Why Do Some Tony Awards Categories Have More Nominees?

Do today's Tony nominations have you wondering about why certain categories have four nominees and others have six? It has a lot to do with the number of people and productions eligible in each category. 

Rules for number of nominees per category:  

Generally, each of the 26 categories are made up of four nominees, but there are some exceptions to that rule:

- If at least nine candidates are eligible for nomination, then that category will have five nominees.

-If there is a two-way or three-way tie for the last nomination slot, both or all three of those candidates shall be nominated. This means that each category could include as many as seven nominees.

- In the four 'Best Show' categories, if there are five or four eligible shows, the Nominating Committee can cast one vote each to select three eligible shows as nominees. A fourth nominee can be added to the category if the difference in votes between the third highest ranked show and the fourth highest ranked show is 10% or less.

-If there are three or fewer eligible shows, the Nominating Committee selects “yes/no” for  for all eligible shows. If the show recieves a majority of “yes” votes it will be nominated. 

How did this affect the 2026 nominations? 

All eight acting categories this year had  nine or more eligible candidates, meaning that each category features at least five nominees. In the category of Best Play and Best Revival of a Play- each had 10/11 eligible shows, therefore they each recieved at least five nominees. The Best Musical race had less than nine eligible candidates (but more than five), leading to four nominees. Best Revival of a Musical had only four eligible candidates, and therefor 3 nominees. 

Check out a more detailed breakdown of Tony Awards rules here and learn more about the nominating process.