8 Years After It Ended, This 10/10 Masterpiece Is the Real Winner of the 2026 Emmy Nominations

The 2026 Emmy nominations are out, and there are a lot of popular streaming shows getting well-deserved awards acclaim. This year, the range of streaming services getting major recognition is wider than ever, with the likes of Apple TV now generating as many nominations as heavyweights like Netflix. It’s a fun time for TV viewers, who are getting more and more options for quality TV, and an interesting time for industry analysts, trying to predict which company is going to start claiming bigger market share.

There is a lot of analysis currently going into the Emmy nominations, but few are putting the pieces together well enough to recognize that at least two actors are getting some well-deserved (and overdue) recognition, which they should’ve gotten eight years ago, when their combined talents made for one of the best TV shows of the 2010s.

The Emmys Are Finally Recognizing the Talent of The Americans

The 2026 Emmy nominations include an “Outstanding Lead Actress” nomination for actress Keri Russell, for the Netflix political-dramedy The Diplomat. Another big Emmy nominee this year is actor Matthew Rhys, who received the nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series”, thanks to his role in Apple TV’s breakout hit new horror-comedy series, Widow’s Bay.

This isn’t the first Emmy nomination for either Keri Russell or Matthew Rhys, not by a long shot: Rhys has seven Emmy nominations (and one win), while Russell has six nominations (including a previous one for The Diplomat) without a single win. For many TV fans, that is a major oversight on the part of the Emmys: Rhys and Russell were the two leads of FX’s throwback espionage series, The Americans, which ran from 2013-2018 and is considered, by many fans and critics, to rank among the Top 10 TV shows of all time.

The series features Rhys and Russell as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a seemingly normal suburban couple living with their daughter in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., during the early 1980s. It’s revealed that Philip and Elizabeth are actually “Mischa” and “Nadezhada,” two highly trained KGB officers on a deep-cover spy mission as sleeper agents for the Soviet Union. Over the course of 6 seasons, Philip and Elizabeth walk the tightrope of risking themselves on a mission for a homeland they are slowly forgetting, while their opportunities to enjoy an American life grow bigger by the day. The series also had the added wrinkle of blurring the lines of Philip and Elizabeth’s relationship, constantly asking them (and the viewers) whether the marriage bond was real for them both, or simply a job.

The Americans received no less than 12 Primetime Emmy nominations during its run; it only received two wins: an “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” win for Matthew Rhys for the final season of the show, with writers Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg winning “Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series” for the very same episode that won Rhys the Emmy (“START”). As stated, The Americans stands up there with The Wire in terms of shows that were clearly at the top of their game, but never got proper recognition from the Emmys.

It’s a really tight competition that both Kerri Russell and Matthew Rhys are in at this year’s Emmys, but seeing them both win would definitely feel like poetic justice to the fans and crew of The Americans, who have long recognized these two actors as two of the best in TV.

A remake of The Americans titled The Koreans is currently in production at Disney. Find out more below.

I Didn’t Think the Greatest Spy Thriller of All Time Can Get Better, but Disney+’s Remake Might Do It