The field is officially set for one of late-night TV’s strangest Emmy years.
The 2026 nominees for the Emmys’ newly recombined Outstanding Variety Series category are The Daily Show (Comedy Central), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), and Saturday Night Live (NBC).
The nominees were announced Wednesday morning on NBC’s Today, three hours ahead of the Television Academy’s full nominations announcement.
The lineup includes some of the category’s most familiar Emmy players: Saturday Night Live, the most Emmy-decorated series in television history; perennial awards favorites Last Week Tonight and The Daily Show; and two late-night mainstays who had unusually eventful seasons of their own: Stephen Colbert, who wrapped his 11-year Late Show run in May, and Jimmy Kimmel, whose suspension last September prompted a groundswell of public support before ABC swiftly reinstated him.
This year marks the first time in over a decade that shows across the late-night field will compete in the recombined Outstanding Variety Series category, which merges what had previously been separate races for Variety Talk Series and Scripted Variety Series.
The category will also be decided differently than a traditional Emmy race. Rather than selecting a single winner, voters will consider each nominated series on a yes-or-no basis, with any show receiving yes votes from 90 percent or more of eligible voters winning an Emmy.
That means the category could produce more than one winner. If no nominee reaches the 90 percent threshold, the Emmy will go to the series with the highest percentage of yes votes.
Final-round Emmy voting begins August 17 and runs through August 26 at 10 p.m. PT. Winners will be announced September 14, when the 78th Emmy Awards air live on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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