The 78th Emmy Awards officially kicked off Saturday night as the Television Academy honored outstanding artistic and technical achievement during Night One of the Creative Arts Emmys at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE.
The first ceremony focused on achievements across variety, reality, and nonfiction programming, including cinematography, costumes, casting, editing, directing, and hosting.
Among the evening’s biggest winners was Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, which led Night One with seven Emmys. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert collected five, while The Muppet Show earned four.
Mariska Hargitay also had a major evening ahead of her upcoming gig hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards. Her HBO documentary My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, while Hargitay herself won Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.
Meanwhile, Peacock’s The Traitors continued its strong Emmy run, including another hosting victory for Alan Cumming. The series also won for cinematography, costumes, production design, editing, and directing.
Here are some of the major Night One winners:
Game Shows
- Outstanding Host for a Game Show — Jimmy Kimmel, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
- Outstanding Game Show — Jeopardy!
Reality
- Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series — The Traitors, “The Black Banquet”
- Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program — Love on the Spectrum
- Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program — The Traitors
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Reality Program — Welcome to Wrexham, “Do a Wrexham”
- Outstanding Picture Editing for an Unstructured Reality Program — Love on the Spectrum, “Episode 4”
- Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program — The Traitors, “The Death Conga”
- Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program — Ben Archard, The Traitors, “Let the Cards Fall as They Will”
- Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program — Alan Cumming, The Traitors
- Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program — Love on the Spectrum
- Outstanding Structured Reality Program — Antiques Roadshow
Documentary & Nonfiction
- Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary/Nonfiction or Reality Program (Original Dramatic Score) — Tyler Strickland, John Candy: I Like Me
- Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program — Doug Anderson and Toby Strong, Ocean With David Attenborough
- Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series — Inside The Pitt
- Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program — The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: Give the Man a Prize
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program — Billy Joel: And So It Goes
- Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program — Ocean With David Attenborough
- Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program — Sean Combs: The Reckoning, “Blink Again”
- Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special — My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay
- Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series — Mr. Scorsese
- Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special — Tucci in Italy
- Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program — Mariska Hargitay, My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay
- Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking — The Librarians
- Outstanding Narrator — Octavia Spencer, Lost Women of Alaska, “The Missing”
Variety
- Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special — The Muppet Show
- Outstanding Music Direction — Miguel Gandelman, The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
- Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming — Charm La’Donna and Karina Ortiz, The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, “Casita Medley / EoO / Nuevayol”
- Outstanding Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program — Saturday Night Live, “Host: Bad Bunny”
- Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special — The Muppet Show
- Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series — The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special — The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
- Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming — Kelly Lyon, ACE, The Muppet Show
- Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming (Segment) — Andrew Matheson and Amanda Sprecher, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
- Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Special — The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
- Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Series — The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
- Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series — The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, series finale
- Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Special — The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
- Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series — Yvonne De Mare, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, series finale
- Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special — Hamish Hamilton, The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
- Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) — The Muppet Show
- Outstanding Variety Special (Live) — The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny
Short Form
- Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series — Colbert Before Air
- Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series — Desi Lydic, The Daily Show: Desi Lydic Foxsplains
Costumes, Hair & Makeup
- Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program — RuPaul’s Drag Race, “Rate-A-Queen Talent Show, Part 2”
- Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming — The Masked Singer, “Premiere Part 1”
- Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming — The Traitors, “The Black Banquet”
This was an area/juried award, so both received Emmys.
Commercial
- Outstanding Commercial — “I’m Not Remarkable” — Apple
- Ad agency: Apple
- Production company: Somesuch
Emerging Media
- Outstanding Emerging Media Program — Uncanny Alley: A New Day
- Outstanding Innovation in Emerging Media Programming — Crafting Crimes
Biggest winners of Night One
- The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny — 7
- The Traitors — 6
- The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — 5
- The Muppet Show — 4
- Love on the Spectrum — 3
- My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay — 2
- Ocean With David Attenborough — 2
Individuals with multiple Emmys
- Stephen T. Colbert — 2
- Mariska Hargitay — 2
- Cian O’Clery — 2
- Albertina Rizzo — 2
Night Two of the Creative Arts Emmys takes place Sunday, September 6, with additional awards honoring scripted programming, including animation, guest performers, television movies, music, and other crafts.
The two Creative Arts ceremonies will be edited into a single broadcast airing Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FXX, with streaming available on Hulu the following day.
The 78th Emmy Awards, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, will air live Monday, September 14 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and stream live and on demand on Peacock.
REEL 360 will update the winners following Night Two.
