Jean Smart has won the lead comedy actress Emmy every time a season of Hacks has put Deborah Vance in contention. One more victory on September 14 would complete the set.

That would make Smart the first performer to win the category for every season of a show's run. Hacks is ending after five seasons, so there is no sixth campaign waiting to spoil the symmetry.

Hacks has the nominations, but Widow's Bay already has the trophies

The final season of Hacks earned 24 nominations, the highest single-year total ever for a comedy series. On paper, that looked like an extremely comfortable foundation for a farewell celebration.

Then the Creative Arts Emmys happened.

Apple TV's first-year horror comedy Widow's Bay won eight awards during the September 5 and 6 ceremonies. Hacks took one. That does not determine what happens in the major categories on Monday, but it changed the temperature of the comedy race rather quickly.

Smart remains the overwhelming favourite in her acting category. Outstanding Comedy Series is considerably less tidy.

Harrison Ford has never won an Emmy

That sentence still looks strange considering the career attached to it. Ford is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Paul Rhoades in Shrinking, his second consecutive nomination for the role.

A victory would be his first Emmy and, at 84, would make him the oldest winner ever in the category. For an actor whose career has been defined largely by movies, television has suddenly given him one of the few major awards milestones still missing from his résumé.

The category is not empty of serious competition, but Ford has become one of the night's clearest sentimental and performance-driven contenders.

The Pitt is trying to turn dominance into a repeat

Drama has a more familiar frontrunner. The Pitt leads the entire field with 25 nominations and is seeking a second consecutive win for Outstanding Drama Series.

Noah Wyle is also attempting to repeat as lead actor. The show already collected four Creative Arts Emmys, giving HBO Max an early foothold before the main telecast.

Pluribus matched that early total with four awards of its own, and Rhea Seehorn enters Monday as one of the strongest acting favourites of the night.

Apple has quietly crowded the comedy field

The broader industry story is not simply that one Apple TV series has become popular with Emmy voters. Shrinking has Ford in a major acting race while Widow's Bay has emerged as a genuine threat to the final season of Hacks.

And Apple is doing this in a year when The Studio, its huge Emmy performer from the previous cycle, is not part of the race.

HBO Max can still leave the Peacock Theater with both the major comedy and drama prizes through Hacks and The Pitt. It just no longer feels inevitable on the comedy side.

The celebration comes during a messy year for Hollywood

The ceremony itself arrives while the television business is dealing with production cuts, anxiety over artificial intelligence and another round of major corporate consolidation. The trophies will provide a few hours of glamour during a year in which much of the industry conversation has been about shrinking budgets and uncertain jobs.

Mariska Hargitay will host the 78th Emmy Awards from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 14. NBC will carry the ceremony live at 8 p.m. ET, with Peacock streaming it at the same time.

For Smart, the night could finish a perfect five-season run. For Ford, one trophy would end a much longer wait.