having my dream of becoming an actor come true. Now she’s proud of me because she feels that I’ve used that platform to do some humanitarian good works outside of personal aggrandizement.

Villarreal: How many times is she visiting the set?

Wyle: Oh, I don’t let anybody visit this. By design, we keep a very closed set. In fact, if you come as a visitor, you have to put on scrubs so you fit in — and you feel really uncomfortable and you can’t wait to leave. That’s how we roll.

Villarreal: I want to dig into Season 2. When we pick up with Robby, it’s the eve of his three-month sabbatical, and we think maybe it’s this much-needed break. But as hour by hour goes by, it becomes clear that he’s maybe viewing this as a death sentence. What intrigued you, what worried you, about what he was facing in Season 2?

Wyle: Once we decided that we wanted to put, at the center of this medical drama that was an exposé and sharp look at the medical world, in 2026, a mental health journey of one particular person and have as part of that mental health journey be suicidal ideation, which speaks to a lot of the prevalence of that in this profession, once we committed to that idea, it was really exciting to walk it through. And to play the first half of the season as a guy going on vacation to get his head clear and play the second half of a season as a man buttoning up every aspect of his life in the event that this was a one-way trip. And leaving that almost to the Fates to decide as the day unfolded, looking for signs and signals to determine which way that should go. And increasingly as the day goes on, to be met with both the increasing desire to make it a one-way trip and the community that desperately don’t want him to, and ultimately keep him on this side of that edge.

Villarreal: You wrote two episodes in Season 2, and in “8 p.m.” we really see Robby’s mental health journey come to a head. What was that like, to put dialogue to what he was feeling internally, for you as the actor playing him?

Wyle: That particular dialogue was gifted to me by a doctor who shared with me that that was exactly what he said to his wife one morning when he was going through something very similar. And the way that it resonated with me when he said it, the way it went straight to my heart, I knew if I spoke it as simply, it would speak to other people. And rather profoundly, I got a letter by a young man who said that exact dialogue was so reminiscent of what was going inside his own head that it kept him from harming himself and was the catalyst for having him reach out to get help. Because it was so truthful, because it came from such a truthful place, it had a multiplier effect when we put it on TV. So to get to voice it to the world, that was extremely significant to me. It was the masks just really starting to fall to the point where you can no longer keep it in. And the Duke character [played by guest actor nominee Jeff Kober] is the only person who he felt he could share it with, because it’s enough objectivity, away from the hospital, without any kind of preconceived history. And it’s obviously somebody who’s been down a very bumpy road himself and won’t judge the decision one way or the other. He’ll just sit there, almost Buddha-like, and absorb it.

Villarreal: I know during the pandemic — this was sort of what was the impetus for the show — you were getting a lot of messages during that time, people messaging you about “ER” and what that did for them. How do you shoulder those types of interactions?

Wyle: That one made me cry. My hands started shaking. … You always want your work to have impact, you want it to have meaning, you want people to glean something from it that’s relevant to their own lives. And I’ve been very fortunate in my career. I remember back in the “ER” days, when Carter got sober, people would write me and say, “You helped me deal with my drug addiction.” When I was on “Falling Skies” and played the grievous loss of a spouse, people reached out to me. I’ve been a lightning rod for pain a couple of times in my career. And you asked me, how do I shoulder it? I think I sort of see it as a gift. When you have that connection to somebody, when they respond that way, it’s the ultimate compliment. And you’ve built a bridge where there didn’t exist one before. It’s even better if you build them between two strangers that don’t know each other, that now have commonality that has nothing to do with you.

Villarreal: Not to compare the two professions, but does it make you see the work you do as an actor a form of public service? We see how, when people are at their lowest moments in the hospital, they’re watching TV, they’re connecting with characters, with their family members, in these rooms. And then also what you just described, the interactions that you’ve had with these people [who were] inspired to become healthcare workers, shows you how they connect with the characters.

Wyle: As you’re saying that, that’s what birthed “The Pitt.” I was getting letters from people telling me that my work had meaning to them at the very moment when I didn’t feel like my work had meaning at all, because it had no relevance, because we were in the middle of a pandemic. Who wants to see a guy jump around in a costume while people are out there really being sick? And suddenly, I felt like I didn’t have a skill that actually could hurt or help anybody. It was only sort of a frivolous skill. Then those letters turned into the DNA that the show became.

Villarreal: Seeing what Robby is facing, how do you establish boundaries for yourself in terms of taking it in — dealing with the burnout, and overwhelming emotion of it?

Wyle: It’s a process. I am engaged in several modes of therapy to offload this and be able to surf it from both an artistic curiosity perspective and a need for balance. It’s interesting work, this work, and I do it with the full support of a loving wife and family who understand that this is different than what most people do for a living.

Villarreal: You seem to be giving yourself a lot of work these days in addition to acting in this hit show. As the No. 1, you’re writing and your directing. Do you like stress, Noah?

Wyle: I know it sounds odd, but my brain works really fast and it works nonstop. I don’t know what to do with myself most of the time. But when I’m engaged in [creative work], especially directing, it is a full-course meal for me. I feel totally alive and in my happy place. This last week, getting to direct a piece that I wrote, was even more fun because I’d pictured it already in my mind when I was writing it, which is a form of prep. But then you get to give it to everybody else to see what they want to do with it and what you’re creating communally suddenly becomes the third version of it, which I think is really great.

Villarreal: We like a tease here. Is there a note from this recent episode that you wrote and directed that was interesting to give that won’t make sense to us until we watch it?

Wyle: A directorial note? More glitter!

Villarreal: The episode you directed in Season 2, you had the interesting job of dealing with vomit.

Wyle: Yes. Vomit is hard. We’ve been making movies for a long time and we still haven’t come up with a decent vomit rig. I’m not selling Rob Nary, our special effects supervisor, down the drain here with this comment, but it is really hard to come up with a piece that doesn’t look like it’s on the side of a guy’s mouth when he’s throwing up. And you can put stuff in a guy’s mouth and have him spit it out, but to really get a good projectile vomit, you need to have some sort of cannon apparatus. And it has to come from a place that looks localized to the mouth, and it has to be the same diameter of the actor’s mouth. We went through, I don’t know, five designs on that thing and still ended up with something I thought was passable but not impressive — not “Pitt”- level impressive.

Villarreal: Interesting. Do you feel like you’ve upped the ante —

Wyle: I feel like I’ve put a challenge out there to somebody to come up with a decent vomit [effect]. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Villarreal: It was also the episode where we get the passing of Louie [guest actor nominee Ernest Harden Jr.], and it was such a heartfelt moment and a reminder of the people that are there day-to-day or frequently, and the humanity that you still want to show them.

Wyle: Valerie Chu wrote a hell of a script. Valerie is a wonderful writer, and that episode just dramaturgically was a little different than the other ones because it did put more of an emphasis on the nursing staff than it did the doctors. Usually, we walk into a room and walk out of a room with a doctor. This time, we walked into rooms and out of rooms with the nurses, and we really tried to highlight the whole range of services that nurses give — pushing medications, double-checking doctor’s orders, holding hands, bringing blankets, wiping asses; all of the dirty work that goes into palliative care and treatment. That was the thesis. How do we exemplify those actions? Then, of course, at the center of it was Louie’s passing and the conferring of dignity to somebody after they’ve died was the theme I wanted to focus on. In the beginning, he’s a bloody mess, almost unrecognizable, and certainly not dignified. Then, through the cleaning and the preparation and then eventually the service — that’s on a clock because we’ve got other Louies to treat — we confer him his dignity. We fill in the backstory of his narrative. We give context to his life and honor the man. That was the lens progression we were going for and heart progression we were looking for.

Villarreal: What did it say to you that Robby committed those life details to memory from those interactions?

Wyle: To me, that is what you carry with you. It’s odd, the things you remember about somebody. It’s odd, the things that land with you. Usually, they resonate with something that you’re vulnerable to or have experienced. But with Robby, who never had a family and always seemingly wanted one but never allowed himself, the idea of somebody who had one and lost one is particularly profound. And as we get into subsequent episodes that we’re dealing with now, we see that Robby’s sense of loss predates Louie and his mentor, Adamson, and it goes back to almost an original sin.

Villarreal: A lot of people wanted you to take home Baby Jane Doe to heal and deal with some of your stuff.

Wyle: I don’t think you should throw a drowning man a baby. It doesn’t seem like a good, logical thing to do for either one of them. I think Robby went home and wished that he had the capacity to be someone who could have taken that baby home for a little while. And that was probably one of the things that nagged at him along that trip. If you wish you were better, then why wouldn’t you come back and try? And as we watch him begin to try to evolve and work through some of the things that have been stumbling blocks for him in becoming a fully evolved human, that’ll be one of them, hopefully.

Villarreal: I want to return to an earlier point, which is, you’ve done a lot of advocacy work. Even before “The Pitt,” you were arrested in 2012 in Washington, D.C., alongside 100 activists from the disability rights group ADAPT during a demonstration urging Congress not to cut Medicaid. Recently, you joined healthcare workers along with your mom at a rally on Capitol Hill. You also spoke at a congressional hearing focused on declining entertainment jobs in L.A. and the push for federal production tax incentives. How has using this spotlight and your voice for causes that are important to you deepened your experience with “The Pitt”?

Wyle: Well, that’s a very apropos question because I wrote into Episode 3 [of Season 3] a character based on a guy I was with when I was arrested with back then. A really wonderful guy, sort of a self-advocate and kind of a grump, total badass activist who has muscular dystrophy and has a tracheotomy. And so I thought, why don’t we put that character on the show and put him as a patient? And then I thought, “Well, who the hell is going to play that guy?” I called this guy and said, “Hey, I got a part for you, man. I need you to do it for me.” And we flew him out with his aide. And he came in, shot two days last week. He was phenomenal. The representation that we are going to give people in that community is going to be unprecedented, but it comes from a 30-year friendship I’ve had with this guy from some of the wars we fought together through the years, so it all dovetails together. I’m using one to feed the other at the moment and seeing where it’s applicable and where I think it could do the most good.

It’s just an amazing confluence of events. I’m an Angeleno who thinks there should be work here. I have an opportunity to bring a show here and employ 300 people nine months a year and be an advocate for other shows to follow a similar economic model to try and take full advantage of the generational talent that’s here. That’s just an alignment of my values and opportunities that seems almost blessed at the moment, but it’s not effortful. When you read it like that, it makes it sound like Mr. Smith.

Villarreal: Well, so many choose not to put their voice out there in those ways, but you’ve decided to do it

Wyle: I’ll speak up for my city.

Villarreal: What’s so great about a show like “The Pitt” is we get to watch regular, decent people doing competent work. Some call it competency porn. What do you think is our attraction to that?

Wyle: I think it’s twofold. I think on one hand, it’s wish fulfillment. You want to believe that there’s really competent, smart people in those jobs, so that, God forbid, if anything happens to you, that’s what you’re gonna encounter. And then I just read an article, I forget who wrote it, I wish I could cite it, that talked about this other aspect of watching people do work that has meaning, that actually makes a difference, touches a vacuum that we feel we don’t have in our lives and it’s a different kind of wish fulfillment. It’s almost like, “I want to be doing something more with my life that has absolute physical and tangible connection to another human being that makes a difference, that has a net positive.” And I think that’s interesting.

Villarreal: Sort of what you were feeling during the pandemic.

Wyle: It’s exactly what I was feeling during the pandemic: “How can I make more of this time on Earth and serve more than myself?”

Villarreal: I want to talk about “The Pitt” fandom because they are passionate and vocal. Has anything surprised you about their response to the show?

Wyle: Only everything. The embracement, the passion, the creativity, the advocacy, the identification, the continued support. It’s really been incredibly gratifying. It’s exactly what you hope, you know, that your work will do, spark a conversation and maybe a bit of change. But you certainly, you never anticipate reaching the levels that this one has where people are just gaga for it.

Villarreal: Recent cast departures have obviously drawn some criticism. As the No. 1 on the show and an executive producer, how do you navigate fan response when it’s negative? What are you learning about how to take that in?

Wyle: It’s nuanced. It’s new for me, new for all of us in a way. You try to put it in perspective, and it’s relatively small in relation to the overall [response], in terms of the more vocal critics. But at the same time, this is who’s watching. This is why you’re telling a story. If it’s touching a nerve that’s unintended, address it. Figure out a way to do it more sensitively, to come at it from a different point of view. We’re certainly doing the best that we can in there, but it’s impossible to anticipate what’s going to resonate and why. And I can’t tell you how many times I was surprised at what people thought was funny or what people thought was horrific or offensive. And it’s an interesting barometer of where we are as a country. It’s an interesting cross section of where the population’s at. But in terms of how it affects the creative work, it becomes a slippery slope if that’s the tail that wags the dog. So every year, we come in and we sort of have to gut-check ourselves and do a postmortem on the season. What worked well, what didn’t work well. And what is going to be part of this narrative as we go forward? Cast changes are gonna be part of that. That’s inevitable.

Villarreal: How about in relation to your character? Some of the discussion about what’s playing out onscreen, it’s been interesting to see how people look at Robby and maybe some of his flaws that come out. What do you see as his blind spot?

Wyle: Well, can we start with [we’re] watching a guy who’s going to kill himself? The guy is going to kill himself today, most likely. He’s going to leave and not come back. And as that reality gets increasingly clear to him, he acts continually beneath his grace. He doesn’t necessarily want people to miss him. He doesn’t necessarily want [them] to overidealize him because he doesn’t want them to mythologize him. So some people he was really tender with, and some people he was really harsh with, and some he will carry regret with, and some he probably wishes he had gone further. But all of that pathology was on display as a cry for help for anybody that was really looking to see it, more than I felt it was indicative of how he felt in a normal frame of mind in those relationships. I think he pushed Abbot [Shawn Hatosy] so far away. He pushed Dana [Katherine LaNasa] so far away. He was overly harsh with Mohan [Supriya Ganesh]. He was almost paternal with Javadi [Shabana Azeez]. He had a different vibe and energy with everybody. But ultimately, it was to sort of say goodbye in a way that he felt would be most appropriate. And I’m glad people felt that it wasn’t appropriate, because it was a man setting fire.

I did say in casting, I was like, “Can we cast some guys that are like my size that I could yell at that so people feel like it’s a good, fair fight?”

Villarreal: And you were vetoed?

Wyle: No, no, we’re going to sort of figure that out because it’s nice to show volatility in character, but if it’s a character that’s surrounded by women, it’s very difficult thing to depict without it seeming disproportionate in power. So it’s something I was conscious of when I came back this year. I was like, “It‘s difficult to show this character’s rage when it would be super inappropriate to express it with every single person in this room.” So, bring somebody in that can handle it and match it a little bit. And for my money, that’s what Al-Hashimi [Sepideh Moafi] was. She gave as good as she got, and those scenes between us were terrific.

Villarreal: Season 3 will be taking place on Nov.r 12, 2026, right? A lot of that had to do with the anticipation of and preparation for the ramifications of the Big Beautiful Bill on people’s lives. Tell me about that.

Wyle: It’s Thursday, November 12th, which means that tomorrow is Friday the 13th. And there was something fun about playing with the eve of a day that is usually fraught with peril. But this day is fraught with peril for all sorts of reasons. And it isn’t Friday the 13th. It also is coming into the holidays and it’s getting colder. A lot of the social issues that Pittsburgh and a lot [of places] with colder climates deal with are going to come up. People are turning on their heaters for the first time, if they can afford to turn on their heaters; people that don’t have access to housing are gonna be feeling the pinch even more than that. All of that goes into our narrative. And then, as I think you were alluding to, this is in preparation for what’s gonna take place in January [2027] with [provisions of] the Big Beautiful Bill [going into effect], which is gonna throw a lot of people off the rolls in a lot of states and cause a whole ripple effect through the healthcare industry. In anticipation of that happening, people are gonna have to make some very hard choices. They’re going to probably want to hoard medication if they can. They’re gonna try and load up on as many treatments as possible, put as many things into place as they can for that eventuality. And we wanted to highlight what some of those struggles are gonna be because I don’t know that they’re gonna be reported in January.

Villarreal: How fast, when that decision came through, were you getting outreach from healthcare professionals wanting to meet with you, with the writers room, about how can they can help you think about what’s going to happen?

Wyle: We have a great organization that’s an adjunct to the Norman Lear Foundation called Hollywood Health. And they broker all sorts of meetings for us in the writers room with experts from every aspect of the healthcare spectrum you can imagine. And so we really were curious to find out from those experts what the statistics were going to be. And they run models on best-case scenario to worst-case scenario and tell us pretty much with a high degree of certainty what the bandwidth is gonna be. And then we take that data and try to figure out the storyline that would be most effective to tell it. But it starts with trying to get it as accurate as possible in our crystal ball, looking forward to where we’re gonna be.

Villarreal: If you could give one word to Dr. Robby’s mental state in Season 3, what would that word be? Or what would the song he’d be listening to at that moment, walking back into work?

Wyle: I don’t want to tip the bit on a song that we might use and the ones that are in my head are so corny and cheesy that I don’t want anybody to suddenly start cutting memes to it. [Looks at camera.] Because you know you will.

Villarreal: Come on, Noah. Give us a ’90s throwback.

Wyle: “Scar Tissue” [by the Red Hot Chili Peppers].

Villarreal: Oh, that’s a good one. OK, before I let you go, is there any PSA you want to give folks right now about whether they should be consuming lettuce? Is Dr. Robby consuming lettuce?

Wyle: Oh, my God, don’t ask me. My wife and I have huge fights about produce every night. I don’t know what the hell’s going on.

Villarreal: I’m always like: What would Dr. Robby do?

Wyle: I don’t know that Dr. Robby eats a lot of vegetables. I think all of your canned vegetables are safe, says Dr. Robby.

The 2026 Emmy nominations have been revealed.

HBO’s emergency medical drama “The Pitt” was the top nominee, with a total of 25. The premium cable network’s intergenerational comedy comeback story “Hacks,” meanwhile, earned 24 nominations. Other top nominees include Apple TV’s freshman offerings “Widow’s Bay” and “Pluribus,” which nabbed 19 and 18 nods a piece, respectively.

With its 24 nominations, “Hacks” set a new record for most nominations in a year by a comedy series. The previous record of 23 nods was set by “The Bear” in 2024 and matched by “The Studio” in 2025.

“[The nominees’] creativity and talent remind us why television remains one of our most powerful art forms,” Television Academy chair Cris Abrego said in his introductory remarks Wednesday morning. “While these nominations recognize individual achievement, they also celebrate the collaborative spirit that defines our industry. Every nomination today is a result of countless people coming together to create work that moves us, entertains us and, above all, inspires us.”

Previous Emmy winners Liza Colón-Zayas, known for her role as no-nonsense chef Tina on FX’s culinary dramedy “The Bear,” and Jeff Hiller, the “Widow’s Bay” actor who also portrayed sweet and lovable best friend Joel on HBO’s tender comfort-watch “Somebody, Somewhere,” were on hand at the Television Academy’s Wolf Theatre to joke about their nerves — and height difference — while presenting the nominations.

The nominees for variety series and reality competition program were announced before the main nominations ceremony on NBC’s “Today” show.

The 78th Emmy Awards will be held Sept. 14 at 5 p.m. at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Hosted by “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay, the live telecast will air on NBC and stream on Peacock. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which honor artistic and technical achievements as well as some performance categories, will be held on Sept. 5 and 6.

Drama series

“The Diplomat”
“The Gilded Age”
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”
“Paradise”
“The Pitt”
“Pluribus”
“Slow Horses”
“Your Friends & Neighbors”

Drama lead actress

Carrie Coon, “The Gilded Age”
Chase Infiniti, “The Testaments”
Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”
Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus”
Zendaya, “Euphoria”

Drama lead actor

Sterling K. Brown, “Paradise”
Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”
Mark Ruffalo, “Task”
Rufus Sewell, “The Diplomat”
Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”

Drama supporting actress

Taylor Dearden, “The Pitt”
Fiona Dourif, “The Pitt”
Allison Janney, “The Diplomat”
Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”
Sepideh Moafi, “The Pitt”
Julianne Nicholson, “Paradise”
Karolina Wydra, “Pluribus”

Drama supporting actor

Patrick Ball, “The Pitt”
Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”
Shawn Hatosy, “The Pitt”
Gerran Howell, “The Pitt”
Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses”
Tom Pelphrey, “Task”
Carlos-Manuel Vesga, “Pluribus”

Comedy series

“Abbott Elementary”
“The Bear”
“Hacks”
“Margo’s Got Money Troubles”
“Nobody Wants This”
“Only Murders in the Building”
“Shrinking”
“Widow’s Bay”

Comedy lead actress

Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”
Elle Fanning, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”
Lisa Kudrow, “The Comeback”
Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Comedy lead actor

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, “Wonder Man”
Steve Carell, “Rooster”
Matthew Rhys, “Widow’s Bay”
Jason Segel, “Shrinking”
Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

Comedy supporting actress

Dale Dickey, “Widow’s Bay”
Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”
Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”
Kate O’Flynn, “Widow’s Bay”
Michelle Pfeiffer, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”
Megan Stalter, “Hacks”
Jessica Williams, “Shrinking”

Comedy supporting actor

Colman Domingo, “The Four Seasons”
Paul W. Downs, “Hacks”
Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”
Nick Offerman, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles”
Stephen Root, “Widow’s Bay”
Michael Urie, “Shrinking”
Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”

Limited series

“All Her Fault”
“The Beast in Me”
“Beef”
“DTF St. Louis”
“Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette”

Television movie

“Heads of State”
“Miss You, Love You”
“People We Meet on Vacation”
“Remarkably Bright Creatures”
“Jack Ryan: Ghost War”

Limited series / TV movie lead actress

Claire Danes, “The Beast in Me”
Sally Field, “Remarkably Bright Creatures”
Carey Mulligan, “Beef”
Sarah Pidgeon, “Love Story”
Sarah Snook, “All Her Fault”

Limited series / TV movie lead actor

Riz Ahmed, “Bait”
Jason Bateman, “Black Rabbit”
Charlie Hunnam, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”
Oscar Isaac, “Beef”
Matthew Rhys, “The Beast in Me”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actress

Linda Cardellini, “DTF St. Louis”
Dakota Fanning, “All Her Fault”
Laurie Metcalf, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”
Joy Sunday, “DTF St. Louis”
Yuh-Jung Youn, “Beef”
Constance Zimmer, “Love Story”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actor

Jason Bateman, “DTF St. Louis”
Richard Gadd, “Half Man”
David Harbour, “DTF St. Louis”
Richard Jenkins, “DTF St. Louis”
Charles Melton, “Beef”
Nick Offerman, “Death by Lightning”

Variety series

“The Daily Show”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”
“Saturday Night Live”

Reality competition program

“Dancing With the Stars”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
“Survivor”
“Top Chef”
“The Traitors”

The complete list of 2026 Emmy nominees is available on the Television Academy website.

Emmy nominations arrived Wednesday and if you made the cut, it was a magical morning, like you were invited to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding and danced to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and ate your fill of lobster, sushi and Krispy Kreme donuts, a combination that I’m sure goes well together provided you’ve fortified yourself with a steady stream of the couple’s signature tequila cocktails throughout the day.

And if you didn’t hear your name called, well, you’re feeling like you’re out there on the street behind the police barricade, hot and sweaty, wondering what happened to your dragons and how in this underwhelming Emmy season things could go so wrong.

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With Emmy submissions still down this year, there aren’t as many slots available to salute all the worthy work, leading to some sad omissions — which, for the sake of alliteration and search engine optimization, we’ll call “snubs.” There were also some surprises, some worthy, some about as welcome as the aftermath of a hot dog-eating contest on the Fourth of July.

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite, grab a donut (or a footlong) while I run down the morning’s notables.

SURPRISE: “The Bear” (comedy series)

OK, not that huge a surprise when a series nominated for its first three seasons, and winning for its first, snags another nod. But given the number of people complaining about the show’s pokey plotting, it was fair to wonder if “The Bear” would again make the cut for Season 4. The show dropped its final season three days after nominations voting ended and because things actually happened during this crowd-pleasing conclusion, it’s possible we might be seeing it again here next year too.

SNUB: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear” (comedy lead actor)

While “The Bear” made the cut for series, the only cast member to join the party was Ayo Edebiri. Past winners White, Liza Colon-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bacharach were left out, though all will have a shot at returning next year. Whether they will is open to question. Voters seem to have had their fill of the show.

Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri in “The Bear.”

(FX)

SURPRISE: “Your Friends and Neighbors” (drama series)

The Jon Hamm-led Apple crime drama failed to land any nominations for its first season outside a nod for main title music. Now moved from limited series to drama, it inexplicably landed a single nomination for its enjoyable-enough follow-up season — for the big prize, drama series. No other noms. Nothing for Emmy favorite Hamm. It’s almost as confusing as some of the plotting in the show.

SNUB: “Half Man” (limited series)

Richard Gadd’s limited series was provocative with its brutally violent look at male rage and unresolved trauma. But some voters I talked with found it so off-putting that they never made it past the first episode. Could be we’ve had our fill of toxic male behavior in the news without having to endure it on our down time too.

SURPRISE: Riz Ahmed, “Bait” (limited series / TV movie lead actor)

Ahmed created, wrote and produced this limited series about a struggling actor whose life is upended when rumors circulate he might be the next James Bond. His sharp comic timing and affecting vulnerability landed with voters.

SNUB: Cailee Spaeny, “Beef” (limited series / TV movie supporting actress)

OK, you didn’t like her character and you’re still afraid to drink orange juice after watching the show. But to nominate everyone else from the series and omit Spaeny? That feels like a case of Millennials and Boomers taking out their grievances on Gen Z.

Cailee Spaeny, left, with Carey Mulligan and Charles Melton in “Beef.”

(Netflix)

SURPRISE: Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday (limited series / TV movie supporting actor and actress)

The weird and unpredictable “DTF St. Louis” had one last surprise for us, as voters indicated their enthusiasm for it by nominating not just David Harbour, Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini, but also Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday, who were terrific as the mismatched law enforcement partners. “DTF,” not “Beef,” might now be the limited series to beat at the Emmys.

SNUB: “Stranger Things” (drama series)

Nostalgia, it would seem, has its limits.

SURPRISE: Rufus Sewell, “The Diplomat” (drama lead actor)

He’s overly involved on the show, so why not at the Emmys, too?

SNUB: Kathy Bates, “Matlock” (drama lead actress)

Dirty birdies.

Chase Infiniti in “The Testaments.”

(Disney)

SURPRISE: Chase Infiniti, “The Testaments” (drama lead actress)

Infiniti was overlooked at the Oscars for her lead turn in “One Battle After Another,” but Emmy voters did right by her, nominating her formidable work in the sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

SNUB: Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This” (comedy lead actor and actress)

Though Netflix’s rom-com nabbed a comedy series nomination, voters took the title to heart regarding its two leads, both of whom were nominated for its first season.

SURPRISE: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, “Wonder Man” (comedy lead actor)

A show about a struggling actor navigating the indignities of auditions? No doubt voters found it relatable and Abdul-Mateen II made his anxieties and aspirations vivid.

SNUB: Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday” (comedy lead actress)

Wednesday’s child is full of woe.

Megan Stalter, left, with Robby Hoffman and Paul W. Downs in “Hacks.”

(HBO Max)

SURPRISE: Megan Stalter, “Hacks” (comedy supporting actress)

Stalter’s loud, boundary-pushing nepo baby Kayla on “Hacks” was divisive, but she coasted to her first nomination on the wave of goodwill surrounding the show’s final season. Cringe comedy enthusiasts are celebrating. Now we await a reprise of her jeans and white T-shirt red carpet look from last year.

SNUB: “Saturday Night Live” cast members (comedy supporting actor and actress)

Admittedly it’s a low bar, but “Saturday Night Live” was better this year, not that voters seem to have noticed. Bowen Yang failed to earn a nomination for his farewell season, ending a four-year streak. And breakout cast member Ashley Padilla was overlooked too, her comic timing apparently too absurd for voters’ tastes.

SURPRISE: Dale Dickey, “Widow’s Bay” (comedy supporting actress)

Hopes were high for “Widow’s Bay,” television’s best new comedy, which arrived late in the Emmy season — so late that its last three episodes weren’t eligible for consideration. But that didn’t stop voters from embracing it, giving the show 19 nominations, including one for Dickey’s turn as the gruff town hall worker who is the Spielberg of overhead projector presentations.

SURPRISE: Connor Storrie (comedy series guest actor)

HBO Max’s hockey romance drama “Heated Rivalry” wasn’t eligible for the Emmys because it’s a production of the Canadian TV network Crave, and the television academy requires the U.S.A. be part of a show’s funding to make the ballot. But star Storrie still received an Emmy invite thanks to his impressive comic turn hosting “Saturday Night Live” in February. The guest actor trophies are handed out during the Creative Arts Emmys, a week before the primetime show, but we’ll likely see Storrie and “Heated Rivalry” co-star Hudson Williams show up to present something during the main telecast. They do want people to watch, right?

Taylor Swift has yet another new thing to celebrate.

Now in her newlywed era, the pop superstar’s concert film, “The Eras Tour: The Final Show,” earned five Emmy nominations Wednesday. This includes nods for variety special (pre-recorded), sound mixing for a variety series or special, directing for a variety special, picture editing for variety programming, and technical direction and camerawork for a special.

The nomination for variety special (pre-recorded) means Swift herself is a nominee as the performer and a producer of the concert film, which showcased the final performance of her record-breaking tour. This marks the “The Life of a Showgirl” singer-songwriter’s second career Emmy nomination. She previously won in 2015 in the category of creative achievement in interactive media — original interactive program, as the executive producer of the mobile app AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience.

The accolades come just five days after Swift married beau Travis Kelce in an extravagant — yet secretive — Manhattan affair at Madison Square Garden. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has spoken about his failed attempt to slide Swift his phone number (via friendship bracelet) when he attended an Eras tour concert in 2023.

The Emmy nominations follow her latest legal win. On Monday, a federal judge in Florida dismissed with prejudice a copyright lawsuit that accused Swift of plagiarizing a self-published poet.

In February 2025, Kimberly Marasco, representing herself, filed a lawsuit that alleged Swift copied “unique expressions” such as short phrases and specific words from her poetry in numerous songs, including “The Man,” “Down Bad,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” “Hoax,” “Guilty as Sin?” and “It’s Time to Go.” A similar lawsuit Marasco filed against Swift and other named defendants was dismissed by the same judge last September.

Swift’s lawyers called the lawsuit “absurd and legally baseless” in their filings. “For instance, the concept of betrayal or the words ‘fire’ or ‘love’ cannot be owned by one person, as basic themes or words are not protectable by copyright law,” reads the motion to dismiss submitted by attorneys James Douglas Baldridge and Katherine Wright Morrone, who also represented co-defendants Republic Records and Universal Music Group.

In her order granting Swift and her record label’s motion, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed, reiterating that “the allegedly infringed material — basic ideas, themes, metaphors, isolated words, and short phrases — is not protected expression and cannot be infringed.”

Cannon mentioned these allegedly plagiarized words and phrases included “tears,” “running,” “fire,” “rain,” “sky,” “love,” “invisible,” “caged me,” “flesh and blood” and “it’s time to go.”

Even if they were protected expressions, “the works are not even substantially similar — a point Plaintiff effectively concedes by characterizing the alleged copying as ‘paraphrase[s],’ ‘rephrase[s],’ and copying with ‘minor word substitutions,’” Cannon wrote.

But it appears Swift has not completely shaken off Marasco’s copyright lawsuit. The Florida poet has already filed an appeal.

Whether you covet a golden statuette of your own or just want to see your favorite show sweep its categories, it’s time to start gearing up for the 2026 Emmy Awards.

The best way to stay in the know is to follow nominations as they’re revealed in real time Wednesday. It may have been a somewhat underwhelming year for television, but there are still a number of standout series to root for and races with the potential to surprise us.

Will Jean Smart win her fifth straight Emmy for “Hacks”? Will “Widow’s Bay” shoot to the top of the nominations list despite its late-season arrival? And which streamer will dominate the ceremony?

Read our predictions here, and find everything you need to know about this year’s nominations below.

When will Emmy nominations be announced?

Nominations for the 78th Emmys will be announced live Wednesday starting at 8:30 a.m. Pacific./11:30 a.m. Eastern. Emmy winners Liza Colón-Zayas (“The Bear”) and Jeff Hiller (“Somebody Somewhere”) will do the honors, along with Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego.

How can I watch?

You can livestream the announcement on the Television Academy’s website or Youtube channel. If social media is more your speed, you can also stream it on Facebook, TikTok or Instagram.

Who are the predicted nominees?

“Pluribus” and “The Pitt” are expected to lead in overall nominations, with the latter poised to shine in the acting categories.

Other top drama series likely to score a nomination include “Task,” “Paradise,” “Slow Horses” and “The Diplomat.”

In the comedy field, “Hacks” is once again considered the frontrunner on the heels of its fifth and final season. “Shrinking,” “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” are also strong contenders.

Among limited series, nominations are probable for “Beef,” “Half Man,” “DTF St. Louis” and “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.”

This year’s awards will honor programming that aired between June 2025 and May 2026, meaning summer releases are not eligible. Neither are foreign productions, which means the Canadian hockey romance “Heated Rivalry” is off the table.

When is the actual awards show?

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will take place Sept. 14 at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. It will air live on NBC and stream on Peacock.

No host has been named yet. In January, the Television Academy announced that this year’s ceremony will include the first new major prize in almost 20 years: the Legacy Award, which will be “presented to television programs that have made a ‘profound and lasting impact’ on audiences and remain relevant to society, culture and the industry.”

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards, honoring artistic and technical achievements,  will be held Sept. 5 and 6.

Claire Danes’ performance in Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” appears like a lock for an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie. In typical fashion, Danes left it on all the floor in portraying a reclusive author who suspects her developer neighbor (Matthew Rhys) of misdeeds.

1995

The Golden Globes rarely get it as right as they did in awarding Danes the drama series best actress award, at 15, for ABC’s “My So-Called Life.”

19

The lifespan of the authentic teen drama that introduced viewers to Danes’ unique emotional translucence, counted in episodes.

1st

Danes also received an Emmy nomination for the series — the first of eight for acting so far.

16

She is the second-youngest Emmy nominee ever for lead actress in a drama series, between Melissa Sue Anderson (15, for “Little House on the Prairie”) and Kristy McNichol (17, for “Family”).

3

Danes won an Emmy for playing the real-life animal science professor in the HBO movie “Temple Grandin,” and two for playing complex CIA officer Carrie Mathison on Showtime’s “Homeland.”

31

Span of years between Danes’ first and 2026 nominations, if she receives one.

47

Danes’ Emmy longevity may not equal the likes of Carol Burnett, nominated in 2024 for “Palm Royale” 62 years after her first, but it’s mighty impressive for someone Danes’ age.

49

There’s even a contender in her category this year whose span between nominations would be longer than Danes’ lifetime: Sally Field, who appears in Netflix’s TV movie “Remarkably Bright Creatures.”