The 78th Emmy Awards arrive on Monday, Sept. 14, with a live coast-to-coast broadcast from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The main ceremony begins at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on NBC, and Peacock will carry the live stream as the event’s official streaming home.
For television fans, it is a night built around both the present and the archive. This year’s field includes major current contenders such as The Pitt, Hacks, Widow’s Bay, Pluribus and Beef, while the broadcast is also scheduled to salute two shows with lasting collector and pop-culture legacies: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which reaches its 30th anniversary, and Charlie’s Angels, marking 50 years.
Whether the plan is to tune in for the awards, the fashion, the inevitable reaction shots, or the moment someone discovers the walk to the stage is substantially longer than rehearsals suggested, here is the practical viewing rundown.
When and where to watch the 2026 Emmy Awards
- Date: Monday, Sept. 14, 2026
- Main ceremony start: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT
- Venue: Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
- TV channel: NBC
- Official streaming home: Peacock
The NBC telecast and Peacock stream are scheduled to begin simultaneously, so viewers do not need to choose one format over the other based on a delayed start. Peacock is presenting the full ceremony live alongside NBC’s broadcast.
Streaming the Emmys on Peacock
Peacock is the direct streaming option for the 2026 Emmys. Both of the service’s listed subscription tiers include access to the live telecast: Peacock Premium costs $12.99 per month, while Peacock Premium Plus costs $19.99 per month.
The difference matters more for regular on-demand viewing than for the awards broadcast itself. Premium Plus is designed to remove advertising from much of Peacock’s on-demand catalog, but viewers should still expect commercials during live programming. In other words, upgrading will not turn an awards telecast into an uninterrupted three-hour montage of acceptance speeches, orchestra cues and red-carpet sparkle.
For people already subscribed to Peacock, the service provides the simplest path: open the platform in time for the live event and select the Emmy broadcast. Those considering a subscription should confirm account and device compatibility before the ceremony begins, particularly if several people in the household have all decided that awards night is the exact moment they must stream different things.
How to watch NBC without traditional cable
Viewers can also access the Emmys through a live-TV streaming service that includes their local NBC affiliate. The listed options are Hulu + Live TV, DirecTV, Fubo and Sling TV. Local-channel availability is market dependent, so a service carrying NBC in one area may not necessarily offer the same station elsewhere.
Hulu + Live TV offers a three-day free trial for eligible new subscribers. As with any trial offer, eligibility and plan terms can vary, and viewers should verify the local NBC listing before relying on it for the broadcast. Awards-season logistics are rarely exciting, but it beats learning at 7:58 p.m. ET that the chosen plan has supplied a different network, a weather loop and a channel devoted entirely to competitive fishing.
A local NBC station remains the key requirement for these alternatives. Peacock is the more straightforward standalone streaming destination, while live-TV bundles may make sense for households that already use them for other channels and events.
Red carpet coverage begins three hours earlier
The awards show is only part of the night’s schedule. “CNN & Variety Red Carpet Live: TV’s Biggest Night” begins at 5 p.m. ET, offering three hours of arrivals, interviews and fashion coverage before the main ceremony starts. It will be available through CNN.com/Watch and the CNN app for CNN streaming subscribers.
Elizabeth Wagmeister and Ramin Setoodeh are set to host the carpet coverage, with Melissa Rivers joining during the evening to discuss fashion and notable arrivals. Rivers’ appearance represents her first return to an awards-show red carpet in nearly 20 years, following her years covering Hollywood with her mother, Joan Rivers.
Red carpets can seem separate from the trophies, but they are part of television’s physical pop-culture footprint: vintage gowns get revisited, recognizable casts assemble in one place, and a single accessory can become the image people remember from an entire ceremony. For viewers who care as much about the pageantry as the results, the 5 p.m. ET start is the time to circle.
Mariska Hargitay hosts the ceremony
Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay will host the 78th Emmy Awards. She becomes the first woman to host the Emmys solo since Jane Lynch in 2011. Hargitay is no stranger to the ceremony or to Emmy recognition, having won previously for her longtime role as Olivia Benson.
She comes into the live show after Creative Arts Emmy wins for her documentary My Mom Jayne. That places a performer closely identified with one of modern TV’s most enduring characters at the center of a broadcast that is also explicitly making room for television history. It is a fitting setup for an event where the audience may be weighing the newest prestige breakout against decades of shows that never quite leave public conversation.
The nomination race: The Pitt and Hacks lead
The Pitt enters the ceremony as the year’s most-nominated program, with 25 nominations. The HBO Max medical drama is looking to build on its success from the previous year. Noah Wyle is again among the acting nominees, while Katherine LaNasa and Taylor Dearden are part of the series’ strongly represented ensemble.
Close behind is Hacks, which earned 24 nominations for its fifth and final season. That total sets a record for the most nominations received by a comedy series in a single year. Jean Smart is again in the lead comedy actress race, and Megan Stalter received her first Emmy nomination for the show.
The competition extends well beyond those two leaders. Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay collected 19 nominations, while Pluribus has 18, including a lead drama actress nomination for Rhea Seehorn. Netflix’s second season of Beef follows with 16 nominations.
Harrison Ford is also in the running for his first Emmy win for Shrinking. Smart, meanwhile, has an opportunity to extend an already formidable awards run. The numbers make a useful scorecard, but the live nature of the show is what gives those totals a pulse: a broad nomination haul can become a sweep, a surprise, or a reminder that the Television Academy does not always follow the neatest statistical storyline.
Two anniversary tributes give the night a TV-history angle
The planned tributes to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charlie’s Angels add an unusually direct connection between awards season and television’s long-term afterlife. Buffy turns 30, while Charlie’s Angels reaches its 50th anniversary. Both series have remained visible well beyond their original runs through fandom, memorabilia, home-video editions, revival conversations and the wider way their imagery has been carried forward.
That kind of historical recognition is especially meaningful to collectors because it refreshes the public memory around a property. An anniversary segment does not itself establish the value or rarity of any item, of course, but it can remind audiences why certain artifacts—from promotional material and cast-signed pieces to licensed figures and vintage ephemera—continue to have cultural resonance.
The Emmys are fundamentally an awards show, not a collectibles convention, yet these retrospectives emphasize how quickly a current series can become part of the permanent TV shelf. Today’s nominated breakout may eventually be represented by a poster, prop, disc set, autograph or costume piece that prompts a future fan to explain, “You had to be there.” For another look at how current screen releases are being assessed, see our review of Mutiny.
A simple Emmy-night plan
- Start red-carpet viewing at 5 p.m. ET if arrivals, interviews and fashion are part of the appeal.
- Use Peacock for the official online live stream, or tune to NBC at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
- If using a live-TV streaming bundle, confirm that the plan carries the local NBC affiliate before the program begins.
- Keep an eye on The Pitt, Hacks, Widow’s Bay, Pluribus and Beef as the night’s most heavily nominated series.
- Watch for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charlie’s Angels anniversary moments amid the awards.
The 78th Emmy Awards air live Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.
