Fresh off of its massive showing at the Emmy Awards, Adolescence was the nominations leader for television at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards with six bids. Nobody Wants This was close behind with five nods, followed by All Her Fault, Death by Lightning, The Diplomat, Ghosts, Hacks, The Pitt, and Severance with four apiece.
Also of note: Elsbeth was rewarded for its bold category switch from drama to comedy with two nominations for Best Comedy Series and Carrie Preston for Best Comedy Actress. The quirky CBS show was never previously recognized at the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, or Emmy Awards as a drama, so today's news proves that the campaign strategy paid off.
Last year's Critics Choice winners were essentially a repeat of the Emmy Awards — Shōgun for drama, Hacks for comedy, and Baby Reindeer for limited. That could very well happen again, as the top Emmy champions were all nominated at the Critics Choice Awards: The Pitt for drama, The Studio for comedy, and Adolescence for limited. But the voters also identified several new shows that debuted after the Emmy eligibility period, and so the CCA will be the first proving ground for the batch of newcomers.
Alien: Earth, Pluribus, and Task are the shiny new toys in Best Drama Series, going up against fellow first-season shows Paradise and The Pitt, which both premiered earlier in the year and competed at the Emmys. The category is rounded out by second-year series Andor and Severance, and third-season program The Diplomat.
Reigning Emmy champion The Pitt received four CCA bids: Best Drama Series, Noah Wyle for Best Drama Actor, Patrick Ball for Best Drama Supporting Actor, and Katherine LaNasa for Best Drama Supporting Actress. While Wyle and LaNasa both took home trophies for their roles on the HBO Max medical drama, Ball's mention was a bit of a surprise, considering his Emmy snub.
Also contending for four nominations is The Pitt's chief Emmy rival, Severance. The Apple TV genre program is up for Best Drama Series, Adam Scott for Best Drama Actor, Britt Lower for Best Drama Actress, and Tramell Tillman for Best Drama Supporting Actor. Lower and Tillman both claimed Emmy Awards for Season 2, while Scott was bested at the finish line by Wyle.
The Diplomat's four nods are for Best Drama Series, Keri Russell for Best Drama Actress, Ato Essandoh for Best Drama Supporting Actor, and Allison Janney for Best Drama Supporting Actress. Rufus Sewell's snub is a shocker considering CCA nominated him for this show twice before, plus his character, Hal Wyler, reached new political heights in Season 3 of the Netflix drama.
HBO breakout Task earned a trio of nominations for Best Drama Series, Mark Ruffalo for Best Drama Actor, and Tom Pelphrey for Best Drama Supporting Actor. Ruffalo is now on his seventh career CCA citation without a win, while Pelphrey was nominated once before for Ozark.
Apple TV's Pluribus is up for two trophies: Best Drama Series and Rhea Seehorn for Best Drama Actress. Vince Gilligan's latest program is a masterclass acting showcase for Seehorn, a prior three-time CCA nominee for Better Call Saul. She appears in almost every scene — many without dialogue — as her character navigates an apocalypse in which almost every human being is joined together in a hive-mind.
Andor's two nominations are for Best Drama Series and Diego Luna for Best Drama Actor. Disney+'s Star Wars spin-off recently ended its run with its second season and was rewarded five Emmy Awards, though Luna was strangely snubbed by TV Academy voters.
Paradise on NBC contends for Best Drama Series and Sterling K. Brown for Best Drama Actor. Brown already has two Critics Choice Awards on his mantelpiece for American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and This Is Us. Co-stars Julianne Nicholson and James Marsden were snubbed today despite being singled out at the Emmys.
Alien: Earth received just a single bid for Best Drama Series, with no actors being recognized. (At least Sydney Chandler and Babou Ceesay were still nominated this week at the Spirit Awards.) Noah Hawley adapted the sci-fi film franchise for FX and introduced several new extraterrestrial creatures, including the adorable eye midge.
The Best Comedy Series category recognizes many established shows, including the fifth seasons of Abbott Elementary, Ghosts, and Only Murders in the Building, the fourth seasons of Hacks and The Righteous Gemstones, and the third season of Elsbeth. Fresher fare include the second season of Nobody Wants This and the debut season of The Studio.
TV critics were mixed on Season 2 of Nobody Wants This, but the Netflix show is having the last laugh as it leads all comedies this year with five citations: Best Comedy Series, Adam Brody for Best Comedy Actor, Kristen Bell for Best Comedy Actress, Timothy Simons for Best Comedy Supporting Actor, and Justine Lupe for Best Comedy Supporting Actress. Those supporting noms for Simons and Lupe are particularly notable, and should boost both of their Emmy chances next year.
HBO Max's Hacks is the reigning winner for Best Comedy Series at the Critics Choice Awards, and it's returning in that category as well as three others: Jean Smart for Best Comedy Actress, Paul W. Downs for Best Comedy Supporting Actor, and Hannah Einbinder for Best Comedy Supporting Actress. Smart has won three times at CCA, and Einbinder prevailed for the first time at last year's ceremony.
Holy Ghosts! CBS' long-running spooky sitcom has been a constant presence at CCA, but this year it topped itself with four nominations: Best Comedy Series, Rose McIver for Best Comedy Actress, Asher Grodman for Best Comedy Supporting Actor, and Rebecca Wisocky for Best Comedy Supporting Actress. Emmy voters have been less than welcoming to the popular program, but the fact that it just received more Critics Choice noms than The Studio should certainly pique their interest.
Speaking of The Studio, Apple TV's show made history with 13 Emmy wins, the most ever for a comedy. But it won't be setting any similar records at Critics Choice, as it received just three bids this morning: Best Comedy Series, Seth Rogen for Best Comedy Actor, and Ike Barinholtz for Best Comedy Supporting Actor. Contenders like Catherine O'Hara, Chase Sui Wonders, and Kathryn Hahn were snubbed, and there is no longer a guest category at CCA, so Emmy champ Bryan Cranston was ineligible.
Raise your hand if you predicted ABC's Abbott Elementary would receive three Critics Choice bids, but that lead actress Quinta Brunson would be snubbed. Bueller? Brunson is a three-time CCA nominee who has yet to win, and won't this year either. Instead, the ABC school show's notices are for Best Comedy Series, Chris Perfetti for Best Comedy Supporting Actor, and Janelle James for Best Comedy Supporting Actress.
HBO's The Righteous Gemstones is going out in style with three nods for its final season: Best Comedy Series, Danny McBride for Best Comedy Actor, and Edi Patterson for Best Comedy Actress. The laugh-out-loud program has never been recognized before by CCA voters, proving that sometimes, parting really is such sweet sorrow.
Elsbeth made the leap from drama to comedy, and it paid off handsomely with the aforementioned noms in Best Comedy Series and Carrie Preston for Best Comedy Actress. Preston is a prior three-time Critics Choice contender for guest-starring on The Good Wife in 2012, 2013, and 2014; the Best Guest Performer category was later eliminated.
Only Murders in the Building is showing its age in Season 5, as it only received recognition in Best Comedy Series. The sprawling ensemble, led by Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez, were all left to figure out the mystery of why they were snubbed this year.
The eight nominees for Best Limited Series are, in descending order of nominations: Adolescence (six), All Her Fault (four), Death by Lightning (four), Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (three), Dope Thief (three), Dying for Sex (two), The Girlfriend (two), and Chief of War (one).
Adolescence, which takes place in continuous takes and tells the story of a teenager who is accused of stabbing a classmate, received nominations for Best Limited Series, Stephen Graham for Best Limited Actor, Owen Cooper and Ashley Walters for Best Limited Supporting Actor, and Erin Doherty and Christine Tremarco for Best Limited Supporting Actress. Graham, Cooper, and Doherty all won acting prizes at the Emmy Awards for their heralded roles.
It's difficult to wrap one's head around the possibility of something taking down a juggernaut like Adolescence, but All Her Fault and Death by Lightning — two shows that debuted after the Emmys — are certainly in the conversation thanks to their strong showings today. The former earned acting bids for Sarah Snook in lead, and Michael Peña and Sophia Lillis in supporting, while the latter showed up in lead for Michael Shannon, and supporting for Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin.
Netflix led all companies with 31 television nominations, followed by HBO Max at 27, Apple TV at 19, Peacock at 11, CBS at nine, and NBC at five.
Find out who wins when the 31st Critics Choice Awards, hosted by Chelsea Handler, will air live on Jan. 4 on E! and USA Network.
