Will Jean Smart make history with another win at this year’s Emmys? Or will another nominee swoop in to take home the trophy instead?
Five fantastic women are in the running to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 2026 Emmys (airing Monday, September 14, at 8/7c on NBC), and in a rare feat, all of them have been nominated in this category before. But one name clearly stands out from the pack: “Hacks” star Smart, who has won four Emmys so far for playing stand-up comic Deborah Vance on the HBO Max comedy and is hoping to make it five. If she does win this year for the fifth and final season of “Hacks,” she’d be the first woman to ever win an acting Emmy for each year of a scripted series that lasted at least three seasons. (Not even Julia Louis-Dreyfus pulled that one off.)
Elsewhere in this category…
Don’t go handing Jean Smart the Emmy just yet, though. Her four competitors are all Emmy veterans, starting with Lisa Kudrow, who has nabbed her third Emmy nomination for playing sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in the third and final season of HBO’s “The Comeback.” (Oh, and she also landed six nominations and a win for a little show called “Friends.”) Quinta Brunson is nominated for the sixth straight year (with a win in 2023) for playing schoolteacher Janine Teagues on ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” and Ayo Edebiri scored her fourth nod overall (with a supporting actress win in 2023) for playing chef Sydney on Hulu’s “The Bear.”
Elle Fanning is the only one in this category to be nominated for a role for the first time — she’s nominated for playing the title character in Apple TV’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” — but she was also nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in 2022 for Hulu’s “The Great,” so she’s not exactly a rookie, either.
But now it’s your turn to play Emmy voter: Does Smart deserve to make it five-for-five? Or would you rather see someone else win Emmy gold this time? Vote for your favorite in the poll below, then hit the comments to defend your pick.
