TV TALK

The 2026 Emmy Award nominations have been released and, as always, what does and doesn’t show up on the list can be a source of considerable disagreement! For the next few weeks we’ll be doing some polling and also using nominations as a jumping off point for discussion of those less visible categories.

You can check this page for full details on nominees if you want some guidance.

Let’s start off today with the major categories. And while the Emmys focus on U.S. programming, please nominate shows and performances from any country. ( Read more... )

On our Saturday post solenne mentioned the upcoming loss of TV Time, which is used for tracking shows to watch. Given all the networks or streamers in use, this has become complicated to do.

What method(s) or service(s) work for you? How transferable is your data? Have your tools/habits changed over time? What problems have you run into?

An article about declining representation of LGBTQ+ characters on TV noted “We saw this huge peak of queer characters in 2022, and since then we’ve seen a reduction in making programs overall. The market was totally bloated, but because we’re in very uncertain financial times, programmers become much more conservative and go for things that have that mass-market appeal. In general, people think mass-market appeal doesn’t equal complex, queer shows.”

Have you also felt there’s a representational decline or is it just the ebb and flow of storylines and new show development? Are there particular shows or characters with queer representation that you miss? If so, which characters or shows would you most like to see return?

Have there been shows which developed your favorite tropes with their storytelling? Or maybe they’ve made you realize you have pet peeve tropes?

There’s been discussion before here on tv_talk about U.S. cable networks shrinking away. Now it seems that local broadcast stations are also entering a decline.

"The revenue squeeze also comes at a time when TV stations are actually producing more hours of local news than ever before. The major networks are offering fewer hours to their affiliates in daytime. Syndicated shows are going away as they can no longer attract large enough audiences to support them."

Do you watch your local broadcast stations? What programming do you value most from them?