The main event of last year’s Emmy Awards race played out in the Best Drama Series category. Who was going to win: Severance or The Pitt? An ambitious second season that lived up to the Reddit-fueled hype of the its debut versus the triumphant, revitalizing return of Noah Wyle and the procedural medical drama to television screens. Throughout the season, the category looked as if it could have gone either way, but in the end, Dr. Robby rode away with the victory.
With the Phase 1 nominations proceed looming on the horizon, there won’t be a repeat matchup. True to its old-school TV roots, The PItt returned for a second season one year later, while details about Season 3 of Severance seemingly locked away in the bowels of Lumon.
And even so, the race for Best Drama Series is looking strangely familiar, as another idiosyncratic, sci-fi-leaning series mounts a challenge against The Pitt. Could Pluribus do what Severance could not? What about the other upstart series in the category?
Here is a quick rundown of the Best Drama Series race and the new shows that could make an impact.
Emmy Awards Nominations 2026
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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Outlander: Blood of My Blood
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
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Talamasca: The Secret Order
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
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Your Friends and Neighbors
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
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The Last Thing He Told Me
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Pluribus
There are a few factors that could make Pluribus‘ road to victory over The Pitt somewhat easier than Severance‘s was last year. The series hails for Vince Gilligan, a well-known figure in the Emmys world and someone in no small part responsible for the TV landscape as it exists today. Secondly, Pluribus has the sheen of a first-season show, something that Severance didn’t have last year and that The Pitt is missing on its second go around. Pluribus is in prime position to make a move, currently ranked in second in Gold Derby’s Emmy nomination predictions for Best Drama Series.
Task
Four years after Mare of Easttown scored three acting wins in the Limited Series categories, creator Brad Ingelsby returned to Delaware County, Pa., with an ongoing series. Task pitted Mark Ruffalo as FBI Agent Tom Brandis against Tom Pelphrey in a breakout role as a trap-house thief with a heart of gold, and the series became one of the season’s genuine success stories, finding and doubling its audience over the course of seven weeks.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The second Game of Thrones spin-off to actually make it to television changed up the tone, pivoting from House of the Dragon‘s austere brutality and leaning into some of the lighter shades of Westeros — so much so that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could have conceivably ran as a Comedy. Alas, the new series from the mind of George R.R. Martin has entered the tourney where its predecessors have succeeded before. With the franchise’s best reviews in years, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could be a return to form in more ways than one.
The Testaments
The follow-up to one-time winner and four-time nominee for Best Drama Series The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments follows the daughter of Elisabeth Moss’s June Osbourne, played here by One Battle After Another‘s Chase Infiniti, but Agnes may not be following in her mother’s footsteps just yet. The sequel series currently sits a few spots outside the top 10.
