Widow’s Bay, Bad Bunny, and The Muppets win big at this weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys
This weekend, over the course of a two day long ceremony, the television academy announced the winners of the 78th Annual Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. Overall it was a huge night for Apple with the streaming giant leading the pack with 20 wins with new shows like Widow’s Bay and Pluribus having huge first seasons.
This year multiple industry favorites were finally celebrated with their first Emmys after years (some decades) of beloved work in television. Betty Gilpin is now officially an Emmy winner after winning the award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her appearance on Widow’s Bay. Linda Cardellini and David Harbour are finally winners both for their supporting work on HBO’s DTF St. Louis.
Some of the big winners also included multiple recently cancelled shows. Back in March Apple cancelled Palm Royale after its second season. That didn’t seem to phase Emmy voters who eventually nominated the period comedy for eight Emmys and awarding it three prizes over the weekend. Meanwhile Amazon quietly cancelled Spider-Noir Friday afternoon in major blow to the creative team heading into the weekend’s ceremony. It probably came as a shock to them when they ultimately won five Emmys this weekend, more than many of the biggest contenders of the year. Is there a world where these wins influence Amazon execs to reverse course and give the show a second season?
This was also a huge weekend for me with two of my personal favorite things raking in Emmys, Bad Bunny and The Muppets. The Sabrina Carpenter Muppet special took home five Emmys beating out other celebrity driven specials like Taylor Swift and Wicked. Meanwhile Bad Bunny’s watercooler halftime show that took the country by storm won seven Emmys.
A full list of this year’s winners can be found here alongside our predictions
Tallying the Winners
Widow’s Bay – 8
The Apple Music Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – 7
DTF St. Louis – 6
The Traitors – 6
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – 5
The Pitt – 5 (including a behind the scenes short form category win)
Spider-Noir – 5
The Muppet Show – 4
Pluribus – 4
Beef – 3
Love on the Spectrum – 3
Margot’s Got Money Trouble – 3
Palm Royale – 3
Bridgerton – 2
Fallout – 2
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal – 2
My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay – 2
Ocean with David Attenborough – 2
The Pitt and Pluribus both have strong nights
After pulling off a major upset last year HBO’s The Pitt continues to be a huge favorite of the television academy. The sophomore season won five Emmys over the weekend for guest actor (Ernerst Harden Jr.), casting, short form series, prosthetic makeup, and original music and lyrics. Compared to last year this is a huge improvement where the first season only ended up with two creative arts wins for guest actor and casting.
With its expanding success at the creative arts and its broad appeal amongst audiences The Pitt is poised to win the top prize for the second year in a row. however it is worth noting where the show lost when it seemed like a sure bet. Brittany Allen lost the guest actress race for her heart wrenching portrayal of a mother in her final moments.
Right behind The Pitt was Pluribus taking home four awards for production design, main title theme music, picture editing, and sound mixing. This is a great showing for the newest Vince Gilligan / Rhea Seehorn collaboration after Better Call Saul famously never won an Emmy. The excitment for the freshman sci-fi drama is potent and if voters are looking to award something new in the drama races it will be here with Rhea Seehorn poised to win next weekend and the show’s writing and direction in strong contention.
A close race between Hacks and Widow’s Bay
When nominations were announced earlier this summer the final season of Hacks solidified its frontrunner status with a record breaking 24 nominations. This weekend the HBO comedy had an underwhelming showing and nearly went home empty handed besides its first ever win for picture editing.
Meanwhile Widow’s Bay had a huge night, taking home eight Emmys and becoming the most awarded series of the weekend. Not only did Betty Gilpin win her first Emmy of her career but the series also received recognition for casting, production design, cinematography, music composition, music supervision, sound mixing, and sound editing. Ultimately it only lost two categories; guest actor where Hamish Linklater lost to the late Rob Reiner and picture editing where it likely split the vote with three nominations.
Its unclear what all of this means heading into next weekend. It feels like all of the momentum has switched over to Widow’s Bay with broad support across most branches. Over the past 20 years the television academy has also preferred to award new shows over finales with the final seasons of Schitt’s Creek and Fleabag being the only exceptions. Still those felt brand new to the Emmy conversation after being ignored for their earlier runs. Still, its unclear how much stock we can put into the creative arts races. Hacks has never had a particularly strong showing in these categories. In fact, the year it won the top prize it actually left the creative arts ceremony empty handed.
DTF St. Louis solidifies its frontrunner status
This year the television academy opted to move most of the limited series categories to the creative arts ceremony. The result was a huge night for HBO’s DTF St. Louis with the limited series sweeping the big categories, including first-time wins for David Harbour and Linda Cardellini, and taking home six Emmys overall.
Heading into the weekend one of the big questions was whether DTF St. Louis or Beef would come out ahead as the frontrunner. We firmly have a frontrunner in DTF St Louis however Beef also took home a couple of Emmys including costumes, sound editing, and sound mixing. Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac both have the opportunity to win the two lead acting prizes at next weekend’s main ceremony.
