Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Show Wins 7 Emmys as ‘Widow’s Bay’ Leads Creative Arts Winners -Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show collected seven Emmys during the first two nights of the 78th Emmy Awards, while Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay finished the weekend as the most-awarded program with eight.
The Creative Arts ceremonies took place Sept. 5 and 6 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with 102 categories decided across television crafts, variety, reality, nonfiction, animation and several acting, writing and directing races.
Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter each received their first Emmy, while Betty Gilpin won for the first time after three previous nominations. Rob Reiner received a posthumous guest-acting award for The Bear, and Shailene Woodley and Ernest Harden Jr. also became first-time Emmy winners.
Outstanding comedy, drama and limited or anthology series, along with many of the major acting categories and Outstanding Variety Series, will be decided during the Sept. 14 ceremony on NBC and Peacock.
Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show Won Seven of Its Record Nine Nominations
The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny entered Emmy weekend with nine nominations, the most ever for a Super Bowl halftime show. It converted seven of them into wins.
Its biggest victory came in Outstanding Variety Special (Live), giving Bad Bunny his first Emmy as a producer and performer. Jay-Z, credited under his legal name Shawn Carter as an executive producer, also received the award, bringing his career Emmy total to three.
The production additionally won for directing, music direction, choreography, sound mixing, lighting design and technical direction and camerawork. Hamish Hamilton received the directing Emmy, Miguel Gandelman won for music direction, and Charm La’Donna and Karina Ortiz were honored for choreography.
The two categories the show did not win were production design and hairstyling. The Muppet Show took Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special, while RuPaul’s Drag Race won Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program.
The Feb. 8 halftime show took place at Levi’s Stadium during Super Bowl LX and featured appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. Bad Bunny performed primarily in Spanish while building much of the production around Puerto Rican music, visual references and culture.
‘Widow’s Bay’ Finished the Weekend With Eight Emmys
Apple TV’s horror-comedy Widow’s Bay overtook the halftime show on night two and finished with eight awards, the highest total for any program across the first 102 categories of the 2026 Emmys.
Betty Gilpin supplied one of its highest-profile wins, taking Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Sarah Westcott Warren in the flashback episode “Our History.” The victory was Gilpin’s first Emmy after three previous supporting-actress nominations for GLOW.
The other seven awards came for comedy-series casting, half-hour production design, half-hour cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, music supervision and original dramatic score. Those wins gave Widow’s Bay a broad craft sweep without the costume, hairstyling, makeup or visual-effects victories originally attributed to it.
The series still has major opportunities ahead, including its nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Sept. 14 ceremony. DTF St. Louis finished the Creative Arts weekend with six wins, while the canceled Spider-Noir collected five. The Pitt and Pluribus each earned four.
Rob Reiner Received a Standing Ovation for ‘The Bear’
Reiner won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Albert Schnurr in the fourth season of The Bear. He died in December 2025, making the award posthumous.
Presenters Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier accepted on his behalf as the audience rose for a standing ovation. The win was Reiner’s third Emmy, following two acting victories for his performance as Michael “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family in 1974 and 1978.
Sunday also produced several other first-time acting winners. Shailene Woodley won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Paradise, while Ernest Harden Jr. took Guest Actor in a Drama for The Pitt.
Julie Andrews repeated in Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for narrating Bridgerton as Lady Whistledown, giving her a second consecutive victory in that category.
Sabrina Carpenter Added an Emmy to Her Grammys
Sabrina Carpenter is officially halfway to EGOT status after winning an Emmy for her participation in “The Muppets Show”. pic.twitter.com/re46P4bGdV
— SabrinaUpdates (@charts_sabrina) September 6, 2026
Carpenter received her first Emmy as an executive producer and performer on The Muppet Show, which won Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). The Disney+ production beat a field that included Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour, The Final Show and Wicked: One Wonderful Night.
The Muppet Show earned four Emmys altogether: pre-recorded variety special, production design, writing and picture editing. Carpenter already has two Grammys, for “Espresso” and Short n’ Sweet, meaning she now has victories in two of the four EGOT award families. An Oscar and Tony would still be required to complete the set.
The Traitors also finished night one with six awards, including Alan Cumming’s third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program. Jimmy Kimmel repeated as Outstanding Host for a Game Show for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, while Jeopardy! won Outstanding Game Show. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert collected five Creative Arts awards in its final season, including writing and directing.
Mariska Hargitay Won Twice Before Hosting the Main Emmys
Hargitay will arrive at the main ceremony having already added two Emmys to her career total. My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay, her HBO documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Hargitay also personally won Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program. The two victories came 20 years after her 2006 acting Emmy for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
She returns to the Peacock Theater as host of the 78th Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 14. NBC will carry the ceremony live coast-to-coast beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, with Peacock streaming it live and on demand.
An edited presentation combining both Creative Arts nights will air Sept. 12 on FXX at 8 p.m. ET/PT and become available on Hulu the following day. The Television Academy’s official database contains the individual recipients credited for each award.