"Widow’s Bay" dominated the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, becoming the most-awarded comedy series in a single Emmy year with 14 wins across the Primetime and Creative Arts ceremonies.
The Television Academy confirmed the record haul, with the Apple TV+ series taking six awards during the televised ceremony after collecting eight at the Creative Arts Emmys.
Apple TV’s "Widow’s Bay" stormed the Emmys with six wins at the 78th Emmys, 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 Emmys 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.
"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 at last Sunday, 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 a 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.
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.
Murai became the first Asian director 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 award, the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, chosen by the Academy's board of governors, was given to Michael J. Fox.
Established in 2002, it 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 honour.
Fox had previously won five Primetime Emmy awards (three of them consecutively for NBC’s "Family Ties") and has received 19 Primetime Emmy nominations — including one for this year as an Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series on Apple TV’s "Shrinking".
The ceremony also featured a moving tribute to the late, great Dolly Parton by Reba McEntire, who performed the song "Appalachian Memories,” which was written by Parton.
The In Memoriam tribute featured a performance of Simon and Garfunkel’s “A 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".
Jean Smart also won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Hacks, extending her extraordinary run in the category.
DTF St. Louis won Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, with Sally Field taking the lead actress award for Remarkably Bright Creatures.
Elsewhere, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" won Outstanding Variety Series.
The ceremony was hosted by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay.
Hargitay is also the daughter of Jayne Mansfield, the famous 1950s Hollywood actress and sex symbol. She was only three when Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.
The Television Academy's official winners list can be found here.