No to Half Man, yes to Matthew Rhys: this year’s biggest Emmy surprises

Why This Matters

Key context: <p>This year’s nominations saw a huge showing for Apple breakout Widow’s Bay but Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer follow-up and the final Stranger Things season struggled</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/08/emmy-award-nominations">The Pitt, Hacks and newcomers Widow’s Bay and Pluribus lead 2026 Emmy nominations</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/08/emmy-nominations-2026-list">Emmy nominations 2026: the list of key categories</a></p></li></ul><p>This year’s Emmy nominations have just been revealed in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/08/emmy-award-nominations">a colossal 118-category megadump</a>. So with this in mind, let me be the first to say that Survivor was absolutely robbed blind for outstanding sound mixing for a reality program. Its lack of a nomination deserves nothing but scorn, and the 26,000 members of the television academy deserve to hang their heads in shame.</p><p>But, on the slim off-chance that you didn’t come here for an explosive 800-word screed about the injustice of failing to recognise a 26-year-old television programme in a category I didn’t know existed until about 15 minutes ago, the Emmys fortunately managed to ignore a wealth of bigger shows, too. Chiefly I’m talking about Stranger Things here.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/08/biggest-emmy-nomination-surprises">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.