This Canceled TV Show Was Just Emmy Nominated - Nine Times, to Be Exact
With the Television Academy shaking up its rules and categories in recent years, the nomination breakdowns have looked a bit different of late.
Two categories were announced extra early on Wednesday, July 8, including Outstanding Variety Series. That realm now includes sketch comedy shows, such as Saturday Night Live, and late-night programming, such as The Daily Show.
Besides the two mentioned above, the other nominees in the Primetime Emmy Award field are:
- Jimmy Kimmel Live!
- Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
- The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Fans are well aware that Late Show has been canceled, meaning they're certainly pleased to see it honored in the Emmys race one last time. And "honored" is putting it lightly since Colbert's talk show received a whopping nine nods in total on Wednesday - its biggest haul ever, Variety reports.
In addition to Best Variety Series, Late Show is in the running for:
- writing for a variety series
- directing for a variety series
- production design for a variety/reality series
- technical direction and camerawork
- lighting design
- sound mixing for a variety series/special
- picture editing for variety programming
- music direction
As part of the TV Academy's recent Emmys overhaul, the variety series race is now classified as an "area" award - meaning nominees aren't competing against one another and instead independently trying to get at least 90% of Emmy voters to answer "yes" to a single question: "Does this nominee merit an Emmy?"
If a show clears the bar, it wins, regardless of whether another one does. So in theory, an overwhelmingly embraced field could produce Emmys for multiple programs in the same race, in the same year.
The other early-morning category announced Wednesday was Reality Competition Program. Here are those nominees:
- Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
- RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)
- Survivor (CBS)
- Top Chef (Bravo)
- The Traitors (Peacock)
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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 9:37 AM.