“The Traitors,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and “Saturday Night Live” are among the 2026 Emmy nominees announced bright and early on NBC’s “Today” Wednesday morning.
As was the case last year, the reality competition and variety series categories were unveiled on the morning show of the network broadcasting this year’s Primetime Emmys — in this case, NBC. The news came at 5:20 am PT/8:20 am ET, a good three-plus hours before Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller announce the wider group of nominees for the 78th Emmy awards at 8:30 a.m. PT / 11:30 a.m. ET.
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And just like last year, there were few surprises. “The Traitors,” winner of Outstanding Reality Competition Program for the past two years, was obviously going to land a spot. Ditto “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which won five years in a row before Alan Cumming’s show about schemers in a Scottish castle broke its streak, and “Survivor,” which just celebrated its fiftieth season. The remaining two spots went to “Top Chef” and “Dancing With the Stars,” which took the spot many predicted would go to “The Amazing Race,” popping back into the reality competition category for the first time in a decade.
In Outstanding Variety Series, it was a given that “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” would be among the nominees. Not only did it win in 2025, but it also ended for good in May, following a cancelation by CBS that was widely seen as a capitulation to Trump who, you might have heard, gets his big boy feelings hurt when comedians criticize him. There was no way TV Academy voters were going to overlook Colbert’s swan song while our democracy is under threat.
Rounding out the category are “The Daily Show” (a 13-time Emmy winner), “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “SNL.”
This year, the variety-talk and scripted-variety categories were consolidated into a single category, which is why Colbert and Jon Stewart are now competing with “Saturday Night Live,” the winningest show in Emmys history with 113 trophies.
Outstanding Reality Competition Program
“Dancing With the Stars”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race”
“Survivor”
“Top Chef”
“The Traitors”
Outstanding Variety Series
“The Daily Show”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”
“Saturday Night Live”
