Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette walked away with only one award at the 2026 Emmys.
The FX show won Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Courtney Bright, Nicole Daniels and Jennifer Brooks) during the 78th annual Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 6.
However, Love Story lost the other five categories it was nominated in, two of which were presented during the main Emmys ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 14: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Sarah Pidgeon); Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Constance Zimmer); Outstanding Period Costumes (Rudy Mance, Natalie Turturro Mettouchi, Brittany Griffin, Moria Sine Clinton and Liz Samuels); and Outstanding Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup, Non-Prosthetic (Milagros Medina-Cerdeira, Blair Aycock, D’angelo Thompson and Jill Karol).
The nine-episode series starred Paul Anthony Kelly and Pidgeon, 30, as John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, respectively. (Zimmer, 55, played Bessette’s mother, Ann Messina Freeman.)
Love Story, which aired from February to March, chronicled the real-life couple’s whirlwind romance and untimely deaths in a 1999 plane crash.
Pidgeon received her first Emmy nomination for her portrayal of the fashion icon, but the Television Academy did not nominate Kelly, 37, for his turn as the businessman son of late President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. (Love Story marked Kelly’s professional acting debut.)
“Of course, I was hoping that everyone — especially Paul — would be recognized,” Pidgeon told Variety in July of her costar’s snub. “Something I learned is that film, TV and theater, all of it really takes a village. It’s not a solo show; it’s not a solo performance. It all makes sense in some of its parts, and working with Paul Anthony Kelly was such a dream every single day — from the moment he walked into the audition room, and then every single day through a six-month long shoot, seeing his evolution of John. To see the ease that he had on set and this transformation that he was able to take on, it was something I admire so much. Hats off to Paul.”
She added, “I would love to work with him and everyone on the show 10 times over, and I’m so excited to see all of the future recognition that everyone gets.”
