The Sunday edition of the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys was a golden night for a golden milestone, as NBC’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special led all winners with seven awards.
Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live — the ongoing series — took three awards of its own, and an additional award went to SNL50: The Anniversary Special: Immersive Experience.
In all, SNL-related projects scored 11 Emmys during the ceremony at the Peacock Theater at LA LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, which was devoted primarily to crafts in reality, unscripted and documentary programming. The Saturday ceremony honored scripted programming and included several performance categories.
A three-hour celebration of the iconic sketch-comedy program’s half-century on NBC, with appearances by dozens of former cast members, guest hosts and musical artists, SNL50: The Anniversary Special prevailed in the categories of writing for a variety special; directing for a variety special, which went to Liz Patrick; makeup for a variety, nonfiction or reality program; hairstyling for a variety, nonfiction or reality program; picture editing for variety programming (segment); technical direction and camerawork for a special; and sound mixing for a variety series or special.
Saturday Night Live captured Emmys for production design for a variety or reality series; lighting design/lighting direction for a series; and technical direction and camerawork for a series. SNL50: The Anniversary Special: Immersive Experience won the Emmy for emerging media programming.
The Peacock reality competition series The Traitors was the second-winningest program on Sunday, with four Emmys. The HBO/Max documentary series Pee-wee as Himself won three, tying Saturday Night Live for third-most.
The Traitors’ four wins included a repeat for Alan Cumming as outstanding host for a reality or reality competition program. It also won in the category of directing for a reality program, which went to Ben Archard, as well as picture editing for a structured reality or competition program and outstanding cinematography for a reality program. The show will vie for outstanding reality competition program at the 77th Emmys telecast next Sunday, September 14.
Pee-wee as Himself, a two-part documentary about the late writer-performer Paul Reubens, best known for creating the popular man-child character Pee-wee Herman, took the Emmys for documentary or nonfiction special; directing for a documentary/nonfiction program, which went to Matt Wolf; and picture editing for a nonfiction program.
It was also a good night for Conan O'Brien, whose HBO/Max program Conan O’Brien Must Go was named outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special. In addition, he was the focal point of Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For American Humor, streaming on Netflix, which took the Emmy for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded).
Former U.S. President Barack Obama won his third Emmy for outstanding narrator, this time for the Netflix docuseries Our Oceans.
In addition to the Emmys voted on by the Television Academy membership, the ceremony included a special honor, the Governors Award, selected by the Academy's Board of Governors. The prestigious award was given to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in recognition of its more than five decades of service in enriching America’s media landscape through funding and support for educational, cultural and public-interest programming.
A partial list of other awards:
• Outstanding short form comedy, drama or variety series — The Daily Show: Desi Lydic Foxsplains, Comedy Central
• Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series — Adolescence: The Making of Adolescence, Netflix
• Outstanding structured reality program — Queer Eye, Netflix
• Outstanding unstructured reality program — Love on the Spectrum, Netflix
• Outstanding documentary or nonfiction series — 100 Foot Wave, HBO/Max
• Exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking — Patrice: The Movie, Hulu
• Outstanding casting for a reality program — Love on the Spectrum, Netflix
• Outstanding writing for a nonfiction program — The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation, Comedy Central
• Outstanding directing for a variety series — Jim Hoskinson, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS
• Outstanding game show — Jeopardy!, ABC/Syndicated
• Outstanding host for a game show — Jimmy Kimmel, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, ABC
• Outstanding commercial — "Brian Cox Goes to College," Uber One for Students
• Outstanding choreography for variety or reality programming — Robbie Blue, The 67th Annual Grammy Awards, CBS
• Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming — Beyoncé Bowl, Netflix
• Outstanding music direction — Kendrick Lamar and Tony Russell, The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar, Fox
• Outstanding music composition for a documentary series or special (original dramatic score) — David Bertok and Duncan Thum, Chef’s Table, Netflix
Bob Bain was executive producer of the Creative Arts Emmys for the 11th time. The Television Academy's Creative Arts Emmy Awards Committee is led by cochairs Yvette Cobarrubias and Lee Hollin, and vice chair Vito Trotta.
FXX will broadcast edited highlights from the Saturday and Sunday Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday, September 13, at 8:00 PM ET/PT. It will be available for streaming on Hulu the following day.
The 77th Emmys telecast will air live at 5:00 pm PT / 8:00 pm ET, on Sunday, September 14, on CBS and Paramount+.
A complete list of Sunday night winners is available here.
