Emmy Watch 2026 Phase 3 Continued: The 2026 Dorian TV Nominations

 

I've actually much of the last few weeks wondering when GALECA would give the relatively new Dorian TV nominations. I've been tracking them over the last three years much the same way I've been tracking the Image Awards and the BAFTA TV awards because while they understandably mostly pay tribute to the LGBTQ+ community that doesn't mean that they only honor shows that are centered around them and considering the increasing overlap particularly in cable and streaming of characters and storylines there have been more than a few shows where we've seen the benefits.

So halfway through Pride Month the nominations have come out and there's basically what you'd expect and a few things you wouldn't. Let's get started.

 

BEST TV DRAMA

No surprise that Heated Rivalry is here or that Pluribus and The Pitt are. I am impressed Industry and The Gilded Age are here instead of Euphoria, particularly considering that this show has more themes and characters in keeping with GALECA but I guess they have the same standards as most critics and admit Season 3 stank.

 

BEST TV COMEDY

No real surprises. Here are Abbott Elementary, Hacks and Shrinking along with The Comeback and the fast rising Widow's Bay. Is this is another hint to Emmy voters?

 

BEST LGBTQ+ TV SHOW

The Comeback and Hacks represent comedy, Heated Rivalry and Pluribus represent drama; Half Man is here for Limited Series.  No complaints.

 

BEST TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

The usual suspects: All Her Fault, Season 2 of Beef, DTF St. Louis, Half Man and Love Story. Slightly surprised DTF made it in over Beast in Me. Emmys will have to make some hard choices down the road.

 

I'll skip non-English TV shows because I don't know any of the contenders and I don't want to sound ignorant.

 

BEST WRITTEN TV SHOW

The Comeback and Hacks for Comedy; Heated Rivalry, Pluribus and The Pitt for drama. Can't really argue.

 

BEST TV PERFORMANCE DRAMA

Acknowledging Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are ineligible for consideration let's look at the other eight nominees in degree of likelihood of nomination.

Mark Ruffalo is a lock for Task as is Noah Wyle for The Pitt in Best Actor in a Drama. Carrie Coon, Rhea Seehorn and Zendaya are certainties for Best Actress in a Drama. Jamie Bell is a lock for Half Man. The odds for Marisa Abela and Myha'la in Industry remain slim at best, regardless of their quality: both women are in overwhelmingly stacked categories. (I would be fine if  either was included over Zendaya, but that's just me.)

 

BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE DRAMA

Again since  Heated Rivalry is ineligible I'll go in degree of likelihood.

Katherine LaNassa and Karolina Wydra are locks for Supporting Actress. It's not clear how much of a chance Isa Briones or Sepideh Moafi will have for The Pitt though their chances are decent. (No sign of Taylor Dearden.) Patrick Ball is a lock for Supporting Actor in a Drama and Charles Melton and Richard Gadd are locks for Supporting Actor nominations in a Limited Series. Ken Leung's chances for Supporting Actor for Industry are very remote and Colman Domingo might get in for Euphoria but likely as a Guest Actor rather then Supporting. (I don't know which category he submitted for.)

 

BEST TV PERFORMANCE COMEDY

Well there's a good chance all five females in this category are going to the Emmys. Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri, Elle Fanning, Lisa Kudrow and Jean Smart have been favored for nominations for months. The only real question is whether Selena Gomez or Kristen Bell or any other women can get past them.

The males are a different story. Ethan Hawke has a chance for The Lowdown and Matthew Rhys odds' for Widow's Bay are rising. After that it gets foggy. Tim Robinson's early buzz for The Chair Company has not let to major awards recognition, the focus on nominations for big mistakes comes for Laurie Metcalf but not Dan Levy and Wonder Man has the same odds as any MCU project does getting nominated in any category other than limited series: non-existent. I'll give GALECA points for being eclectic.

 

BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY

Supporting Actress first. Hannah Einbinder, Janelle James and Michelle Pfeiffer are sure things. I really want Meg Stalter to be there. Kate O'Flynn is rising for Widow's Bay but I don't think she has much of a chance. Ashley Padilla has an uphill clime for SNL and Leslie Bibb is compete for Guest Actress.

Paul W. Downs and Harrison Ford are sure things. I wouldn't think Colman Domingo has a chance for The Four Seasons but I said that last year and I was wrong. I'm slightly surprised not to see Michael Urie here for Shrinking.

 

BEST UNSUNG TV SHOW

Good for the Dorians for standing by English Teacher even after all the brickbats for its star. He deserved them, the show didn't.

From definitely deserves recognition and I can see that for The Four Seasons and Murderbot. I get why Boots is here.

 

BEST GENRE TV SHOW

Pluribus and Widow's Bay are here as you'd expect. I'm glad to see Welcome to Derry and Alien: Earth and I get why The Boys has to be here.

 

BEST ANIMATED TV SHOW

Good mix. Bob's Burgers, Invincible, Hazbin Hotel, Long Story Short and South Park.

 

MOST VISUALLY STRIKING TV SHOW

I'm glad to see The Gilded Age is here along with Pluribus. Alien: Earth makes sense and honestly it would be odd if Euphoria wasn't here. Heated Rivalry I guess prevails.

 

CAMPIEST TV SHOW

Yeah this is where The Hunting Wives was absolutely going to show up. We all knew it. Glad to see it here with The Comeback, Palm Royale and The Traitors. By the way All's Fair is in this category but not in the good way the other four shows are.

 

The majority of the other categories are irrelevant to much of my coverage – Reality TV, TV Musical, Foreign TV show but there are some things I can appreciate.

In Best Musical number The Muppet Show got nominated twice and Miss Piggy and Kermit are competing against Bad Bunny.  I was also thrilled that 'I Lied to You' at the Oscars is here. That was a masterpiece.

I was glad to see the Documentary Series nominations included Seen and Heard: The History of Black Television and The Yogurt Shop Murders and that LGBTQ+ Documentary covered Murder In Glitterball City and Enigma. I hope next year we will see similar recognition across the board for the just aired Bring Me The Beauties.  And any awards shows that gives as much recognition to Alan Cumming is this is perfect in my book.

I will resume my regularly scheduled Emmy coverage later today.

My Predictions (And Hopes) For the 2026 Emmys, Week 1, Part 3: OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

 

Again we're dealing with only five nominees and this is where I have to make some of the  unkindest cuts. Even  by deciding to set aside Ayo Edebiri voluntarily I have to decide to ignore Lisa Kudrow for the final season of The Comeback (she might very well make it anyway) Kristen Bell for Season 2 of Nobody Wants This or Kristin Wiig for the second and (sob!) final season of Palm Royale. And those are just the actresses who've been nominated in the last two years for their excellent work.

But let's not kid ourselves. When it came to this year these are the queens.

 

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary

No one owes Quinta Brunson anything by this point. She got an Emmy for the Pilot the first year Abbott debuted, she won for Best Actress its second year on the air and every year like clockwork she gets two nominations for acting and producing minimum.  Everything that's happened to her since 2022 has to be gravy.

It would be so easy for her to rest on her laurels and yet every year she goes out of her way to make Janine just as much of a joy to watch. Here we see Janine and Gregory in a good romantic place yet again, wearing ridiculous Halloween costumes on a campfire, trying to communicate when both have been silenced by a student exercise, trying to find a way to power through when they have to teach in a mall, Janine trying to find a way to secretly give homework when its banned…you know, usual stuff.

But Brunson's finest hour came near the final stretch, first when she and Gregory broke up when they couldn't agree on the goals of vacations, then when she ended up getting horribly drunk and went from silly to mean in a way we've never seen (getting banned from her favorite club), then being fake manipulated by Jacob in talking with Greg and failing, then listening to Barbara and really dealing with her issues. Then they ended up at a Miami meeting at district when it seemed like Abbott would get closed down and she tried to come up with a plan – and nearly ended up doing something on Mostly Fans. (Hey, that's Margo's way to provide for her loved ones. See below.) Of course Abbott muddled through and it looks like wedding bells will be in the future as well as countless jokes by Ava about finding a dress small enough to fit Janine.

Brunson doesn't need another shiny award for her trophy shelf: if anything she may need to have a case built before Abbott comes to an end. But I need to put Brunson first because as we all know, neither she nor Janine would.

 

Elle Fanning, Margo's Got Money Troubles

I've made it clear I couldn't get into The Great, Elle Fanning's previous streaming comedy where she got at least two undeserved Emmy nominations (in my opinion). I much prefer her work as Margo where she is naked just as often but just as funny and takes even less shit.

Elle's Margo makes every kind of mistake imaginable by the time the Pilot is over and by the end of the second episode it seems likes she's hit rock bottom. And as is often the case when you hit rock bottom, that's when you start posing on OnlyFans rating dicks by comparing them to Pokémon and then meeting up with other OnlyFans workers to create a wrestling persona that's a space alien. You know, the average life for a David E. Kelley heroine.

Having just completing the entire first season I found Fanning's work a joy from beginning to end. It wasn't just that he was hysterically funny all the way through, it was that no matter how absurd her life got (and I've barely touched on it) Fanning always made Margo relatable. She's the least glamorous of all the heroines of David E. Kelley's TV in the 21^st century but she's also the most relatable and the most unfiltered. As with all Kelley series this eventually ended up in a legal battle involving custody of her child but for once it has less to due with long summations but simple humanity and in those moments Fanning was seen at her most genuine and pure. There was something relatable every step of the way – and yes this is a series where Season 1 ended with her dressed as a space alien about to sell pictures of her genitalia for the first time.

It's a pity that Fanning's debut happened to come out against the final season of Hacks where almost every great performance in this category is going to fall horribly (and let's face it, deservedly) short in the final nominee.  But I'm glad a second season has been greenlit. Even if it is a step down anything that gives Fanning's another shot as the Hungry Ghost is fine by me. As it is, she more than deserves the nod for her work here.

 

Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building

It's only because of the ludicrous amount of talent in this category that Gomez to this point in her tenure on Only Murders has gotten just two nominations in this category. Last year she was snubbed for the second time when for reasons best known to the Emmys Uzo Aduba was chosen over her for The Residence.  Considering Aduba already has three Emmys and Gomez has none, that was too much for me – though I've no doubt Mabel would have taken it in stride and just seethed.

As we found out during the fifth season Mabel has always struggled under an inferiority complex along with all the darkness that surrounds her. As she told Charles and Oliver (while they were autopsying a murder victim on a kitchen table, of course) she'd managed to find her place in the building and was being happy – and then her former childhood friend 'THE' rented the penthouse at the Arconia, stealing her thunder. Mabel and Althea had been childhood friends and there was a misunderstanding and now Mabel's miserable. Add to this the fact that a robot's now the new doorman, some of her friends may be moving out, their podcast's ownership is now part of three members of the one percent and the Arconia is getting a horrible reputation in large part because of all the murders that are increasingly happening because of the podcast's existence, well, you can understand why Mabel might be gloomy.

Gomez has always been the biggest surprise of the comic spirit of Only Murders as well as its beating heart. She really is willing to ride or die with these senior citizens and the true bond that they've formed has been one of the great shows of TV during the last decade as well as the product of some of the greatest humor. I'm not saying Gomez should win this year but come on: give Bloody Mabel a nomination.

Carrie Preston, Elsbeth

Clearly Carrie Preston should have been competing in this category the whole time. Yes I know she won her previous Emmy for Best Guest Actress in a Drama but honestly Preston's basically been playing eccentric to the point of comically crazy characters her entire career.  And let's be honest her performance definitely is more comedic than anything Ayo Edebiri has ever done in The Bear. (Sorry but the truth hurts.)

I made that mistake, of course. I spent two seasons advocating for Elsbeth as a drama (to be fair so did many awards shows) but every time Elsbeth appears on the screen I smile. I can't help it. At this point Preston has one of the most expressive faces, combined with gestures, and various noises that she reduce us to hysterics without having to say a word. And when most of the time she keeps being unable to follow her own train of thought during a discussion with a suspect or a fellow cop or a random bystander or herself you find yourself laughing hysterically.  And the outfits! My God, the handbags and the hats! She's not Columbo, she's Mary Poppins!

And she's lovable! I mean, this is a hardened attorney whose investigating murders for the NYPD, dealing with some of the most cold-hearted, cold-blooded members of the one percent who are always committed the most horrible crimes. And she still seems to like them. I swear, most of the time she's actually disappointed she has to have them arrested. I mean, they are criminals and she is sworn to follow the law but by the time she's done she's usually developed more than a shred of sympathy for them. She just so empathetic.  I often felt sorry for the attorneys Elsbeth outsmarted on The Good Wife every time she guest starred; now when she locks up another wealthy criminal I feel so bad for her.  But she just keeps on with that optimism and you know New York is a better place because of it.

Now I admit Preston has an uphill battle to get a nomination in this category. I think it'll happen eventually but not this year. As I said, its pretty stacked and I really should have put in Kristen Bell or Lisa Kudrow ahead of her. But I couldn't put her in FYC. Preston is just too good at this and is just so much fun. She's a longshot, but honestly that's what Elsbeth always is.

 

Jean Smart, Hacks

You know when Helen Hunt and Julia-Louis Dreyfus were setting records for consecutive Emmys for Mad About You and Veep it always irritated me how they won year after year. So you'd think seeing Jean Smart go four for four would have that same effect or at the very least I'd be something of a hypocrite when I push her for Best Actress every year. And maybe I am. But the thing is Deb Vance is too and she knows it.

Watching Jean Smart play Deb Vance has been one of the great viewing experiences in my lifetime as a critic and a fan and I don't think I'm alone in thinking that. It has been an epic journey with Deb and everyone in her circle and entourage. Even when she can be unbearable – and she has had horrible moments – you're still rooting for her in a way I just couldn't for the Selina Meyers or all the brilliant women on Showtime dramedies over that same period. The reason is Deb has been through it in a way that the overwhelming majority of us – and certainly not the kind of women Ava was when we first met her – can never understand. The Deb Vance's of the world broke down barriers that today's women take for granted and in fact judge them for not doing enough. We've seen at every season how much being Deb Vance has cost Deborah – her relationship with her sister, a relationship with her daughter she's only now repairing and no real friends in the world until Ava came into her life. Most women couldn't have made it a day in Deb's heels.

In the final season we see Deb trying to figure out her legacy. Having been banned from the airwaves after taking a stand she makes a plan to sell out Madison Square Garden. We see the old Deb and the new Deb all at once, we see Deb with her fanbase and Deb trying to figure out old relationships. We see Deb looking back on her distant past – we finally see the sitcom she helped created in the 1970s – and we see her going on The Amazing Race with her daughter. We see her building her bond with Ava, which is now in gold – and in the series finale we see just how far the two have come.

A fifth Emmy is all but inevitable for Smart and it will put her in the pantheon of TV legends, including the late Mary Tyler Moore and Allison Janney. (I will explain why down the road.) As someone who has considered Smart one of the greatest actresses on TV during the 21^st century no more fitting record could be pure for Smart. And though Hacks may be finished I don't think Smart is.

 

FYC:

Malin Akerman, The Hunting Wives

Ok. First things first. Why Akerman and not her co-lead Brittany Snow? Well as you'll see I think its likely Snow is going to be nominated down the road for a different show so I'm going to focus my energy on the Hunting Wife who has less of a chance of being nominated.

But more to the point Akerman's work as Margo Banks was the real joy of watching this fun, sleeper sensation from last summer.  As I wrote in my original review Akerman was absolutely a joy to watch both in terms of pure sexual energy, comic fulfillment and some of the most wonderful lines I heard delivered in 2025. Sexual manipulation, secret lesbianism, gun toting, and public shaming have rarely been more fun then when Margo did them. (No she didn't manage all four in the same scene; you have to save something for Season 2.)

Akerman's odds are long but not impossible. She has been nominated by the Gotham TV Awards for Best Actress (admittedly in drama) and by the Astras in the Comedy category. It's an uphill climb to be sure but as we've seen more often then not on The Hunting Wives Akerman is very good at upward mobility.

 

Tomorrow I move on to Supporting Actor in a Comedy. More nominees but its not going to get any easier.

My Predictions (And Hopes) For the 2026 Emmy Nominations, Week 1, Day 2: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy

 

All right. Now while I don't agree with how the Academy does this, according to submission guidelines there will only be five eligible spots. And to be very clear I'm not giving one of them to Jeremy Allan White.  So far this year neither have the SAG Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, the Astras or any other awards show but the Golden Globes. If White gets in – and he very well might – it will be due to that institutional laziness I discussed rather then the caliber of his performance.

For the remaining five I'm doing what I've done in recent years: mixing my personal preferences with what the various awards shows over the last six months have been willing to do, combined with the Emmys past history. I'm confident in four of my picks: the fifth is a wild card and as always I have an FYC up my sleeve. Here goes:

 

Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This

Until The Studio debuted last winter and Seth Rogen began (deservedly) to win everything not nailed down Adam Brody was the frontrunner for Best Actor in a Comedy  for his superbly gentle work as Noah 'the hot rabbi'.  While the buzz for Season 2 has been somewhat diminished it has not dropped for Brody who yet again was nominated for Best Actor by every critics group between here and the summer.

Brody remains a superb comic performer because, unlike so many of the wonderful talents in the cast, he mostly keeps plays his role with kindness and humility. He is a sane man in an insane family – two, if you throw in his girlfriends – and there's something refreshing about seeing a romantic male lead in a comedy who doesn't have the same baggage as so many we've seen over the last decade. Noah is good at his job, we can see that every time he's in the temple and when he says the right words and we know the pressure he's been under his whole life without he or anyone else having to tell us and its charming to see him going out of his way to be the good guy in most situations and mean it.  This doesn't mean there aren't wonderful comic moments – such as when he learns he's being replaced by another Rabbi Noah and that this Rabbi is as good as him – but it helps to see us root for him.

Brody is an outlier in this category as he's the only selection I've made whose performance isn't built more on self-humiliation then anyone else. That doesn't make him better than the other nominees – as you'll see they are superb at their jobs – but it does make him easy to root for in ways the others aren't.

 

Ethan Hawke, The Lowdown

The Lowdown doesn't easily fit in any category – it's equal parts drama, mystery, noir, farce and sermon – but there's one thing I know for sure: Hawke's performance as Lee Raebun, a self-proclaimed 'truth-storian' is absolutely a comic gem and its funnier than anything Carmy's done in four seasons on The Bear.

Lee is a legend in his own mind; to everyone else in his small town of Oklahoma, he's a joke and not a very funny one.  Even before the series begins its clear he has one innate gift: pissing people off and he almost seems to take pride in how good he is at it even as it isolates him from everyone else in town, including anyone who might be a friend and how it puts the people he loves – including his own daughter – in mortal danger. Lee would be a believer in making good trouble if you left the 'good'  out. We see him storm a funeral in such a horrible way Don Lemon would be embarrassed (the episode aired six months before events in Minneapolis by the way) and berate the family of the mourners.  The fact he hasn't been killed yet is something that seems astonishing to him – and yet never enough to get him to slow down or even take precautions. The fact that his conspiracy theories happen to be right doesn't make him any less of a prick.

Hawke, however, has a gift for making these character hysterical. He doesn't make Lee half as insane as he did as John Brown in his incredible work in The Good Lord Bird but it's a damn near thing. In both cases the righteousness of his cause just covers the ridiculous level of horrible behavior and collateral damage he does to those around him – and still by the end of the series (or in The Lowdown's case, the season) you find yourself wondering a hundred times: is this the hero we need or deserve?

Hawke has already been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Astra for his work in The Lowdown and he was more than worthy both times. Of course The Lowdown premiered way back in September but that's rarely been a disqualifier for a lot of the nominees in this category. (The Bear premiered its most recent season last June, for one.) Hawke is my longshot in this category but I think he's earned it. Besides they stiffed him for Good Lord Bird. They owe him.

 

Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building

Inexplicably Martin was left off the roster last season for his work as Charles Haden-Savage and it very well might happen again this year. But having seen the fifth season I always ask: what do the Emmys have against Brazos?

In Season 5 we saw Charles dealing with, well, basically the usual things. The murder of Lester the doorman and having to do an autopsy in his apartment – during which he had a conversation with the corpse. (He knows he's talking to himself, he's not that crazy.) He starting looking for love on the dating aps which went as well as you expected; he started taking testosterone, ditto; he ended up trying to grill a potential suspect at the equivalent of a Benihana and he ended up having sex with her in a van and losing his phone, and then he got catfished by one of the billionaire suspects who he thought was a potential date. You know, just another day at the Arconia.

As is always the case Martin continues to balance Charles with perfect dignity and utter humiliation often within the exact same line or gesture. He's always funny, charming and he wars his heart on his sleeve – not the best look for a sleuth or podcaster but its worked out just fine for five seasons. I don't know how much longer Only Murders has before it comes to an end but I do know Martin is talking more and more about retirement and we should appreciate both him and the show he's done more to realize than any of his colleagues. For the love of God give Brazos – I mean Steve Martin – an Emmy nod this year.

 

Jason Segel, Shrinking

Of all the people on this list Segel is almost certainly guaranteed a return: he's already been nominated for both previous seasons and the Emmys is consistent if nothing else.  The thing about Segel's work is, unlike with many of the actors in Shrinking, you can't imagine anyone but Segel playing Jimmy.  Which is odd because from the start its been the most un Jason Segel like role he's place.

Jimmy has always played characters who are the grownups in the relationship: we see in the movies and TV shows he's done. Part of the reason Shrinking works is because Jimmy is deeply traumatized and as a result he keeps makes horrible but completely understandable mistakes. He did it both professionally and personally throughout the first two seasons and while he kept saying he was moving forward with Jimmy it's always one step forward, two steps back. Throughout Season 3 he actually seemed to be breaking the cycle more often then not, and then he kept blundering with his relationship with his daughter.

Your heartbreaks for Jimmy far more than any of the other nominees in this group because, as is the case with almost every Bill Lawrence show, the characters are the most relatable. The horrors of life got in the way of nearly every major character on Shrinking but their little village kept dealing. Jimmy has been taking care of everyone, but who will take care of him? It's because Segel plays him with such humor and heart that this show flows the way it does.

 

Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building

Incredibly Martin Short is the only series regular on Only Murders who has been nominated every season. Less incredibly, he's also one of the only actors whose won an award or two: he's been given an Astra for Best Streaming Comedy in 2022 and a SAG-AFTRA award for Best Lead Actor in 2025. So the question is, will this finally be Marty's year to win at the Emmys?

Based purely on an acting level Short's work as Oliver was everything we're used out of four seasons and yet still more.  Adjusting to life as a newlywed this season Oliver came to realize just how much contempt everyone in the Arconia held him in, how much of a user he was.  But over the course of four seasons we've been seeing slow but steady character growth with him and it paid off the most. He has a woman who genuinely loves him, he has friends genuinely care about him and you can see he really wants to make a fresh start where he doesn't have all the baggage. And for the first time in the Flatbush episode we found out the backstory of Oliver Putnam, why he loves the theater and why he is who he is. Like everything else with the show it was done with heart, humor and was immediately undercut.

Then there's the fact Short might be the sentimental favorite, given the tragedies that have undercut much of his personal life in the last year. He's always been beloved by Hollywood and of the three leads he has the worst track record with the Emmys. He's the prohibitive favorite in what is a wide-open category and I don't think anyone, least of all me, would have a problem with that.

 

For Your Consideration

Zach Braff, Scrubs

I never learn. Twenty years have passed; I'm still tilting at windmills.

But things have changed. The Emmys now seem to have realized just how much of a genius Bill Lawrence has always been; we're more appreciative of Scrubs and the reboot was popular. So here goes. John Dorian has changed immensely in twenty years and I don't just mean that Turk can't carry him on his back any more. I mean he's learned just how broken the system and how little you can do to fix it, how messy relationships are even in the world of dating apps, how just because you get the girl in the end doesn't mean there's a happily ever after – and when your mentor finally needs you, it's because he might be dying. Of course not everything has changed – the custodial staff still hates him.

I know that Lawrence's shows will get more representation in this category: Jason Segel is a lock and Steve Carell has a better than even chance of being nominated for Rooster. But if I'm going to go with a favorite from a 2000s NBC workplace comedy, I'm going to dance with the one I went home with then. And that means JD over Michael Scott any day.

 

Tomorrow I will tell you who will lose to Jean Smart – I mean the nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy. (Come on, that was never going to be a spoiler and I'm fine with it.)

 

My Predictions (And Hopes) For the 2026 Emmy Nominations, Week 1, Part 1: Outstanding Comedy Series

 

 

It has all led up to this as it always does. We are less then one month away from the Emmy nominations for the 2025-2026 seasons.

Most of the awards shows at the end of the year were very unhelpful, mostly giving the lion's share of the awards in comedy, drama and limited series to The Studio, The Pitt and Adolescence respectively.  Only The Pitt will be a major contender for drama due to its extraordinary second season. The Studio is still working on Season 2 and for the first time in the entire decade the race for Limited Series in nearly every category is completely wide open.

Because comedy will likely have more familiar faces as well as a fascinating bunch of newcomers I've decided to break my pattern and start with it this year. It helps immensely that for once I'm on top of the majority of contenders for a change and the ones I'm not on top of yet I'll be watching soon enough.

So strap in awards shows fans.

 

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

Two things before we begin. The first is a detail I usually neglect in these predictions. I'm going to list prior to each category the number of nominees that will be picked in each category according to the rules. For Best Comedy its eight,

The second thing will be more controversial. I've decided to almost completely omit the fourth season of The Bear from consideration in these nomination. This doesn't have much to do with whether I consider a comedy or not. It's the fact that nearly every awards show in the last year has either ignored Season 4 of The Bear in consideration (Critics Choice Awards, The Astras, TCA) or has given just token nominations compared to previous years (SAG-AFTRA only nominated it for ensemble cast). Throw in the fact that last year The Bear was more or less skunked by the Emmys in terms of wins there's a very good chance its moment in the sun is over. It may contend, but if it does it will be more due to the institutional laziness that I've sadly become used to from the Emmys for much of my adult life.  So far this decade the Academy's mostly been past it – they did honor Reservation Dogs and Somebody Somewhere for their final seasons with nominations and awards something they'd never have done even five years ago – but you never know. I won't advocate for it here, especially when there are so many programs eligible that are genuinely funny.

With that said, here we go.

 

Abbott Elementary (ABC)

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Going into its fifth spectacular season the show that almost singlehandedly revived the network comedy shows absolutely no sign of flagging. If anything it keeps finding new and hysterical ways to make us love it.

We spent much of the winter break for Abbott Elementary with the teachers and the students trying to deal with educating in a mall, something the district tried to use to their advantage to attack our poor teachers. We saw Mr. Johnson finally find love with a fellow janitor after wondering why women couldn't know their place as astronauts or diplomats. We saw the teachers readjust to teaching new classes in wonderful ways such as Melissa being moved up to dealing with seventh graders and learning that they knew some tricks about scheming. And we saw some upward mobility for Jacob as he finally managed to take his meddling to new levels – and he might actually be able to do some good.

The personal was just as fun. We saw Ava finally find a relationship with a working class man that was good for her and she finally accepted that she could find happiness with a man with a good heart. We saw Melissa manage to find romance with a fireman even though he decided to be a chief. And we saw Gregory and Janine go through the ups and downs of their relationship including the horrible moment when they broke up after their first fight. We were devastated, though not nearly as devastated as Jacob was. Fortunately with the help of Barbra and Mr. Johnson they managed to work through their issues in a few episodes – and wedding bells may soon be in the air.

All this and the show keeps providing the small joys in life you didn't know you needed every season. I didn't know I needed to see the teachers and students doing the Macarena in the halls of Abbott until I saw and now I can't imagine my life without it.

 

Elsbeth (CBS)

After two years of getting nowhere with Emmy nominations when they classified it as a drama Robert and Michelle King have decided to try to work with Elsbeth as a comedy. This has paid some dividends: both the Critics Choice Awards and the Astras nominated the show as a comedy this past year. And let's not kid ourselves Elsbeth has always been a more charming version of Charlie Cale during its run and the Emmys were more than willing to recognize Poker Face in these categories.

Part of the reason it helps is that Carrie Preston has spent two seasons making Elsbeth Tascioni just so darn lovable. This is something that served her in good stead when she stealing everything nailed down on The Good Wife but now we see that she has a heart of pure gold. There's a part of her that really wants to believe the best in people and you get the feeling every time she ends up taking apart the lies and falsehoods of the wealthy murderers in New York City on a weekly basis, she's genuinely disappointed because there's a part of her that even likes her enemies. And the show leans into it by having so many of the criminals she takes down each year liking her even as she sends them to prison.

As is always the case with a King Size production the world of Elsbeth began to widen. Elsbeth spent must of the season dating a candidate for Mayor who she ignored the fact of all the lies in his story but let her good-natured behavior blind her from it. Eventually she forced him to tell the truth and at a cost: she chose the truth over romance. We've also seen the world of television, always a fun part of the King's world expand, as we see her looking at a network TV show who's lead she exposed as a killer last season but is still on the air with a new cast member.

And this is a show with so many wonderful guest actors: from Stephen Colbert and Andy Richter to Jaime Pressley and Tony Hale to Anna Camp and Patti LuPone all of them playing wonderful, tweaked versions of themselves. Perhaps a group of guest acting nominations will be in store.

How realistic a chance does Elsbeth really have of nominations? Not very good. But like the title character I want to believe the best in the system even if I'm disappointed. So come on Emmy voters, be nice.

 

Hacks (HBO Max)

Every season it has been on the air Hacks always wins at least one Emmy. Jean Smart has won every year it's been nominated; the show has won for writing twice and most wonderfully it managed one of the biggest upsets in recent Emmy history when it beat The Bear for its third season.

But all good things must come to an end and the team decided that the fifth season would be the last one. It was assumed, even before the fifth season was released, that Hacks would be the frontrunner to win in this category. And unlike so many series that have come to an end in the past year (think Euphoria and Stranger Things) Hacks completely stuck the landing.

Admittedly that's easier to do for a comedy where the stakes are lower but the best thing about the final season is that Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky knew that the most important thing was about the relationship between the characters more than the success they managed. So after putting Deb at rock bottom after losing it all, they decided to have one last realistic goal: Deb was going to sell out Madison Square Garden and everything was built to that.

Because of this Hacks could spend its final season on character bits which were always its strong suit. We saw Jimmy and Kayla trying to find a way to keep their fledgling agency afloat and then when things fell apart they found a way to rebuild. Ava and Deb's fights and feuds were over so they could spend the season building their sisterly bond while still messing things up. Ava being more ashamed of a potential boyfriend being a magician then a sex worker is a highlight. And as always with Hacks the guest star parts were incredible throughout with a string of nominations for every category. If Kaitlin Olson doesn't finally win an Emmy for her work on Hacks Deb Vance should engage in litigation.

I will miss Hacks now that it is gone but as the other nominees in this category prove there are more than a few eligible candidates to join it among the classic comedy legend. The Emmys for the final season will be sequins on an overly bedazzled Vegan wardrobe but Deb and the show have earned it.

 

Margo's Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)

Here's a question I didn't know I needed asked: What if David E. Kelley decided to stop writing adaptations of mysteries and return to his roots as one of the most frank writers of sex and deal with every bit of quirkiness he hasn't had a chance to use since Harry's Law was cancelled in 2012? Well, the answer you get one of the funniest and most sublime comedies on any service and one of the best shows of the year.

Technically Margo is an adaptation of a best seller but given the storyline and characters I really do believe all of the elements of plot, character and theme were from a 2008 pilot that ABC never picked up. Margo takes a creative writing class, has sex with her professor and gets pregnant. This leads to her single mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) being concerned because she's getting engaged to a very religious man at a choir she sings at. Her father, a professional wrestler, gets back into her life after two decades of absence. And in order to make money she starts doing work on Only Fans, ostensibly as sex work but more or less using her writing skills to create wrestling themes art. This works fine until she is outed which leads to the overbearing mother of her baby daddy suing for custody of her child, leading to an ex-wrestler who has a law degree defending her in court. (The ex-wrestler is Nicole Kidman, because of course.)

These are things that anyone who grew up watching Picket Fences and Ally McBeal at one point had on their David E. Kelley bingo card. You throw in the excessive use of 1980s music and the decision to insult penises as if they were Pokémon and it's hard to believe Kelley didn't have some version of this in his back pocket for years. What makes it all the more worth it is how sublimely funny this. Kelley's work adapting bestsellers during the last decade has been incredible but this is the first time you can see him throwing caution to the win and deciding just to have fun. It's picked up by his entire cast and it’s a whirlwind of pure joy from start to finish.

All of the shows I've listed are good comedies but Margo is just unpretentious fun and done extremely well. I'm glad its been renewed for a second season. I want to see how much trouble Margo keeps getting into.

 

Nobody Wants This (Netflix)

When we left Joanne and Noah it seemed that happy days were finally here for our favorite Hot Rabbi and Shiksa. Of course it's never that easy.

Noah was forced to learn his career goals no longer aligned with his personal ones and had to leave the temple. Joanne had to deal with this baggage as well as how this was going to weigh down their relationship. Sascha's marriage is somewhat in trouble because he became friends with Morgan and hid it from his wife which annoyed her. Morgan has been dealing with her own issues – including that she's now dating her therapist and much of the season is spent towards their impending nuptials which no one thinks is a good idea – not even Morgan. And Bina is determined to destroy everything in her wake for the good of the family, regardless of what her family thinks is good for her.

Nobody Wants This did very well in the early awards circles, particularly the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards in terms of nominations. It has fallen slightly behind in odds as newer, shinier comedies such as Rooster and Widow's Bay have been demonstrating their glory. But I think it'll hold its own against the contenders.

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

At this point the only question we still have to answer is why anybody still lives in the Arconia? As we saw in Season Five, even the podcasters may be relocating soon. But that doesn't mean it's not still fun.

The season began with Lester, the doorman who was a recurring character for four seasons being killed – and having it rated as an accidental death. Then we found a finger in Lester's wedding shrimp and we spent much of the season finding out who the finger belonged to. Then we learned there was a secret casino under the Arconia that once was run by the mob but now is run by the one percent (specifically Logan Lerman, Christophe Waltz and Renee Zellweger) and that they might be willing to kill to turn the Arconia into a casino. Then the doorman was replaced with a robot where Howard Morris has clearly so infatuated with it really seems like he's sexually attracted to it.

All of this is spent with the usual array of personal growth that are podcasters keep having. Oliver (the wonderful Martin Short) is now happily married to Loretta and is considering relocating for a fresh start with his young bride. (Only flaw of Season Five. Not enough of promising newcomer Meryl Streep.) Charles is taking testosterone, getting involved with the wives of suspects, and is unable to use dating apps properly all of which impede the investigation. Mabel thinks her life is improving then one of her closest childhood friends the pop-singer 'The' (Beanie Feldstein) moves into the penthouse above her and she starts having inferiority complex.  And we constantly learn more about the hotel and the lives of our characters, this time learning the haunting backstory of Oliver and why he is who he is.

It's disappointing but not surprising Only Murders has done so poorly in the Emmys overall. I mean look what its up against. But the show keeps finding ways to keep the formula fresh, the comedy laced with poignancy and with a typical New York sensibility. Maybe this year it'll finally win an Emmy or two. Hey, you never know.

 

Scrubs (ABC)

I know that the other Bill Lawrence comedy show I should be pushing for is Rooster which is almost certainly more likely to be here. But come on. Even before I was predicting the Emmys, even before I was getting my articles published online, I was always pushing for Scrubs. And now the reboot has finally worked in my favor.

I know revivals are supposed to be comfort food in an unpredictable world but part of the reason Scrubs may never have been a popular or awards heavy hit was that the show never took the easy way out. Set in Sacred Heart this was always one of the darkest comedies of the 2000s and while it makes it clear that the three leads have grown older, they haven't grown up.

This made it clear from the first episode of the reboot when we learned that Eliot and JD's marriage ended in divorce. Turk and Carla are still chugging along but Carla is dealing with menopause. Dr. Cox's rough treatment of interns was too much for the new breed and JD came in to take over, even though he has to deal with an HR that never existed. And Cox eventually came in with a diagnosis of a disease that mind end up killing him. All of this is set among a world that is no kinder to medical staff then it was twenty years and if anything is even more unforgiving.

And yet despite this – maybe even because of it – Scrubs remains as much a joy in its new version then it did twenty years ago. There's something sublime about seeing so many characters still dealing with a broken system and not being broken by it, something about them still trying to prevail despite the blows.  And considering how much audiences responded to The Pitt, its small wonder they returned to this one. JD and his colleagues may not be superman but they're still the characters we need.

 

Shrinking (Apple TV)

A lot has been changing for Jimmy and his friends. For one Jimmy is facing Alice going to college and empty nest syndrome. Brian and Charlie are waiting for their surrogate to deliver. Liz and Derek are facing health issues. Paul is dealing with a health setback. Nothing is good.

But sometimes there are improvements. Jimmy is finally beginning to heal and is willing to go on his first date. There are weddings and other joys to go with the grief. We meet new faces and learn how much of this deals with the parents and the ones we love. We finally meet Jimmy's father and Paul ex-wife. And a cast filled with brilliant professionals just keeps adding to it: such talents as Michael J. Fox, Candice Bergen and Jeff Daniels are now visiting.

Bill Lawrence is, as they say, having a moment. This will be the fifth consecutive year that one or more shows he has been behind has been nominated for Best Comedy. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy and a greater group of actors.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

St. Denis Medical

Since both the medical drama and the workplace comedy have now been successfully revived, why not have the Emmys recognize a series that pulls both together in such a spectacular fashion? With an ensemble that rivals any of the ones on this list, particularly the spectacular David Alan Grier, the title hospital continued to become more joyful even as it struggled to find its footing? Joyce attempted to create the premier birthing center in the Northwest and simultaneously become more popular with the staff?. (Not possible) Ron spent the year trying to maintain his grumpiness but loosening up – we finally met his son and we saw the two of them clumsily but successfully rebuilding their bond. Serena and Matt, who connected briefly last season spent all year going through the will they, won't they and finally decided on Will. And in the finale everyone got together for Ron on a surgery – and we learned of a crush so shocking it surprised even us.  There are other shows – even on NBC – that might have more of a chance of a nomination in this category but few that I think deserve it more. That's my diagnosis.

 

Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding Lead Actor in A Comedy. This will break some hearts, mine included.

Going Out on A High Note The Final, Wonderful, Hysterical Season of Hacks

 

Hacks is, without question, one of the greatest shows of the decade. It ranks with such masterful comedies as Reservation Dogs and Somebody Somewhere and stands with such reigning champions as Abbott Elementary, Only Murders in the Building and Shrinking. And like those incredible comedies it represents an incredible, joyous transition that HBO itself was the leading contender in during the last decade: comedies which would make the audience laugh at the toxic, horrible, juvenile bad behavior of the protagonists and call it entertainment. By contrast all the shows I've listed above believe in forming connections that cross the generational divide that today's culture not only says is insurmountable but should forever be one.

Few relationships have been more wondrous then the slow building friendship between Deb (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder). There was a joke early in Season 1 by creator Lucia Aniello that this was actually a love story but it has nothing to do with sexuality but female friendship. And this is one that we are told shouldn't exist. Deb is a descendant of the Baby Boomers, the old school who has been doing the same schtick for forty years when we first meet her. Ava is a thin-skinned Gen Z comedian whose sexuality, like everything else about her, seems based on not willing to offend anybody  who believes everything is political and that you must discuss everything to death. Deb is the ultimate bully and bad boss. Ava is the ultimate entitled employee. They should hate everything the other says. They spent a lot of the first two seasons hating everything the other said. They should barely be able to tolerate each other as employer and employee, must less have formed one of the deepest bonds in TV history. And yet they have,

The fourth season dealt with both women realizing their dreams: Deb finally becoming a host on late night, Ava writing for it. Like all dreams it was better as a hope then a reality. The two of them spent almost the entire season at each other's throats until in the penultimate episode Deb did something she would not have been capable of: she sacrificed late night for Ava. And it cost her everything. She was unable to perform for the next three years and as we learned in the most horrifying fashion the boss of the network (Tony Goldwyn at his most loathsome) has taken everything Deb ever did off line, not just her late night clips but also the standup special that was the basis of Season 2.  When the fourth season came to an end Deb had gotten lost in Singapore and was reported dead by a bad tip on TMZ. Deb is now infuriated, particularly because she is being blamed for killing late night on the network. (Last season, I should mentioned, was filmed entirely before the recent problems with both Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.)

But if there's one thing we know about Deborah Vance its that she doesn't take anything lying down. And so after flying back to her home (finding the obligatory shrine and crowd of mourners around her gate) she is determined to rewrite the narrative about her. At first she takes an absurd plan of attack, making a plan to earn an EGOT.  (Oddly enough she already has an E and a T. Who knew?) Her inner circle, including Jimmy and Kayla knows that this is insane, but for once Ava is terrified that having seen Deb at a near comatose state before the season finale that she's willing to do anything.  Of course she's perfectly fine meeting Tony Kushner to write Deb's autobiography (Kushner is hysterical as himself, wanting to start Deb's story back in the Scottish Highland a thousand years before she was born) but when Deb says that she thinks the best thing for her comeback is to primary AOC and Ava doesn't blink, Deb calls her on her bullshit.

As always Deb has a cunning plan. She has a secret stand-up special of her own and makes it clear she doesn't want it to be filmed. It is filmed and the network serves an injunction on her. Then she goes before the camera and talks about how she is being silenced and this is a war on free speech and that she plans to appear at Madison Square Garden and sell it out. Of course she didn't book the space first, but for Deb that's a minor detail.

The second episode (as always I've only reviewed the first two) shows Deb and her entourage going to New York and trying to book the venue. They are met with a firm no, saying that it's not good for MSG's brand. "You host a true crime podcast!" Ava shouts before they are shown the door. Deb then tries to rally her fan base – the Little Debbie's – to do what she needs to book a venue.

We then go to a fan convention and find hysterically the Little Debbie's are just as insane as every other fanbase at comic con, making impossible demands. "I'm mad you left QVC!" one tells her. "And I'm mad you stayed so long at QVC!" the next one says. This goes on for a considerable period until naturally one makes it clear Deb Vance is a lizard person. Of course Deb is then presented with a picture that was done by a fan and her mother – and then learns that she's been gone from the conventions so long that her mother died before she could give it to her.

Then Deb leaves with tears in her eyes and has a conversation with a women in alien makeup about the love one's fans have for you. As always with Hacks the sincerity of the writing is always undercut by the messengers. Indeed the alien makes it clear that the fans will always be there for you and you should always be willing to ask. So Deb goes back inside and says she was going to ask them for help booking a venue at MSG.

And immediately every single Little Debbie swears their loyalty to the cause. This is insane and increasingly borders on the ridiculous ("It's good enough for the Knicks but not for you!" one fan says.) And if this were a serious show we could argue about the other insanity of fan culture deciding to harass the head of MSG, sending mail to her home and eventually writing 'Bring Deb to MSG' on toilet paper in a public restroom. But this is a comedy and let's not kid ourselves we hate the woman being harassed.  So Deb does get a date – on September 11^th. "It's the only date they have available." Deb says.

Much of the first two episodes is about building the bond between are two lead. Ava agrees to go to the convention on what is her 30^th birthday and she says its no big deal. But Deb nevertheless throws a party for her at her house and despite her guilt about having said she had no friends, there's sincerity behind all of it.  Deb arranges for Jesse McCartney who Deb had a crush on growing up to sing for her at the party and its genuinely sweet. As is the conversation between the two when Deb admits that while she was popular she never had any friends like Ava. And Ava means it too.

Hacks does nothing to make us forget the other love story going on: Jimmy and Kayla. The agency has been struggling ever since Jimmy punched the head of the network and he's clearly trying to make things work. We learn the Fatty Arbuckle movie he was working on in Season 3 is now in production and there's already Oscar talk about it. Jimmy tries to get Deb to have a part for the reshoot but she immediately turns against it. Fortunately his mother Diedre Hall has time off from Another World. (Yes that's still canon.) Paul W. Downs's character has grown immensely during the entire series run: he still seems perennially put upon but he's just a bit more savvy. And every so often we get a sense of the fan beneath the agent: in the convention he sees Renee O'Connor from Xena signing autographs and he tells Kayla how much he idolize Xena growing up. Kayla pushes her into getting his picture taking with her and Jimmy manages to both gush and manage a pitch about doing a podcast about revisiting the show. And incredibly this immediately pays off: O'Connor tells Jimmy that she'd talked about it with Lucy Lawless and she's willing to do it. She immediately gives him a cut of what she earned today and Jimmy recovers nicely and signs her for dinner. "Do you like Greek?" "I love Greek," O'Connor says.

At this point the only box left to be checked off for Hacks at least for me is for Meg Stalter to get an Emmy nomination for her incredible work as Kayla. As I said in the opening paragraph there have been an extraordinary number of brilliant comedy series during the 2020s; in addition to all the ones I listed Ted Lasso, Barry and The Bear have been dominant in the Emmys nominations during the time Hacks has been on the air. And yet somehow the Emmys has done absolutely right by Hacks. Not just the four consecutive Emmys that Jean Smart has won for every season she's been eligible but the writing has been honored twice, the directing once and Hannah Einbinder finally won last year – along with the greatest upset victory at the Emmys this decade when Hacks defeated Season 2 of The Bear for Best Comedy Series.  Hacks was already the favorite in almost every Emmy category it was eligible in even before the final season debuted and now that its over and everyone agrees its gone out on a high note, the question is how many Emmys it will win before the show, like Deb, goes out on top.

I will miss Hacks once these final episodes are gone but as I said there are more then enough great comedies about good people doing the best they can and getting humiliated despite themselves. Like Ted Lasso Hacks came around exactly when TV needed it and we got as much fun out of it as possible. I may not be as rabid a fan as Deb Vance's were  - and you don't have to tell me you're not a lizard – but I've loved watching Hacks and I couldn't ask for more.

My score: 5 stars.

Coalition of the Sane: What Graham Platner Represents Is More Symbolic to the Left Then What He's Actually Running For

 

First I would like to address this part of the article to my conservative friends who are appalled by what happened in Maine Tuesday.

As a reminder Graham Platner was basically running unopposed. Technically there were two other candidates on the ballot but ever since Janet Mills dropped out a month prior to primary day Platner was running for what used to be called a 'beauty contest' election. It was importantly symbolically but it meant nothing according to his appeal.  Had my party not shown some spine and kept fighting it out it would have meant something. No one ever accused the Democrats of being smart.

Now to the progressives who are crowing about how Platner received the 'most votes of any Democrat running in Maine'. First, again he was running basically unopposed in a primary. Platner received 153,000 votes out of 211,597 votes cast. By contrast 213,727 people voted in the Maine Democratic Gubernatorial primary. So 56,500 Democrats cast their vote for someone other then Platner but voted for governor and roughly 1800 votes left their ballot blank in the Senate primary altogether. That's not the best start to a campaign run.

And to be clear Susan Collins got 417,645 votes in 2020. Sara Gideon, who ran against her as the Democratic nominee managed to get 116,294 votes in the Democratic primary that year which was roughly 71 percent of all those cast. Platner got 72.3 percent of all votes cast. Gideon, I should mention was running in a contested primary, against Justice Democrat Betsy Sweet, who got 23 percent of the vote.

So to be clear Platner only got a slightly higher percentage in an uncontested Democratic primary then Gideon did in a contested one.  Gideon, I should be clear, got 347,223 votes in the general election, which means she lost by 8.5 percent to Collins. That's called a blowout in most states. And as I'll keep reminding people all of the polls pretty much all showed Gideon beating Collins by as much as four to 12 percent throughout the campaign before finally saying she'd win by anywhere from four to eight percent. Gideon was endorsed by Sanders, Warren and Chris Murphy along with the entire Democratic establishment and Janet Mills.

I'm reminding my left wing readers far more than my right wing readers, who understand both basic arithmetic and electoral history in a way you've basically chosen to ignore, that getting all the votes in the Democratic primary, particularly in a state that hasn't election a Democrat to the Senate in forty years, that you can get all the votes in the primary and it will count for squat if you can't win the general. Sure Annie Andrews beat her Democratic challenger two to one in South Carolina. She still got fewer votes then Lindsey Graham did in the Republican primary.  Jaime Harrison did far better six years ago in the Democratic primary. Graham beat him by ten points.

And aside from the delivery and the fact that Platner has far more scandals to his credit there is no difference when it comes to basic policy between him or Sara Gideon. Platner believes in Medicare for all, housing affordability and ending US Involvement in pointless wars and brands himself as anti-establishment and anti-corporate. Sara Gideon was in favor of the affordable care act, planned parenthood, police reform, the Paris Accord and believes in expanding abortion access. There's no evidence that Maine voters have gone more to the left in 2026 considering that both in 2020 and 2024 Trump was able to carry Maine's 2^nd district.

So the question one has to ask the Democratic Party and progressives overall is what reason could anyone rationally believe that Platner could succeed six years after Gideon failed? The reason is familiar to anyone who knows progressives: they feel certain the voters want him. When it comes to believing without empirical evidence or electoral results the certainty the modern progressive has that Americans want progressive candidates puts the evangelical's belief in a higher power to shame. And its that fact I will turn to as I address my normal readers of this column.

 

I've written in my previous articles that at the end of the day, for all their education the average progressive has no real understanding of things.  Their basic understand of governing is nothing more than the liberal dogma of 'money solves everything', they have no ability to comprehend that what works in a theoretical setting can't work in real life, they cherry pick historical facts to fit their moral narrative. And when it comes to what the average American voter wants from politics they really have moved one inch from their thinking of George McGovern in 1972 except to go further to the left.

McGovern's campaign style, in truth, is no different from Sanders in either of his Presidential campaigns or the Squad when they stump or really that much different from Platner. And it's worth remembering how Theodore White described him on the campaign trail:

On the college campuses, within the circle of his faithful, he might be cheered as the voice of the future; in the tormented cities of America, however, after a decade of similar ringing high-minded proposals, he sounded like the voice of the past – more of the same, and frightening.

Given the electoral history of Sanders and all the left-wing politicians that have followed in his wake it's difficult to argue that there is any difference. The major one is now the circle of the faithful can be expanded within the echo chambers of social media to an entire nation of like-minded people who might cheer the proposals of the candidate as the voice of the future but are nowhere near the state that candidate is from.

So in this world we have a virtual crowd listening to the speeches of Annie Andrews or Jamie Davis or Graham Platner and their voices resonates with them. And because the algorithms of social media allow you to align with like-minded people in an instant one can assume that America is in favor of these candidates.

But the virtual progressive rarely lives in South Carolina or Louisiana and Maine and they are always smaller in number in the electorate in these states as they might appear in a protest movement or a rally.  And what may appeal to Democrats on a national level, as I've argued in articles on Texas, rarely, if ever, applies to the masses in a deep red or even purple state.

This pattern has been shown to bear in countless elections for Justice Democrats or far left candidates at a state level across the country and to this point in the post-Trump America, the average voter has rejected them nationwide. Within the virtual circle of the faithful, candidates like Andrews and Platner and Jasmine Crockett, they have been cheered as the voices of the future.  In any other parts of the states where they try to vote they do sound more of the same and often frightening – and that is before cable news and the internet intervenes.

The question "What do you stand for?" has been a drumbeat of the left for more than a decade. On the campaign trail a candidate can stand for all the right things and say them with no consequences. But once they are elected, one has to compromise and move to the center in order to govern. The modern left has rejected this for decades, calling it a betrayal of principles.

Platner has demonstrated, perhaps more than any other Democratic candidate in decades, how little their moral principles really have ever mattered. Scandals that they have called upon as something that should cause a Republican to resign are shrugged off in the case of Platner. The clearest resemblance has to be everything that Trump has said or done before he became President and everything done since. Yet those who have spent years attacking Trump for his horrible behavior are now saying that it should excuse everything Platner has done, that the stakes are too important not to let this matter.

This is yet again another example of the left's funhouse mirror standards. In Trump's case he was running for President. Graham Platner is running to replace Susan Collins in the U.S. Senate in Maine. Platner's personal baggage is as bad as Ken Paxton who just a few weeks ago the media was arguing his presence in the Senate would be a degradation of Congress overall.  The only difference is Paxton is a Republican and Platner is a Democrat.  There have been far too many examples of the left excusing the horrific behavior of conservatives but been more than willing to excuse the same behavior of progressives. Platner is just by far the most blatant argument that all of these arguments for principles and moral justice and everything the Republicans were destroying by their polices were just a smokescreen for their own tribalism.

But again the argument doesn't hold water. What do the virtual faithful truly think Platner, who even if he wins, will be just one voice among the Democrats and one voice among the hundred Senators be able to do on his own? The often conspiratorial arguments in certain echo chambers willing to excuse Platner's horrible behavior and the constant scandals argue that: They must be really afraid of him.

 Afraid of what? Short of being able to turn water into wine, Platner is just going to be another Senator if he wins. As Napoleon famously said: "Without the revolution, I am nothing." And for all his fiery rhetoric, Platner is just going to be the junior Senator in Maine with one vote. His vote will have the same power that Ron Johnson or John Fetterman will have. Whatever legislation he introduces will have to go through the same process any other bills do and be subject to the same ossification. He has little chance of being placed on any committees of note for a significant period and whatever speeches he says on TV will have the same power with the base than any other Democrat or Republican does.

It's one thing to argue the liberal establishment is trying to destroy Trump, he's a once and future President. But the media establishment is putting this much effort to keep Susan Collins in the Senate?  The same people like her who did six years ago and the same people hate her as well. And even if they do, the only people who this matters to are the voters in Maine. The media has made it clear of its feelings of Ted Cruz and Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell for years and decades. It's had no effect on what the voters of their respective states have thought of them, if the fact they kept winning reelection is any indication. But the idea that it would suddenly have an effect among Republicans in Maine? That's so batshit I think even Joe Rogan would never buy it.

The other reason I'm convinced Platner serves as a metaphor for the progressive's modern flaws came from an interview I saw on News Nation. This network is a mostly centrist one and it involved one of Biden's campaign aides and the campaign manager of AOC..

Biden's campaign aide argued very simply that many people would find Platner's Nazi tattoo troubling and asked how we're supposed to deal with it. AOC's campaign manager immediately pivoted to the argument that what was more important was the persecution of Muslims and was about to talk about what was happening in Gaza.

Biden's aide refused to be deterred and went back to the Nazi tattoo. AOC's campaign manager kept going back to Platner's support for Gaza being more important. The moderator kept pushing the point of Biden's campaign.

Finally Biden's aide said that this might have the effect of pushing voters away. AOC's campaign aide didn't hesitate. "Well then go ahead and join the Republicans. I'm sure they'll be happy to have you."

There's a lot to unpack from how AOC's manager's defense of Platner but I think there are two obvious facts.

The first is that the Justice Democrats have made it very clear that even though Gaza was proven to be unimportant to the electorate in 2024, that America is clearly dealing with more important issues in 2026, most notably inflation and affordability, AOC still believe that the Democratic Party should be putting everything in Gaza front and center. That this turned out to be a losing issue for multiple Justice Democrats in the last election cycle is of no consequence to them. More importantly there's the idea that somehow Graham Platner, whose running for the Senate in Maine, can do more to solve the problem in America then whatever happens in the Israeli election in a few months' time – which again involves some of the only people who can properly resolve it.

The second is how one of the campaign mangers for AOC, a woman who is short-listed among those who will run for President down the road, has basically made it very clear that the Democratic establishments deal with the devil with the far left is a loser. The biggest problem the Democrats have had has been winning over moderates and working class voters who find the behavior of left-wing politicians like AOC so extreme that they vote Republican. And here is the campaign manager of a prominent Democrat saying to another Democrat that if you don't like our policies, vote Republican.

The left has never had any political sense when it comes to getting the mood of the electorate. Now they are saying directly: if you have a problem with our standard bearers, vote for Republicans.  That people have been doing this for years to the point that the Democrats are in this position is not something that they consider a problem.

The most recent autopsy of the 2024 election argued that "Democrats seem more interesting in winning the argument then the election." One of AOC's representatives basically just said it out loud.  Which makes me think that Platner winning the election in Maine means less to them then the fact that he says and does all the right things.  That by doing so he might never be in position to put campaign rhetoric into policy is irrelevant: the left has always made it clear they'd rather lose with an ideologically pure candidate in a landslide then win narrowly with a more moderate candidate and get a chance to make things better for the people. That the cost has been Democrats losing races they might have been able to win over the years doesn't matter; that it means things will get worse for people by Republican policies is insignificant.

It's always difficult, giving the way the media and both parties tend to argue that every election is 'the most important in our lifetime' and every result is 'groundbreaking' to keep one's perspective. While what is going on involving Platner and Collins important only to people in both parties, the media-industrial complex and the endless chatter on social media within these circles. Beyond this the people it will matter the most to are the voters in the state of Maine who are deciding who will serve them in the Senate for the next six years.  There will be a lot of money spent and a lot of attention paid to it but that's all this is about.

For the Democrats it is only as important as regaining the majority but it would be less groundbreaking then victories for Peltola in Alaska, Talarico in Texas or Turek in Iowa. The ones who feel the strongest about Platner and what he represents almost certainly don't live anywhere near the state of Maine, who've made it clear in multiple elections what they think of progressives in their state as recently as six years ago.  And any endorphin the virtual progressive mob will get about what Platner represents if he wins will end the moment he is sworn in and doesn't immediately introduce a resolution arguing that the Senate and Congress should be permanently dissolved, followed by the entire chamber agreeing to it with unanimous consent. Anything else will only disappoint the left given all the attention they've focused on what he represents to not the state of Maine or the Democratic Party or even the progressive cause, but America itself.

That assumes, of course, those who are the loudest voices on the left even want Platner to win which to me is debatable. As AOC's own communication head finally said the left prefers martyrdom and losing in a noble cause rather then winning and being forced to compromise and govern.  Hell, for all we know the loudest voices arguing for Platner may well be sending donations to Collins's campaign as we speak. They've always preferred having an elected monster that they can vilify rather than a hero who can only disappoint them.  They are more interested in winning arguments then elections because the former feels better immediately then the democratic process. My conservative readers should remember that because the progressives never will.