Jean Smart is ready for her encore.
The Hacks star is chasing Emmy history now that HBO Max‘s comedy has wrapped its fifth and final season, and she’s doing it with a serious tailwind. Hacks led all comedies with a record 24 nominations, breaking the previous single-season comedy mark of 23 set by FX’s The Bear in 2024 and matched by Apple TV’s The Studio in 2025.
If Smart wins Best Comedy Actress on Sept. 14, she will collect her eighth acting Primetime Emmy — tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most ever by a performer.
She might not be the only one to get there that night. Allison Janney, nominated for Best Drama Supporting Actress for The Diplomat, is sitting on seven of her own. If both win, the record gains two new co-holders in a single ceremony.
Smart has never lost for this role. She’s won Best Comedy Actress for each of Hacks‘ first four seasons — in 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025 — and her nomination for the fifth and final season puts a full sweep within reach. She currently sits atop Gold Derby’s odds in the category.
Primetime Emmy Awards 2026
A win would also make her the first woman to take an acting Emmy for every eligible season of a series. Only Bill Cosby has managed it on a show that ran three years or more, sweeping all three seasons of I Spy. Louis-Dreyfus came closest in the modern era, winning six of Veep‘s seven seasons before losing in its final year to Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). Zendaya is also eyeing the same feat this year, hoping to win her third Emmy for the final season of Euphoria.
Getting there means beating a field with no shortage of storylines. Lisa Kudrow is this year’s sentimental favorite, sending Valerie Cherish off in The Comeback‘s third and final season — her first bid for the role in more than a decade, and her first real shot at an acting Emmy since she won for Friends in 1998. Quinta Brunson is a previous champ in this exact category, winning for Abbott Elementary at the 75th Emmys. Ayo Edebiri is back for The Bear, having already won Comedy Supporting Actress in 2023. And Elle Fanning represents Margo’s Got Money Troubles, the only first-season show with a nominee in the race. Fanning has been here before, too, losing to Smart in 2022 for The Great.
Here’s the other thing working in Smart’s favor: this is one of the few comedy races untouched by the Widow’s Bay surge. Apple TV’s freshman horror-comedy landed six acting nominations — lead actor Matthew Rhys, supporting nods for Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey, and Stephen Root, and guest bids for Hamish Linklater and Betty Gilpin — but not one of its 19 nominations interfere with Smart.
A victory would obviously be Smart’s fifth Emmy for playing Deborah Vance — only Louis-Dreyfus has won more for a single role, with six for Veep, and Candice Bergen also reached five for Murphy Brown. Category-wide, Smart’s four Comedy Actress wins tie her with Helen Hunt (Mad About You); a fifth would draw her level with Bergen and Mary Tyler Moore, whose five came across The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, leaving only Louis-Dreyfus ahead with a record seven.
All seven of Smart’s Emmy wins have come in comedy. Beyond Hacks, she won Comedy Supporting Actress for Samantha Who? in 2008 and Comedy Guest Actress twice for Frasier, in 2000 and 2001, making her one of the few performers with Emmys in lead, supporting, and guest categories. She is undefeated in every comedy race she’s been nominated in. Every one of her losses has come in drama, with bids for The District, 24, Harry’s Law, Fargo, Watchmen, and Mare of Easttown.
The hardware isn’t the only recognition she’s picked up lately. Smart was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame earlier this month, ushered in by Hacks co-creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky.
The 2026 Emmys air Sept. 14 on NBC, with Mariska Hargitay hosting.
