From Beef and The ’Burbs to Shrinking and Widow’s Bay, TheWrap celebrates the people who made some of the year’s best TV series
Edited by Missy Schwartz
The Minds Behind the Shows
For our second celebration of television’s auteurs — the people who bring a great idea to life and keep the vision thriving, episode after episode — we chose the brains behind 32 series that are eligible for this year’s Emmys. To spread the love, we did not include anyone from the 2025 list, unless they brought a new show to our screens this year.
And we once again tried to reflect the vast TV landscape that is a showcase for pulpy mysteries, plummy adaptations of British novels, horror comedies and so much more. So let’s tip our hats to the showrunners and creators behind some of the most original and engaging shows of 2026.
Edited by Missy Schwartz
Bill Lawrence
Rooster (HBO), Shrinking (Apple TV) and Scrubs (ABC)
With five shows on the air this year, Lawrence is very busy. There’s Rooster, Scrubs and Shrinking, plus new upcoming seasons of Ted Lasso and Monkey. From his days with Spin City to his current prodigious output, he is one of the most prolific, successful and distinctive television showrunners and creators. You can always spot a Lawrence series by its sense of goodness that can feel out of place in our current society — or even be read as a political statement.
“I find the world to have been a tumultuous s—show from Covid on,” he said. “That’s why I’ve been writing shows like Ted Lasso and Shrinking and Rooster and Scrubs that have an inherent hopefulness and optimism and kindness in them.
“When Ted Lasso says, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if people could just be a little more curious, not judgmental, and be a little kinder and meet each other with an open heart?’ I don’t think that’s a political statement. I think it’s a human statement.” —Steve Pond
Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow
The Comeback (HBO)
“Are we going to deliver?” That’s the question that The Comeback co-creators King and Kudrow wrestled with in the third and final season of their savagely funny dive into Hollywood, which has earned four Emmy nominations, including two for Kudrow’s lead performance as sitcom star Valerie Cherish.
“We did it for the people who really loved Seasons 1 and 2 and were the reason we could do 2 and 3,” she said.
Knowing fans’ expectations were sky-high, Kudrow and King went straight for the issue preoccupying everyone in the entertainment industry: AI. After years of battling with her sitcoms’ writers, Valerie is forced to defend the profession as she stars on a show largely written by ones and zeros.
“It’s a moment of fear because — really — it’s still unknown,” said King, also the showrunner. “We’re in the middle of everybody’s feelings, and we have characters that are feeling the same things (our colleagues) are feeling.” —Kayla Cobb
Katie Dippold
Widow’s Bay (Apple TV)
“It was a tonal tightrope from beginning to end, because I didn’t want the comedy to undercut the tension and stakes.”
—Katie Dippold
It’s been 14 years since Dippold swam in the television world as a staff writer on shows including Parks and Recreation. In that time, she has written big-screen comedies with high-concept genre twists like 2013’s The Heat and 2016’s Ghostbusters.
This year, she made her television return with Widow’s Bay. The horror-comedy series, set on a haunted New England island governed by an ambitious mayor (Matthew Rhys), runs on the same supernatural screwball cocktail as some of her other projects. But Widow’s Bay is sharper, meaner, funnier and scarier—often all at once. (Is it any wonder that Rhys has described Dippold as the baby of Joan Rivers and Stephen King?)
“It was a tonal tightrope from beginning to end, from writing to shooting to the edit, because I didn’t want the comedy to undercut the tension and stakes,” Dippold said. “As a horror fan, I want that taken seriously. If something felt like it was just going for the joke but taking away from the story, we cut it.” —Alex Welch
Dan Levy
Big Mistakes (Netflix)
Six years after the triumphant, Emmy-sweeping final season of Schitt’s Creek, Levy returns to TV with a madcap crime comedy. He created the show with I Love L.A. mastermind Rachel Sennott and served as both showrunner and star for Season 1, playing a suburban New Jersey priest forced into a crime syndicate after his sister (Taylor Ortega) steals a necklace far more valuable than it looks.
“I love writing family dynamics,” Levy said. “I find it endlessly entertaining. It’s hysterically funny. Families are fucked up, and all we can do is laugh at ourselves.”
As for being in charge, he said, “Making sure that everyone understood how appreciated they were, and that we were building something together — incubating that sense of community is the most important part of showrunning, because when people are excited to come to work and go above and beyond, it just gets better and better.” —Loree Seitz
Lee Eisenberg
Jury Duty: Company Retreat (Prime Video)
Pulling off an elaborate prank once is difficult. Pulling it off again without getting caught is another matter altogether. For the second season of Jury Duty, Eisenberg took the concept — one person who believes they’re filming a real documentary doesn’t realize they’re the only non-actor present — out of the courtroom and placed it at a corporate off-site. He and his team found a lovable hero in Anthony Norman, a temp at a fake hot-sauce company who becomes the unflappable grounding force of this season’s mayhem.
With no way to fully control how the narrative played out, the crew worked like magical elves behind the scenes, making quick decisions to keep a steady flow of high jinks, like a seminar on vulnerability that would make a real HR rep spontaneously combust. It’s a tightrope walk that culminates in a heartwarming, emotional finale that couldn’t have been scripted better. —Casey Loving
Vince Gilligan
Pluribus (Apple TV)
With Pluribus, Gilligan has once again established why his name is gold in the TV industry. The Rhea Seehorn drama starts with a global apocalypse straight from Gilligan’s alma mater The X-Files: An extraterrestrial virus infects most of humanity and transforms them into a hive mind.
But the show quickly proved it’s so much more than ambitious sci-fi. As Seehorn’s misanthropic and cynical Carol argues for free will, the Others — often represented by Karolina Wydra’s Zosia — argue that human autonomy has led to famine, racism and a host of other horrors. The most engaging part of Pluribus is that this central theme is treated as a conversation with no easy answers. In an age dominated by nervous jokes about robot overlords, it’s one of the most relevant series out there. —KC
Noah Hawley
Alien: Earth (FX)
Hawley’s prequel to the sci-fi franchise about terrifying space monsters is a story of growing pains. Led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a group of hybrids — man-made bodies into which children’s consciousnesses are transferred — struggle to find their place in the world. They’re known as the Lost Boys, which is just one of the series’ allusions to Peter Pan. There’s also Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), an obscenely wealthy man-child CEO who acts rashly without repercussions.
“If there aren’t any consequences, then how can you be an adult?” said Hawley, who won the limited-series Emmy for the first season of Fargo in 2014. “The challenge for me was, in bringing the story to Earth and exposing us to the trillionaire class and the top of the food chain, how do you maintain that sense of class struggle? In using this ‘hybrid’ — human minds in synthetic bodies — you’re able to do both themes. Who owns my body, and why do these wealthy people think they have the right to own anything?” —CL
Ira Parker
A Night of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO)
How do you make a Game of Thrones show lighthearted? If you’re Parker, you turn your drama-series spin-off into a buddy comedy starring an enormous knight named Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his 9-year-old squire, Aegon “Egg” Targaryen (Dexter Sol Ansell).
Parker, who was a writer on House of the Dragon, taps into the characters’ chemistry to elevate the story, based on a novella from George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg series about a wandering, impoverished knight who seeks to prove himself in a tourney.
It’s a slight narrative compared with your typical GoT bombast, but the simplicity is welcome. Parker keeps the action focused on our duo, leaving ample room to examine their emotional connection.
—CL
Lee Sung Jin
Beef (Netflix)
When Beef won eight Emmys series that was, presumably, a one-and-done deal. But the show was such a hit with audiences and critics that Netflix ordered a second season. Lee widened the scope, placing a young couple (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) and a 40-something husband and wife (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan) at the center of an intergenerational conflict that involves class warfare, health insurance and a billionaire played by the great Youn Yuh-jung.
“You never know when the best ideas will come about. Even at the 25th hour, if someone has an idea that’s better than mine, let’s roll with it.”
—Lee Sung Jin
To establish a world consistent with the first go-around, Lee brought back several writers and drew on conversations with everyone from department heads to writers’ assistants. “Nothing beats the weirdness of real life,” he said. “You really can’t do this alone. I just try to keep it very safe where everyone can feel like they can share, and just keep the dialogue going at all times. You never know when the best ideas will come about. Even at the 25th hour, if someone has an idea that’s better than mine, let’s roll with it.” —LS
Sterlin Harjo
The Lowdown (FX)
The word “community” best sums up Harjo’s approach to showrunning, which is fitting considering he shoots in his home state of Oklahoma.
“It’s reciprocal — you treat each other with respect, and that comes back to you,” he said. “We’re all in this together. I think that we’re really trying to tell important stories for our world and for the future and our kids.”
The family aspect of Harjo’s philosophy runs through every department: “Don’t treat anybody differently because they have a job that’s deemed less important than yours. The PA that you’re talking to could be my mom. That’s sort of how the set is run.”
That sentiment shines through on The Lowdown, Harjo’s noir- tinged, Tulsa-set comedy starring Ethan Hawke as a frazzled book-shop owner and self-proclaimed “truthstorian” who stumbles on a conspiracy involving powerful people. It’s Harjo’s second series filmed in Oklahoma, following the acclaimed Reservation Dogs. He remembers mentors encouraging him to stay there and tell stories that were personal to him. And even though he has never been drawn into a real-life murder mystery (we think), he pulled from class and wealth disparities in Tulsa to add dimension to The Lowdown.
“There are people without money right next to people with way too much money, and they’re interacting,” he said, adding that the city is a melting pot of “cowboy culture, Native culture and Black culture all in one place.” —Adam Chitwood
Megan Gallagher
All Her Fault (Peacock)
It takes a near miracle for a limited series to break through today’s surplus of TV offerings. Under the guidance of Gallagher, All Her Fault did. The show drew in audiences with a twisty mystery about a missing child and kept them engaged with a focus on the invisible labor — physical and emotional — shouldered by the female half of a heterosexual couple, captured by the terrified mother (Sarah Snook) and her supportive friend (Dakota Fanning). Speaking of Snook, Gallagher makes use of the Emmy winner’s astounding talent by turning up the volume and leaving it there. —LS
Rachel Sennott
I Love L.A. (HBO Max)
“I always wanted to feel that we’re not just making fun of our characters. They’re funny, they do silly things, but we care about them.”
—Rachel Sennott
Building on her double duty in front of and behind the camera on the indie movies Bottoms and Shiva Baby, Sennott created I Love L.A., which she calls “Entourage for internet It Girls.” It’s also been called a Girls for Gen Z, and to paraphrase that show’s Hannah Horvath, she has proved herself to be a formidable voice of her generation.
I Love L.A. chronicles the chaotic lives of a group of twenty-somethings as they fumble through work, friendship and romance in the City of Angels. Sennott oversaw Season 1 while starring as an ambitious talent agent, and she’s bolstered by her deep bench of supporting players, including Jordan Firstman as a celebrity stylist and Odessa A’zion as a frenemy influencer.
They are all messy, ambitious people who, Sennott hopes, are grounded enough to be relatable. “That’s what life feels like to me,” she said. “I always wanted to feel, even though the world can be heightened and ridiculous, that we’re not just making fun of our characters. They’re funny, they do silly things, but we care about them—or at least I care about them. I don’t want to make a show about characters where I just hate them the whole time.” —LS
Howard Gordon
The Beast in Me (Netflix)
Gordon has a habit of blurring the lines between hero and villain. 24’s Jack Bauer pushed boundaries and Homeland managed to make a terrorist sympathetic. His limited series The Beast in Me ditches geopolitics for a simpler premise: What if your new next-door neighbor had been accused, but not convicted, of murdering his wife? And what if he’s kind of charming?
Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys are delicious as, respectively, an increasingly suspicious writer and a possibly sociopathic real estate magnate, all while Gordon toys with the audience like a master puppeteer. We’re in the shoes of Danes’ character, certain of the creepy neighbor’s bad intentions one moment, thrown off-kilter the next. —AC
Bruce Miller
The Testaments (Hulu)
Miller passed the showrunner’s torch to Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang for the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, but he revisited Gilead for its spin-off, The Testaments, where June Osbourne’s daughter Agnes and her classmates at Aunt Lydia’s School for Future Wives sow the seeds of the next revolutionary wave. (Elisabeth Moss reprises her role as June in guest appearances, in addition to executive-producing.)
While The Testaments, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, is a much lighter watch than The Handmaid’s Tale, Miller doesn’t sugarcoat the abuse of Gilead’s female population — this time, teenage girls. He made a brilliant choice in casting Chase Infiniti, who anchors the drama as Agnes with adolescent naivete that gives way to a political awakening. Miller has crafted a new series about the perils of totalitarianism that’s just as disturbing as the first one. —Raquel Harris
Seth MacFarlane
Ted (Peacock)
When MacFarlane spoke to us about the second season of Ted, he said that the foulmouthed teddy bear probably wouldn’t be back on Peacock for a third go-round due to high production costs.
That’s a shame. In its second season, Ted aims high, making great use of its stellar supporting cast (Alanna Ubach is pitch-perfect) and delivering more ambitious episodes, like a fantastical D&D adventure. As overseen by MacFarlane (who also created Family Guy, American Dad! and The Orville), the comedy series keeps finding the funny in an adorable imp with a Boston accent skittering around and shouting vulgarities.
At least there’s an animated spin-off to look forward to. And you can always go back to the two big-screen comedies that introduced us to the furry little fiend. —CL
Robert Carlock and Sam Means
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (NBC)
“We’re always looking for actors who can do two jokes and make you care about something emotional that’s happening. That starts with Tracy.”
—Robert Carlock
Carlock and Means knew their new series had two major advantages right out of the gate: Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe. “That puts you somewhere between second and third base,” Carlock said.
But the new series — about a disgraced football hero (Morgan) and the ostracized Oscar-winning filmmaker (Radcliffe) making a documentary about him — hits a home run thanks to its creators. Like their previous projects 30 Rock, Girls5eva and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Reggie Dinkins operates on a dizzying joke-a-minute cadence that never sacrifices character development for cheap laughs.
“We were really lucky to get to do a pilot,” Means said. “Having that extra step to really get to know the cast and show was huge. It helped us make the show better and more confident from the go.”
Heading into the series, he and Carlock knew Radcliffe’s range from his appearance in the 2020 Kimmy Schmidt TV movie. And they were, of course, well versed in Morgan’s brand of comedy from 30 Rock. “We’re always looking for actors who can do two jokes and make you care about something emotional that’s happening. That starts with Tracy,” Carlock said.
He added that Reggie Dinkins EP Tina Fey “once described him as ‘You love him and you don’t know what he’s going to do next.’ It’s that little edge, plus lovability.” —KC
Michelle Nader
Deli Boys (Hulu)
Nader not only nailed the first season of Hulu’s Deli Boys, a comedy about two pampered Pakistani-American brothers (Saagar Shaikh and Asif Ali) who stumble into their deceased father’s cocaine empire, but she did it while overseeing the ABC sitcom Shifting Gears. Now the vet of Spin City and 2 Broke Girls is back for another round of Deli Boys this summer.
Fast-paced and quick-witted, the show has been praised for its authentic depiction of New York City’s South Asian community and for turning the cliché of high-achieving children of immigrants on its head. Season 2 ups the ante with Fred Armisen, Andrew Rannells, Kumail Nanjiani, Robin Thede and Lilly Singh joining the cast. —LS
Debora Cahn
The Diplomat (Netflix)
In the third season of the drama series, which stars Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell as an adversarial political power couple, Cahn brought in Bradley Whitford to play the husband of Allison Janney’s POTUS. The shift from one dysfunctional couple to two opened the door to a delicious dynamic between the duos, vividly captured in the scene where Whitford’s Todd cuts his hand while preparing oysters and bleeds all over them. (Marriage is a blood sport.)
“I’m not telling the story alone. We’ve put together a company that’s telling the story. And Keri and Rufus are so good.”
—Deborah Cahn
From day one, Cahn has been writing sharply drawn characters that give the gifted actors plenty to play with. (In March, Russell won an Actor Award for her high-wire work as shrewd ambassador to the U.K. Kate Wyler.) And she knows just when to throw in a plot twist, as in the Season 3 finale.
“I work in a candy store,” Cahn said. “It’s wildly fun. We’re always somehow in over our heads, but we have to remind ourselves that we chose to dive into the deep end. We’re choosing to do a lot. So it’s a constant, like, stay focused but keep your peripheral vision way open, and allow yourself to take in the new ideas as they present themselves. I’m not telling the story alone. We’ve put together a company that’s telling the story. Keri and Rufus are so good, and it was great to be able to bring in actors (Janney and Whitford) who can come in at the sprint that Keri and Rufus are at. It was an absolute career peak, a dream come true.” —LS
Brad Ingelsby
Task (HBO)
How do you follow up an acclaimed limited series like Mare of Easttown? The creator and showrunner of that Emmy-dominating Kate Winslet show opted for a new crime drama that uses the Philadelphia backdrop just as effectively. Task juxtaposes a sympathetic accidental kidnapper (Tom Pelphrey) with the FBI agent hot on his trail (Mark Ruffalo). It’s like Heat but with thick Keystone State accents.
Ingelsby, a Pennsylvania native, has made a career out of pairing the specificity of a place with complicated characters. Task fits that bill perfectly, offering up a cat-and-mouse thriller that’s so well told that you can’t decide whether you’re rooting for the good guy or the bad guy. —AC
Celeste Hughey
The ’Burbs (Peacock)
In her eight-episode adaptation of the 1989 Tom Hanks movie, Hughey updates the Satanic Panic back-drop to an overall sense of paranoia among neighbors — an apt theme for the post-Covid world. The spooky fish-out-of- water comedy series stars Keke Palmer as a new mother who moves to a cul-de-sac rife with dark secrets.
“I grew up in a very white suburb as a mixed-race child, and it was always just part of the day-to-day: who was looking at you, who felt you belonged and who didn’t.”
—Celeste Hughey
“The original movie, which I love, is outsiders coming in and the neighbors being suspicious of them,” Hughey said. “But I really wanted to center the outsider perspective, being the new person to the neighborhood. I grew up in a very white suburb as a mixed-race child, and it was always just part of the day-to-day: who was looking at you, who felt you belonged and who didn’t. So I was really excited to explore that.”
As she proved as a writer on Dead to Me and Palm Royale, she knows how to balance the weightier stuff with laughs. She even made room for a few Easter eggs for fans of the film, including a snack of sardines and pretzels served by an enigmatic neighbor. —MS
Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield
The Gilded Age (HBO)
HBO’s exploration of New York high society during the Industrial Revolution was a niche show until Season 3, when the Carrie Coon– and Christine Baranski–led drama series evolved into an internet phenomenon. Fellowes and Warfield brought The Gilded Age into sharper focus — analyzing complex subject matter like divorce and racial dynamics in the 1880s while charting an aspirational love story for fan favorite Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) and forcing young Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) into an arranged marriage that later blossomed into real affection. The third season’s storylines inspired countless memes and gathered series-high viewership. There’s still plenty of drama to come as the show crafts its fourth season, set to air later this year. —Jose Alejandro Bastidas
David E. Kelley
Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)
On any other show, the characters of Margo’s Got Money Troubles would be throwaway jokes: a former Hooters waitress lying to her minister boyfriend, an out-of-work professional wrestler, a college dropout using OnlyFans to support her newborn son.
But Kelley gives these people the same respect, care and grace that author Rufi Thorpe lent them in her novel of the same name. Bolstered by the performances of Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman and Elle Fanning, Apple TV’s comedy series is an earnest and funny exploration of a complicated family. From Big Little Lies to Big Sky, Kelley has a knack for making audiences fall in love with characters because of their faults rather than in spite of them. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is one of the best examples of that particular trick. —KC
Susanna Fogel, David Iserson and Mike Daniels
Ponies (Peacock)
Female friendships can go very, very wrong onscreen. But in the right hands, they can be Ponies’ Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson). Creators Fogel and Iserson, who show-runs with Daniels, understood the importance of the central relationship to their show — a jaunty spy thriller spiked with comedy — and encouraged their lead actresses to give it their all, including silliness.
While the series hasn’t been renewed yet for a second season, the trio are ready to build on that finale curveball, which they realize did not come as a shock to all viewers.
“We know that maybe some people might have predicted it,” Fogel said. “However, something new to explore in a television show, where we have more room to grow, is: What do you do with this information?” —Andi Ortiz
Greg Daniels and Michael Koman
The Paper (Peacock)
Twelve years after closing down his U.S. version of The Office, Daniels teamed up with How to with John Wilson EP Koman to turn mockumentary cameras on the staff of The Toledo Truth Teller for The Paper. Initially, they rejected the idea of an Office spin-off. But united in their love for journalism, the duo wrote a show about workplace shenanigans chronicled by the same documentary crew that captured Dunder Mifflin — and filled a newsroom with an ensemble of quirky characters, led by Domhnall Gleeson’s gung-ho editor-in-chief. They’re oddballs doing their best to revive a failing newspaper. The format is familiar — in all the best ways. —RH
Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer
Stranger Things (Netflix)
How do you wrap up a phenomenon known for its deep lore and make sure the ending feels properly epic and emotionally resonant? The Duffer brothers faced that challenge as they went into Stranger Things’ fifth season. Their answer was to go huge — the feature-length finale played in theaters on New Year’s Eve — but they still managed to touch our hearts, leaving us with the kids in the basement, playing one last game of Dungeons & Dragons. It was sincere and joyful but carried a thread of pain, which the characters will undoubtedly be tugging at in the years ahead. The Duffers successfully vanquished the Upside Down. But the Upside Down will always be a part of them. —Drew Taylor
Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner
Fallout (Prime Video)
We are living in a boom time for TV series based on popular videogames, and Fallout is one of the best. Robertson-Dworet and Wagner capture the feeling of exploration associated with playing a game and not knowing what’s around the corner, both literally and narratively.
They delivered a second season that is even crazier than the first, featuring warring factions conspiring and colliding and giant demons prowling a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas (built in a section of an abandoned strip mall in North Hollywood).
They also offered deeper insight into the characters we fell in love with in Season 1, particularly Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the no-nose Ghoul (Walton Goggins). It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel great. —DT
Ronald D. Moore and Matthew B. Roberts
Outlander (Starz)
For an idea of how challenging it is to maintain the quality of a long-running show adapted from a beloved book series, look no further than Game of Thrones. But for more than a decade, the Outlander team steadily steered Starz’s adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s bestsellers, offering swashbuckling time-travel adventure without losing sight of the great love story at the show’s core.
After creating the series and running the first three seasons, Moore came back for Season 8 to bring the saga to a close alongside Roberts, who oversaw the past five seasons. It’s hard to say good-bye to Claire and Jamie, but fans can mend their broken hearts with Roberts’ prequel series, Blood of My Blood, which follows the couple’s parents and airs Season 2 in the fall. —LS
David Farr
The Night Manager (Prime Video)
It took more than a decade, but The Night Manager beat the odds and returned with a second season that feels as exciting and fresh as the first set of episodes, which were based on a John le Carré novel.
It’s no surprise that Farr got his start directing theater in London; he’s a swell fit for the complicated spy machinations of le Carré, leaning on the drama of conversations and double crosses over pyrotechnics and car chases (though there are plenty of those, too). Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as Jonathan Pine, a hotel manager turned spy who’s still haunted by his interactions with ruthless arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) in Season 1. A new mystery materializes and new characters are introduced, but Farr pulls off a magic trick by connecting the new season to the first in shocking fashion. —AC
Jack Thorne
Lord of the Flies (Netflix)
It’s nearly impossible to watch Thorne’s take on Lord of the Flies. Given that his source material is William Golding’s 1954 dystopian masterpiece, that’s a compliment.
Thorne never holds back or ages up his four-part adaptation, leaning into the soft cheeks and wide eyes of the group of young boys stranded on an uninhabited island. That focus paired with a talented cast make the horrors that follow all the more haunting. Lord of the Flies has long been one of the most insightful looks at man’s descent into savagery and madness — and as told by a creator who’s fresh from last year’s Emmy-dominating Adolescence, it’s a series designed to unsettle viewers as they contemplate how cruelty and lack of supervision shape young men. —KC
Taylor Sheridan
The Madison (Paramount+)
Sheridan characters like Landman’s Billy Bob Thornton and Yellowstone’s Kevin Costner tend to be hard-assed everymen, chiseled from the same craggy bedrock on which they live or work. But with The Madison, Sheridan finally opened himself up. He wrote every episode, with longtime lieutenant Christina Alexandra Voros directing and shooting all six of them. And this time he focused on Michelle Pfeiffer’s Stacy, a Manhattan socialite who suffers a tragedy. She returns to a small parcel of land her husband cherished and is nourished by the rugged setting. It’s the most soulful thing Sheridan has done. —DT
Returning Showrunners
Some of the creative forces who were on the 2025 list and are back in the Emmys race with new seasons
LUCIA ANIELLO, PAUL W. DOWNS and JEN STATSKY Hacks
JESS BROWNELL Bridgerton
QUINTA BRUNSON, JUSTIN HALPERN and PATRICK SCHUMACKER Abbott Elementary
DAN FOGELMAN Paradise
R. SCOTT GEMMILL The Pitt
JOHN HOFFMAN Only Murders in the Building
ERIC LEDGIN AND JUSTIN SPITZER St. Denis Medical
WILL SMITH Slow Horses
JENNIE SNYDER URMAN Matlock