It was a golden night for a golden milestone. NBC’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special dominated the second evening of the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys, winning seven awards and helping propel the Saturday Night Live universe to an impressive 11 Emmys overall.
The three-hour celebration, packed with returning cast, hosts, and musical alumni, triumphed across craft and production categories. At the same time, the weekly series Saturday Night Live added three more statuettes of its own. An additional trophy went to SNL50: The Anniversary Special: Immersive Experience, underscoring how the franchise continues to reinvent itself across platforms.
The ceremony, held at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live, spotlighted excellence in reality, nonfiction and variety. (Saturday night’s Creative Arts ceremony honored scripted programming and several performance races.)
SNL’s Haul
SNL50: The Anniversary Special (7 wins):
• Writing for a Variety Special
• Directing for a Variety Special (Liz Patrick)
• Makeup for a Variety/Nonfiction/Reality Program
• Hairstyling for a Variety/Nonfiction/Reality Program
• Picture Editing for Variety Programming (Segment)
• Technical Direction & Camerawork for a Special
• Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special
Saturday Night Live (3 wins):
• Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series
• Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Series
• Technical Direction & Camerawork for a Series
SNL50: The Anniversary Special — Immersive Experience (1 win):
• Emerging Media Program
The Traitors trails only SNL
Peacock’s hit competition series The Traitors finished second on the night with four Emmys, cementing its status as reality’s current juggernaut:
• Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program (Alan Cumming)
• Directing for a Reality Program (Ben Archard, “Let Battle Commence”)
• Cinematography for a Reality Program (series body of work)
• Picture Editing (Structured Reality or Competition) (“Let Battle Commence”)
Other Standout Moments
Documentary and nonfiction winners showcased scope and craft: 100 Foot Wave rode off with Documentary/Nonfiction Series and Nonfiction Cinematography honors, while Pee-wee As Himself claimed Documentary/Nonfiction Special and Picture Editing.
In narration, Barack Obama won for Our Oceans. Variety production categories spread the love with The Oscars (Production Design — Special), Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show — Starring Kendrick Lamar (Music Direction), and Cunk on Life (Picture Editing for Variety Programming).
Game show royalty Jeopardy! captured Outstanding Game Show, and “Brian Cox Goes to College — Uber One for Students” took Outstanding Commercial.
The 77th Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, September 14 on CBS and stream simultaneously on Paramount+. Comedian Nate Bargatze is set to host the ceremony, produced for the third consecutive year by Jesse Collins Entertainment.
REELated:
Nonfiction, Reality and Variety rule Creative Arts Emmys Night 2
