‘Heated Rivalry,’ ‘Industry’ and ‘Widow’s Bay’ lead the 2026 TCA nominations

The Television Critics Association revealed the nominees for its 42nd Annual TCA Awards on Thursday, recognizing the best series and performances of the 2025–26 television season. Where recent ballots have had a clear front-runner, this year opens with a genuine logjam: three series tied with five nominations apiece — Crave/HBO Max’s ice-hockey romance Heated Rivalry, HBO Max’s finance drama Industry, and Apple TV’s genre-bending Widow’s Bay — all three landing in Program of the Year.

That marquee field also makes room for a season of farewells: the final bows of CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, HBO Max’s Hacks and The Comeback, and Apple TV’s Shrinking and Pluribus, alongside last year’s Program of the Year winner, The Pitt.

The drama logjam

Heated Rivalry and Industry collide again in Outstanding Achievement in Drama — a category that also carries reigning champ The Pitt, the George R. R. Martin–rooted A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Pluribus, and Hulu’s Paradise. The performance race is just as crowded: Industry’s Marisa Abela, Myha’la and Ken Leung and Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams all aim to unseat 2025 winner Noah Wyle, with Sterling K. Brown, Rhea Seehorn, David Harbour and Katherine LaNasa also in the mix.

Widow’s Bay, meanwhile, takes on Heated Rivalry for Outstanding New Program against FX’s Alien: Earth, NBC’s sports mockumentary The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, and Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

Late night, news and a reality three-peat

Elsewhere, late-night heavyweights John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers square off in Variety, Talk or Sketch; the News and Information field pairs mainstays 60 Minutes and Frontline with Mr. Scorsese and Marty, Life Is Short; and in Reality, two-time winner The Traitors chases a three-peat against Love on the Spectrum, Survivor, Couples Therapy and Top Chef.

Two new categories

The TCA expanded to 14 categories this year, adding Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Outstanding International Series (for the best non-U.S., non-English-language show). The inaugural animation field includes The Simpsons, South Park and Invincible; the first international slate features Squid Game, The Boyfriend and The House of the Spirits.

TCA president Andy Dehnart said the slate reflects a year of members watching, reporting and reviewing, plus weeks of debate online and in person at the ATX TV Festival — and that even in a contracting industry, there is “so much outstanding art being created and delivered to our homes.” The TCA is a nonprofit of more than 220 professional television journalists across the U.S. and Canada; nominees were chosen by member vote from programming distributed between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026. Winners will be revealed later this summer.

Source: Nominations announced by the Television Critics Association (TCA), June 12, 2026; first reported by Erik Anderson, AwardsWatch. Nominee data reproduced for reference; this article is an independent summary, not the original report.