#FIRSTLOOK: TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION (TCA) ANNOUNCE NOMINEES FOR 2026 AWARDS

The Television Critics Association (TCA) announced today the nominees for the organization’s 42nd Annual TCA Awards, honoring standout series and stars from the 2025-2026 television season. Winners will be announced later this summer across TCA’s social media.

TCA is a non-profit organization of more than 220 professional television journalists from across the United States and Canada. Nominations were determined solely by a vote of members, selected from shows distributed on major broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms from June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026.

Today, TCA is also announcing that it is expanding its categories to 14 with the additions of Outstanding Achievement in Animation—recognizing the best in new or returning animated series—and Outstanding Achievement in International Series, recognizing the best overall series produced by a country outside the United States where the predominant language spoken on screen is not English.

“These new categories celebrate the ways TV continues to evolve,” TCA Board director Liz Shannon Miller, Senior Entertainment Editor at Consequence, said, “especially as standout new series emerge from outside the mainstream.”

‘The Simpsons,’ ‘South Park,’ and ‘Invincible’ are among the nominees for TCA’s inaugural Outstanding Achievement in Animation award, while the first contenders for Outstanding International Series include ‘Squid Game,’ ‘The Boyfriend,’ and ‘The House of the Spirits.’

While the TCA Awards in recent years have seen one program clearly rise above the pack to lead in nominations, 2026 has three series firmly placed at the top with five nominations each to their credit. These include Crave/HBO Max’s ice hockey romance ‘Heated Rivalry,’ HBO Max’s corporate drama ‘Industry,’ and Apple TV’s genre-bending ‘Widow’s Bay,’ which will face off against each other in the coveted Program of the Year category. Claiming the TCA’s top prize won’t be easy, however, as they’ll have to unseat last year’s winner, HBO Max’s ‘The Pitt,’ as well as best the farewell runs of CBS’ ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ HBO Max’s ‘Hacks” and “The Comeback” plus Apple TV’s ‘Shrinking’ and ‘Pluribus.’

‘Heated Rivalry’ and ‘Industry’ lock horns in other categories, most notably Outstanding Achievement in Drama—which also includes 2025 winner ‘The Pitt,’ HBO Max’s ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ (based on a George R. R. Martin fantasy novella), ‘Pluribus,’ and Hulu’s sci-fi thriller ‘Paradise,’ among others—and Individual Achievement in Drama, where ‘Industry’ stars Marisa Abela, Myha’la, and Ken Leung will face off against ‘Heated Rivalry’ leads Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams to potentially de-throne 2025 winner Noah Wyle in a category that also includes Sterling K. Brown, Rhea Seehorn, David Harbour, and Katherine LaNasa.

‘Widow’s Bay’ will challenge ‘Heated Rivalry’ for Outstanding New Program, a category that also includes, among others, FX’s ambitious ‘Alien: Earth,’ NBC’s sports mockumentary ‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,’ and Apple TV’s timely dramedy ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles.’

Other highlights include a showdown between late-night titans John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers in Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk, or Sketch; an Outstanding Achievement in News and Information race featuring mainstays ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Frontline,’ as well as ‘Mr. Scorsese,’ ‘Marty, Life Is Short,’ and ‘Have I Got News For You’; and an eclectic Outstanding Achievement in Reality roster that sees romance and competition collide, as back-to-back champ ‘The Traitors’ goes for the three-peat against ‘Love on the Spectrum,’ ‘Survivor,’ ‘Couples Therapy,’ and ‘Top Chef,’ among others.

“My fellow TCA members’ nominations illustrate a wide range of excellent television and the artists who create it. Even in this period of contraction, there’s so much outstanding art being created and delivered to our homes, and we’re thrilled to celebrate it,” said TCA President Andy Dehnart, creator of reality blurred and host of the podcast Made from Humans: How Reality Becomes TV. “The selections you see here are the result of a year of members watching, reporting, and reviewing, in addition to weeks of spirited conversation in our community, both virtually and in-person at the ATX TV Festival. We’re thrilled to celebrate these artists and their outstanding art with the TCA Awards.”

Below is the list of 2026 Television Critics Association nominees.

Program of the Year
“The Comeback” — HBO Max

“Hacks” — HBO Max

“Heated Rivalry” — Crave/HBO Max

“Industry” — HBO Max

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” — CBS

“The Pitt” — HBO Max (2025 Winner)

“Pluribus” — Apple TV

“Shrinking” — Apple TV

“Widow’s Bay” — Apple TV

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
“Abbott Elementary” — ABC (2022 Winner)

“The Comeback” — HBO Max

“The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” — NBC

“Hacks” — HBO Max (2024 Winner)

“The Lowdown” — FX

“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” — Apple TV

“Shrinking” — Apple TV

“Widow’s Bay” — Apple TV

Outstanding Achievement in Drama
“The Gilded Age” — HBO Max

“Heated Rivalry” — Crave/HBO Max

“Industry” — HBO Max

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” — HBO Max

“Paradise” — Hulu

“The Pitt” — HBO Max (2025 Winner)

“Pluribus” — Apple TV

“Task” — HBO Max

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials
“All Her Fault” — Peacock

“The Beast in Me” — Netflix

“Beef” — Netflix (2023 Winner)

“Death by Lightning”— Netflix

“DTF St. Louis” — HBO Max

“Half Man” — HBO Max

“Lord of the Flies”— Netflix

“Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” — FX

Outstanding New Program
“Alien: Earth” — FX

“The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” — NBC

“Heated Rivalry” — Crave/HBO Max

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” — HBO Max

“The Lowdown” — FX

“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” — Apple TV

“Pluribus” — Apple TV

“Widow’s Bay” — Apple TV

Individual Achievement in Drama
Marisa Abela, “Industry” — HBO Max

Sterling K. Brown, “Paradise” — Hulu

David Harbour, “DTF St. Louis” — HBO Max

Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt” — HBO Max

Ken Leung, “Industry” — HBO Max

Myha’la, “Industry” — HBO Max

Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus” — Apple TV

Connor Storrie, “Heated Rivalry” — Crave/HBO Max

Hudson Williams, “Heated Rivalry” — Crave/HBO Max

Noah Wyle, “The Pitt” — HBO Max (2025 Winner)

Individual Achievement in Comedy
Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks” — HBO Max

Elle Fanning, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” — Apple TV

Harrison Ford, “Shrinking” — Apple TV

Lisa Kudrow, “The Comeback” — HBO Max

Kate O’Flynn, “Widow’s Bay” — Apple TV

Matthew Rhys, “Widow’s Bay” — Apple TV

Jean Smart, “Hacks” — HBO Max (2021, 2024 Winner)

Tim Robinson, “The Chair Company” — HBO Max

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
“60 Minutes” — CBS (2012 Winner)

“The American Revolution” — PBS

“CBS This Morning” — CBS

“Disneyland Handcrafted” — Disney+

“Frontline” — PBS (Eight-time Winner in Category)

“Have I Got News For You” — CNN

“Marty, Life Is Short” — Netflix

“Mr. Scorsese” — Apple TV

Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk or Sketch
“The Daily Show” — Comedy Central

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” — ABC

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” — HBO Max (2018, 2019, 2021 Winner)

“Late Night with Seth Meyers” — NBC

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” — CBS

“The Muppet Show: Sabrina Carpenter” — Disney+

“Saturday Night Live” — NBC

Outstanding Achievement in Reality
“Couples Therapy” — Showtime/Paramount+ (2021 Winner)

“Finding Mr. Christmas” — Hallmark

“The Great British Baking Show” — Netflix

“Love on the Spectrum” — Netflix

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” — MTV (2014 Winner)

“Survivor” — CBS

“Top Chef” — Bravo

“The Traitors” — Peacock (2024, 2025 Winner)

Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming
“Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation” — Disney+

“Electric Bloom” — Disney+/Disney Channel

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” — Disney+/Hulu

“Phineas and Ferb” — Disney+/Disney Channel

“Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85” — Netflix

“Vampirina: Teenage Vampire” — Disney+/Disney Channel

“Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” — Disney+/Disney Channel

“WondLa” — Apple TV

Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming
“Carl the Collector” — PBS KIDS

“The First Snow of Fraggle Rock” — Apple TV

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+” — Disney+/Disney Jr.

“Phoebe & Jay” — PBS KIDS

“Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical” — Apple TV

“Sofia the First: Royal Magic” — Disney+/Disney Jr.

“Weather Hunters” — PBS KIDS

“The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball” — Hulu

Outstanding Achievement in Animation – New Category
“Bob’s Burgers” — Fox

“Haunted Hotel” — Netflix

“Invincible” — Prime Video

“King of the Hill” — Hulu

“Long Story Short” — Netflix

“The Simpsons” — Fox

“South Park” — Comedy Central

“Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” — Disney+

“Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” — Adult Swim

Outstanding International Series – New Category
“The Boyfriend” — Netflix

“Crime Scene Zero” — Netflix

“Drops of God” — Apple TV

“The House of the Spirits” — Prime Video

“Last Samurai Standing” — Netflix

“Squid Game” — Netflix