The Emmys 2026 are being broadcast live right now from the Peacock Theater in Downtown, Los Angeles, California. Hosted by Mariska Hargitay, the ceremony began at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT and is awarding the best television performances from June 1, 2025, until May 31, 2026.Jean Smart has just made history by winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the fifth time for her performance in Hacks at the Emmys 2026.Jean Smart's Emmys 2026 win is a historical oneJean Smart was nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category at the Emmys 2026 for playing Deborah Vance in Hacks. Her fellow nominees were Elle Fanning (Margo's Got Money Troubles), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), and Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback).Smart has made history by becoming the first actress to win an Emmy for every season of a multi-season show. She won in the category for every season that Hacks was eligible for at the Emmys and thus won in 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, and now 2026. Quinta Brunson bagged the award in 2023 for Abbott Elementary.Smart won the award for her last season of Hacks, which completed its run after 5 seasons and 6 years. In the final season, Smart's character, Deborah Vance, went through a lot. She reinvented her career yet again and decided to live instead of going with assisted suicide when her cancer resurfaced.We saw her quit her late-night talk show to regain her creative freedom as she fought a restrictive noncompete clause from the network. As Deborah has always overcome her obstacles, she also overcame a sabotage attempt by Bob Lipka regarding a Madison Square Garden booking. She did that by staging a massive, record-breaking stand-up set in Central Park instead. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostDeborah also discovered that her previous cancerous mass has returned and spread. She rejected chemotherapy and decided to travel to Paris for assisted suicide so she can pass away on her own terms. However, at the end, after sharing a joke about death with Ava in Paris, Deborah's deep love for writing comedy reignited.She then returned to Los Angeles, started her cancer treatment, and started writing her next special with Ava. Deborah thus did go out with a bang, and so has Jean Smart.After winning at the Emmys 2026, Smart, in her thank you speech, said:"I have so many people to thank, of course Universal and HBO and my reps who are the best in the business and my children who are my anchor, Forest and Connor. But this one I'm dedicating to Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs. It all begins and ends with them. I love you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. What a ride this has been."Jean Smart has now joined the list of actors who have won the most number of Emmys; that number happens to be eight. She is now tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cloris Leachman, and Allison Janney. Janney has just won her 8th Emmy at the Emmys 2026 for playing Grace Hagen Penn in The Diplomat.Emmys 2026 is produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. Executive producers of the ceremony are Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay.You can watch the live telecast of the ceremony on NBC or on Peacock.For more articles like this, follow Soapcentral.