Some Emmy Costume Awards Have No Nominees: Juried Panels Decide Them at the 78th Emmys

Some Emmy costume awards have no nominees at all. The Television Academy decides certain costume categories through juried panels, while others follow the usual nominee-and-winner format.

The 2026 cycle of the 78th Emmys shows both systems in one season.

Two Routes to a Costume Emmy

Competitive costume categories name a set of nominees, and one of them wins. For the 78th Emmys, Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series was won by *Margo’s Got Money Troubles* on Apple TV, with Mirren Gordon-Crozier credited as costume designer.

Juried categories work differently. They have no nominees. Instead, a panel of professionals in the relevant peer group evaluates each entry and decides which, if any, receive an Emmy.

The juried results were published in their own Academy release, separate from the nominees and winners listing for the competitive costume category. Both fall within the same 78th Emmys season, but they follow different procedures.

Active Membership Threshold
One route to Active membership in the Costume Design & Supervision peer group requires at least two years in a listed position and screen credit on at least 15 episodes of nationally exhibited content, within the four years before application.

How Juried Panels Decide

The Television Academy says juried entries are screened by panels drawn from four peer groups: Animation, Costume Design, Emerging Media Programming, and Motion and Title Design. The process is a one-step evaluation and voting procedure, with no nominee round before the result.

Each category may award one entry, more than one, or none. Panels openly discuss each entry and review its merits before deciding. Because a panel can decline to make an award, a category can end without a winner.

Outstanding Motion Design, one of the juried categories in the same cycle, has no Emmy awarded. By contrast, Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation lists five entries across four series, including two episodes of *Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal*.

The 2026 Juried Costume Winners

The Academy’s release lists two programs under Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming. *The Masked Singer* on FOX, in the episode titled *Premiere Part 1*, credits Grainne O’Sullivan as costume supervisor, Luke D’Alessandro and Steven Lee as costume designers, and Maro Isakulyan as head of workroom. Assistant costume designers Arleen Flores and Alice Garland are also credited.

*The Traitors* on Peacock, in the episode *The Black Banquet*, a Studio Lambert production, credits Catherine Moran as costume supervisor, Sam Spector as wardrobe designer and Rikki Finlay as stylist.

The juried winners were announced Aug. 12, 2026. Juried ceremonies were scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5 and Sunday, Sept. 6, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE, and the costume award was scheduled for Sept. 5. The Academy says the 78th Emmy Awards will be held over three nights, Sept. 5, 6 and 14.

An edited version of the first two nights, titled *78th Emmy Awards (Creative Arts)*, airs on FXX on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 8:00 p.m. ET and PT, and streams on Hulu the following day. The main 78th Emmy Awards air live on NBC on Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. PT, with Mariska Hargitay as host.

The Competitive Contemporary Costumes Category

Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series lists four nominees alongside its winner. They are *Emily in Paris* on Netflix, with Marylin Fitoussi as costume designer; *Hacks* on HBO Max, with Kathleen Felix-Hager as costume designer; *Only Murders in the Building* on Hulu, with Dana Covarrubias as costume designer; and *Wednesday* on Netflix, with Colleen Atwood and Mark Sutherland credited as costume designers.

The winning episode is titled *Grudge Match*. Its credits include Mirren Gordon-Crozier as costume designer, Tracy Jarvis as assistant costume designer, Brooke Thatawat as costume supervisor, Mallory Bradley as key costumer and Tara White as head of workroom.

Each nominee also lists supervisors and assistants. For example, *Hacks* credits Keely Crum as costume supervisor and Rory Cunningham as head of workroom, and *Wednesday* credits Tom Hornsby as costume supervisor. That makes five titles in total, one winner and four nominees. The category sits in the same 78th Emmys season as the juried costume awards, but it follows the nominee-and-winner format.

Some Emmy costume awards have no nominees at all.

Who Can Join the Costume Peer Group

Active membership in the Costume Design & Supervision peer group can be reached through several routes. Two of them require at least two years in a listed position within the four years before application. The listed positions include costume designer, costume supervisor, assistant costume designer, key costumer, costume set person, head of workroom, head pattern maker, fitter or tailor, and costume illustrator. A head of an independent costume manufacturing facility can qualify if held for at least two years.

The first route needs two years in a listed position and screen credit on at least 15 episodes of nationally exhibited content. A second combines credit on at least 20 episodes with 120 minutes of professional short-form programs averaging 15 minutes or less. Those productions need network-quality values and wide, verifiable distribution, and these cases are reviewed individually.

A third route requires work on at least 20 national commercials. Qualifying commercial roles include costume designer, stylist, assistant designer, and assistants serving as assistant designer or supervisor, and the application must include a deal memo and crew list. A recent Emmy nomination in the peer group within the past four years also qualifies. A qualified body of work relevant to the peer group can waive the other requirements, and that status carries all Active benefits except running for Peer Group Governor.

Theatrically distributed feature films can count for up to 25% of the required credits. Associate membership, for people who do not yet meet the Active requirements, requires at least one year of professional work and at least eight credits of nationally exhibited content.

The requirements were updated March 20, 2026. New applications carry a one-time nonrefundable $50 processing fee, processing takes four to six weeks, and applications are accepted year round.

Rule Changes for the 78th Competition

The Academy announced its rule changes for the 78th Emmys on Jan. 9, 2026. The announcement added Key Costumer as an eligible title in the costume categories for the 78th competition, with no further conditions given in the announcement. Key Costumer also appears among the listed positions on the peer group page.

The same announcement changed rules in other categories. The Television Movie category was renamed Outstanding Movie, the sound mixing category for nonfiction and reality was split into separate Nonfiction and Reality categories, and the director of photography became eligible in certain technical categories under set conditions.

The rules also state that the Academy reserves the right to inquire about AI use in submissions. The announcement says recognition remains centered on human storytelling, regardless of the tools used to bring it to life.

The full 2026 Rules & Procedures book was slated for posting the week of Jan. 19.