Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay stormed the Emmys with six wins at the 78th Emmys telecast, the most for a single program on the night, including Outstanding Comedy Series. HBO Max’s The Pitt and another Apple TV series, Pluribus, were tied for second-most Emmy wins with two each, with the former winning Outstanding Drama Series.
Peacock’s The Traitors won its third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Series. CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won its second consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series.
See photos and videos from the 78th Emmy Awards.
Widow’s Bay, the comedy-horror hybrid about a haunted New England island community, made history. It broke the record set last year by Apple TV’s The Studio, which had 13 Emmys, by winning 14 — six tonight and eight last Sunday, at night two of this year's three Emmy ceremonies. In addition to Outstanding Comedy Series, its wins included Matthew Rhys for lead actor, Kate O’Flynn for supporting actress, Stephen Root for supporting actor, Katie Dippold for writing and Hiro Murai for directing.
The Pitt, season two of which followed a sweltering summer day in the titular Pittsburgh emergency room, saw repeat victories in two categories. It became the first series since AMC’s Mad Men to win Outstanding Drama Series for its first two seasons. Noah Wyle became the first actor to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for its first two seasons since Bryan Cranston for AMC’s Breaking Bad in 2009.
In addition to repeat victories, there were many first-time Emmy winners in multiple categories. They included Dippold, O’Flynn and Root for Widow’s Bay, Rhea Seehorn as lead actress in a drama for Pluribus and Tom Pelphrey as supporting actor in a drama for HBO Max’s Task. Vince Gilligan scored his first individual writing Emmy win for Pluribus — all his previous Emmy wins were achieved as a producer for Breaking Bad.
Rhys made Emmy history by becoming the first person to win two Emmys for leading performances in the same year, in the category of Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (Widow’s Bay) and Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series, Movie (Netflix’s The Beast In Me). Combined with his win for FX’s The Americans in 2018, he is now the first person to win Emmys for lead performances in the categories of Outstanding Leading Actor in a Drama Series, Comedy Series and Limited Series or Movie.
Two performers tied a historic Emmy record of eight acting Emmys, joining Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for most Emmy wins by a performer. They were Allison Janney, who won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama for her performance in Netflix’s The Diplomat, and Jean Smart, who won a fifth Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for her performance in HBO Max’s Hacks. Smart also became the first performer to win an Emmy for every season of a series. It was also her third consecutive win in that category, which had not been seen since Louis-Dreyfus’s dominant run in the early to mid 2010s for HBO Max’s Veep.
Sally Field became the oldest winner in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, for Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures. Field, who will turn 80 in November, is a few months older than Jessica Tandy was when she won in 1988 for her performance in CBS’s Firefox.
Root, who is 74, also became the oldest winner in the history of his category, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The previous holder of that record was Henry Winkler, who was 72 when he won in 2018 for HBO Max’s Barry — which, fittingly, co-starred Root.
HBO Max’s DTF St. Louis won its single Emmy of the night in the category of Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Murai became the first Asian to win for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for his work on Widow’s Bay.
In addition to the Emmys voted on by the Television Academy membership, a special tribute, the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, chosen by the Academy's board of governors, was given to Michael J. Fox. Established in 2002, the award is given to “an individual(s) in the media industry whose deeds and actions have a lasting impact on communities and whose philanthropic efforts exemplify Bob Hope’s decades-long altruism and positive impact on society.”
Fox received the award for his leadership in support of Parkinson’s Disease research through The Michael J. Fox Foundation, whose advocacy and fundraising have contributed to scientific breakthroughs in the search for a cure for this disorder of the nervous system. Fox’s former co-star on CBS’s The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, presented him with the honor.
Fox had previously won five Emmys (three of them consecutively for his work on NBC’s Family Ties) and has received 19 Primetime Emmy nominations — including one this year for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series on the Apple TV comedy Shrinking.
The ceremony also featured a moving salute to the late, great Dolly Parton by Reba McEntire, who performed the song "Appalachian Memories,” which was written by Parton.
The In Memoriam tribute began with emotional recollections of performer Catherine O’Hara from Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy and Dan Levy. This was followed by a performance of the Simon and Garfunkel ballad “Bridge over Troubled Water” by Noah Kahan, culminating with a heartfelt remembrance of director James Burrows and writer-producer-director-performer Rob Reiner by Jamie Lee Curtis. Reiner received a posthumous Emmy last Sunday for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for FX’s The Bear.
The event was hosted by Mariska Hargitay, who was the first female Emmy host in 15 years. Hargitay, a three-time Emmy winner, won her first, for lead actress in a drama, in 2006 for NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She won two more last Saturday, at the first of this year's three Emmy shows, as director and a producer of the HBO Max documentary My Mom Jayne.
The 78th Emmy Awards telecast was broadcast live on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater at LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles.
The Academy's Primetime Awards Committee was led by chair Jacob Fenton and co-vice chairs Mary Lou Belli and Sean Presant.
The executive producers of the 78th Emmy Awards — returning for a fourth time — were Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay of Jesse Collins Entertainment.
Download the complete list of winners as a PDF or Word document.
