Apple TV Just Landed a Record 89 Emmy Nominations - Its Third Record-Breaking Year in a Row

Apple TV had its best awards morning ever on July 8, 2026 - and it was not particularly close. The service earned a record 89 nominations for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, spread across 15 Apple Original programs. It is the third year in a row that Apple has broken its own Emmy record, and the arc of those three years - 72, then 81, now 89 - captures how quickly a service that launched with a handful of shows in 2019 has turned into a genuine awards heavyweight.

Here is the full breakdown: which shows led, how Apple stacks up against the field, and why the most impressive number this year is not the headline total.

Apple TV at the 2026 Emmys - at a glance

Total: a record 89 nominations for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards
Spread: across 15 Apple Original programs
Third record year running: 72 (2024) → 81 (2025) → 89 (2026)
Most-nominated show: Widow’s Bay with 19, followed by Pluribus with 18
Ceremony: Monday, September 14, 2026, live on NBC and Peacock, hosted by Mariska Hargitay

1. A Record - For the Third Straight Year

Apple’s 89 nominations set a new high-water mark for the service, and the growth has been remarkably steady. Apple TV collected 72 nominations in 2024 (the 76th Emmys), 81 in 2025 (the 77th, led by Severance’s celebrated second season), and 89 this year. Three consecutive records is not luck; it is the sign of a catalog that keeps getting deeper.

“Great stories have the ability to entertain, surprise, and bring people together, and these unprecedented nominations recognize shows that have done exactly that,” said Matt Cherniss, Apple TV’s head of programming.

2. The Shows Leading the Charge

Two freshman series ran away with the morning. Widow’s Bay, a genre-bending horror-comedy set in a cursed New England island town - starring and executive produced by Matthew Rhys - topped the entire Apple slate with 19 nominations. Right behind it was Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s science-fiction drama starring Rhea Seehorn, which had already become Apple TV’s most-watched drama launch of all time when it premiered in November 2025; it landed 18 nominations for its first season.

Program	Nominations
Widow’s Bay	19
Pluribus	18
Shrinking	10
Slow Horses	9
Margo’s Got Money Troubles	8
Palm Royale	8
Murderbot	3
Mr. Scorsese	3

The remaining nominations were spread across a long tail of titles, including The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy and Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age (2 each), plus single nods for The Morning Show, Foundation, Your Friends & Neighbors, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Smoke.

3. The Number Behind the Number: 87 vs 89

You may see two figures cited this week, and both are right - they just count different things. Industry trades such as Variety and Deadline tallied 87 nominations for Apple’s shows and specials. Apple’s official total of 89 adds two more nominations earned by its advertising campaigns. So the honest way to read it: 87 for the programming, 89 all-in. Either way, it is a service record.

Why the hit rate matters more than the total

Apple TV launched in November 2019 - barely six and a half years ago - and it has always run a deliberately small, curated slate rather than a flood of titles. Getting to nearly 90 nominations from that few shows implies an exceptionally high nomination-per-show rate. It is the difference between casting a wide net and simply making a lot of very good television.

4. Where Apple Sits in the Field

Volume-wise, Apple is not the biggest name on the board, and that is worth stating plainly. HBO Max led all platforms with 122 nominations, and Netflix was second with 111. Apple’s 89 places it firmly in the next tier - ahead of Prime Video’s 28 - which is a striking position for a service a fraction of its rivals’ age with a fraction of their output.

Platform	2026 nominations
HBO Max	122
Netflix	111
Apple TV	89 (87 for shows + 2 for ads)
Prime Video	28

The trend line is the real headline. A young service climbing 72 → 81 → 89 while keeping its catalog small is closing the gap on incumbents that have been making prestige television for decades.

5. The Ceremony

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will be handed out on Monday, September 14, 2026, airing live coast-to-coast on NBC and streaming on Peacock from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE. This year’s host is Mariska Hargitay - the first woman to host the Emmys in 15 years, since Jane Lynch in 2011. Between now and then, the two-month runway gives Apple’s breakout freshman hits, Widow’s Bay and Pluribus, plenty of time to build momentum.

Why It Matters

Awards are not the whole story of a streaming service, but they are a useful proxy for creative reputation - the thing that attracts top writers, directors, and actors to bring their next project to your door. Three straight record years suggest Apple TV has become one of those doors. For a service that started from zero in 2019, going toe-to-toe with HBO and Netflix on quality - if not yet on sheer volume - is a genuine milestone, and a good sign for the shows still to come.

Sources

Header image: aerial view of Apple Park by Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Curated by Jerry Cards - jerrycards.com. We research the week’s most consequential tech, science, and business news so you don’t have to. More at jerrycards.com/news.