By John Corrado
The winners of the 18th Dorian TV Awards, presented by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (of which I am one of the group’s 580 members), have just been announced. I’m pleased to say that the big winner this year is Canada’s own queer hockey Heated Rivalry, which won the awards for both Best TV Drama and Best LGBTQ TV Show, respectively. The series Hacks took home the award for Best TV Comedy.
The full press release and list of winners is below.
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Los Angeles—Aug. 15—GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, one of the largest entertainment journalists’ groups in the world, announced the winners of its 18th Dorian TV Awards, again recognizing the best in television and streaming from mainstream to queer-themed programming.
GALECA’s members named Heated Rivalry, the steamy hockey romance that became a cultural sensation out of the gate this year, both Best TV Drama and Best LGBTQ TV Show. François Arnaud, enjoying a breakout turn as a closeted veteran hockey player who comes out on the ice, won Best Supporting TV Performance—Drama, while show creator Jacob Tierney was named this year’s GALECA LGBTQIA+ Trailblazer for “creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity.”
The showbiz satire Hacks, a longtime favorite with GALECA voters, was named Best TV Comedy and Best Written TV Show, while star Jean Smart won Best TV Performance – Comedy (her third consecutive win here) for Hacks’ fifth and final season.
GALECA Vice President Gerrick Kennedy, who served as this year’s TV awards chair, says, “What excites me most about this year’s Dorian winners is the range—the swooning devotion of Heated Rivalry, the tender complexity of The Boyfriend, the bravery that cuts through Half Man, and the community memory being kept alive in Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery. To think, queer stories once needed to squeeze into a narrow lens to get made.”
He added” “There is always room for progress, but this year’s winners prove our community’s stories are as varied and worth telling as any other.”
Apple TV+ had a breakout year at the Dorians with two bold new series. The post-apocalyptic dark comedy Pluribus earned star Rhea Seehorn the Dorian for Best TV Performance—Drama. Pluribus also took home the award for the Most Visually Striking TV Show alongside FX’s Alien: Earth . The horror-comedy Widow’s Bay was named Best Genre TV Show with Kate O’Flynn taking the award for Best Supporting TV Performance – Comedy.
Puerto Rican superstar rapper Bad Bunny and his pava-sporting backup dancers at the historic Super Bowl LX Halftime Show were awarded Best TV Musical Performance, besting a field that included Sabrina Carpenter duetting with the Muppets and Audra McDonald’s belting it out viral-style on the Tony Awards.
For a third consecutive year, Alan Cumming’s cheeky competition series The Traitors took home Best Reality Show, and Netflix’s frothy lesboerotic soap The Hunting Wives was named Campiest TV Show.
Other honorees included Richard Gadd’s Half Man (Best TV Movie or Miniseries), Netflix’s gay-Marine dramedy Boots (Best Unsung TV Show), Squid Game (Best Non-English Language TV Show), and the Japanese reality hit The Boyfriend (Best LGBTQ Non-English Language TV Show).
A year of mocking JD Vance and Donald Trump earned South Park Best Animated Show honors, while The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, booted off the air after a political showdown, garnered Best Current Affairs Program. Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery took Best LGBTQ TV Documentary or Documentary Series.
In special career honors, Hacks star Hannah Einbinder earned GALECA’s Wilde Wit Award. And, after three seasons and 21 years, Lisa Kudrow was named a GALECA TV Icon for her performance in the final season of The Comeback.
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and its Dorian Awards honor the best in film, television, and theater. With over 580 members, GALECA reminds the world that the informed LGBTQ perspective on all things entertainment matters. A nonprofit organization, GALECA also advocates for better pay, access, and respect for entertainment journalists (especially those most underrepresented) and provides scholarships for LGBTQ college students and recent grads through its Crimson Honors journalism program.
For more information, follow @DorianAwards on social media and visit GALECA.org.
2026 DORIAN TV AWARD WINNERS—FULL LIST
BEST TV DRAMA
Heated Rivalry (HBO Max) ⭐
Industry (HBO Max)
The Gilded Age (HBO Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV)
The Pitt (HBO Max)
BEST TV COMEDY
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
The Comeback (HBO Max)
Hacks (HBO Max) ⭐
Shrinking (Apple TV)
Widow’s Bay (Apple TV)
BEST LGBTQ TV SHOW
The Comeback (HBO Max)
Hacks (HBO Max)
Half Man (HBO Max)
Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV)
BEST TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
All Her Fault (Peacock)
Beef (Netflix)
DTF St. Louis (HBO Max)
Half Man (HBO Max) ⭐
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette (FX/Hulu)
BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE TV SHOW
Blossoms of Shanghai (Criterion Channel)
Dan Da Dan (Netflix)
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Crunchyroll)
Mussolini: Son of the Century (Mubi)
Squid Game (Netflix) ⭐
The Summer Hikaru Died (Netflix)
BEST LGBTQ NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE TV SHOW
The Boyfriend (Netflix) ⭐
Chosen Home (Netflix)
Go for It, Nakamura-kun! (Crunchyroll)
The Summer Hikaru Died (Netflix)
Tremembé (Amazon MGM)
BEST WRITTEN TV SHOW
The Comeback (HBO Max)
Hacks (HBO Max) ⭐
Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV)
The Pitt (HBO Max)
BEST TV PERFORMANCE — DRAMA
Marisa Abela, Industry (HBO Max)
Jamie Bell, Half Man (HBO Max)
Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age (HBO Max)
Myha’la Herrold, Industry (HBO Max)
Mark Ruffalo, Task (HBO Max)
Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus (Apple TV) ⭐
Connor Storrie, Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
Hudson Williams, Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
Noah Wyle, The Pitt (HBO Max)
Zendaya, Euphoria (HBO Max)
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE — DRAMA
François Arnaud, Heated Rivalry (HBO Max) ⭐
Patrick Ball, The Pitt (HBO Max)
Isa Briones, The Pitt (HBO Max)
Richard Gadd, Half Man (HBO Max)
Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt (HBO Max)
Ken Leung, Industry (HBO Max)
Charles Melton, Beef (Netflix)
Sepideh Moafi, The Pitt (HBO Max)
Colman Domingo, Euphoria (HBO Max)
Karolina Wydra, Pluribus (Apple TV)
BEST TV PERFORMANCE — COMEDY
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Wonder Man (Disney+)
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear (FX/Hulu)
Elle Fanning, Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)
Ethan Hawke, The Lowdown (FX/Hulu)
Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback (HBO Max)
Dan Levy, Big Mistakes (Netflix)
Matthew Rhys, Widow’s Bay (Apple TV)
Tim Robinson, The Chair Company (HBO Max)
Jean Smart, Hacks (HBO Max) ⭐
BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE — COMEDY
Leslie Bibb, Hacks (HBO Max)
Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons (Netflix)
Paul W. Downs, Hacks (HBO Max)
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks (HBO Max)
Harrison Ford, Shrinking (Apple TV)
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Kate O’Flynn, Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) ⭐
Ashley Padilla, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Michelle Pfeiffer, Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)
Meg Stalter, Hacks (HBO Max)
BEST TV MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Audra McDonald, “Rose’s Turn,” The 78th Tony Awards
Bad Bunny, The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show ⭐
Miles Caton, Raphael Saadiq, Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith, “I Lied to You,” The 98th Academy Awards
Sabrina Carpenter and The Muppets, “Manchild,” The Muppet Show
Sabrina Carpenter, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, “Islands in the Stream,” The Muppet Show
BEST UNSUNG TV SHOW
Boots (Netflix) ⭐
English Teacher (FX/Hulu)
The Four Seasons (Netflix)
From (MGM+)
Murderbot (Apple TV)
BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS SHOW
The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
Hot Ones (YouTube)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO Max)
Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC)
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS) ⭐
BEST TV DOCUMENTARY OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Kylie (Netflix)
Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV) ⭐
Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television (HBO Max)
Selena y Los Dinos (Netflix)
The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max)
BEST LGBTQ TV DOCUMENTARY OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Club Cumming (WOW Presents Plus)
Enigma (HBO Max)
It’s Dorothy! (Peacock)
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (Hulu) ⭐
Murder in Glitterball City (HBO Max)
BEST GENRE TV SHOW
Alien: Earth (FX/Hulu)
The Boys (Amazon Prime Video)
It: Welcome to Derry (Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV)
Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) ⭐
BEST REALITY SHOW
The Boyfriend (Netflix)
Love on the Spectrum (Netflix)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV/Paramount+)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Traitors (Peacock) ⭐
BEST ANIMATED SHOW
Bob’s Burgers (Fox)
Invincible (Amazon Prime Video)
Hazbin Hotel (Amazon Prime Video)
Long Story Short (Netflix)
South Park (Paramount+) ⭐
MOST VISUALLY STRIKING TV SHOW
Alien: Earth (FX/Hulu) (tie) ⭐
Euphoria (HBO Max)
The Gilded Age (HBO Max)
Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV) (tie) ⭐
CAMPIEST TV SHOW
All’s Fair (Hulu)
The Comeback (HBO Max)
The Hunting Wives (Netflix) ⭐
Palm Royale (Apple TV)
The Traitors (Peacock)
WILDE WIT AWARD
Hannah Einbinder ⭐
Stephen Colbert
Cole Escola
Alan Cumming
Richard Gadd
GALECA TV ICON AWARD
Lisa Kudrow ⭐
GALECA LGBTQIA+ TV TRAILBLAZER
Jacob Tierney ⭐
The Joy of Movies 