The Emmys reward the best of American television across a full year, honoring the writing, directing, and acting that end up on screen, along with the dozens of technical crafts that get a season made, everything from costume design to sound editing to visual effects. Since there’s so much ground to cover, the Television Academy hands out the first batch of awards during the Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies, which were held this year on September 5th and September 6th. The biggest Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast follows afterward, with categories like Best Drama Series and Best Comedy Series, which will be awarded on September 14th. Still, while we’re only halfway there, the Creative Arts weekend has already distributed dozens of Emmys.
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Medical drama The Pitt led the Emmys this year with 25 nominations, winning four over the Creative Arts weekend. Meanwhile, HBO Max’s limited series DTF St. Louis collected six trophies, sweeping the directing and writing prizes for creator Steven Conrad and handing both David Harbour and Linda Cardellini their first Emmys in the supporting-acting categories. Peacock’s The Traitors matched DTF St. Louis‘ total with six wins across the reality categories, and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show won more than any other program on the first night alone, with seven. When it comes to geeky TV series, genre shows had just as strong a weekend, with superhero productions, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and animation getting their fair share of awards.
Spider-Noir
Prime Video and MGM+ canceled Spider-Noir just days before the Creative Arts ceremonies, cutting short Nicolas Cage’s first regular television role after the series debuted in May. The cancellation made the show’s Emmy haul an unusually bittersweet victory lap, with the crew accepting trophies for a series that will never get a second season. Based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man Noir, which Cage already voiced in the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie, the show follows Ben Reilly as a grief-stricken private investigator in a Depression-era New York. By the time the show unfolds, Ben has walked away from his old identity as the city’s masked vigilante, the Spider, only to get pulled back into the mask when people with strange new powers start to appear in the city. Spider-Noir got a total of 11 Emmy nominations, taking five prizes home.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Cinematography For a Series (One Hour)
- Outstanding Title Design
- Outstanding Sound Editing For a Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects In a Single Episode
- Outstanding Stunt Coordination For Comedy Programming
All 11 of Spider-Noir‘s nominations were already decided at Creative Arts, and no other award can be won on September 14th.
Pluribus
Vince Gilligan returned to television for the first time since Better Call Saul with Pluribus, an Apple TV series that takes an unexpected turn into science fiction. The series reunites Gilligan with longtime collaborator Rhea Seehorn, giving an Emmy-favorite performance as protagonist Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), a misanthropic fantasy novelist who is immune to a virus that turns the rest of humanity into part of a hivemind that’s blissfully happy all the time. Set in his familiar Albuquerque, the show landed 18 Emmy nominations for its first season, one of the highest totals of the year behind only The Pitt, Hacks, and Widow’s Bay. After last weekend, Pluribus also broke Gilligan’s curse, as Better Call Saul lost all 53 of its Emmy nominations across six seasons.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
- Outstanding Production Design For a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour Or More)
- Outstanding Picture Editing For a Drama Series
- Outstanding Sound Mixing For a Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)
The other six nominations remain open until September 14th. Emmys that Pluribus can still win:
- Outstanding Drama Series
- Outstanding Lead Actress In a Drama Series
- Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Drama Series
- Outstanding Supporting Actor In a Drama Series
- Outstanding Directing For a Drama Series
- Outstanding Writing For a Drama Series
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show returned to Disney+ exactly 50 years after the original variety series premiered in 1976, reuniting Kermit the Frog (Matt Vogel, who has voiced the character since 2017) and the rest of the troupe for a special built around musical numbers and celebrity cameos. Sabrina Carpenter served as both a performer and executive producer on the special, and last weekend’s win gave her the Emmy to go with two Grammys she already had. The Muppet Show landed six Emmy nominations and won four of them, making it one of only two specials this year, alongside Bad Bunny’s halftime show, to win four or more Emmys.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
- Outstanding Writing For a Variety Special
- Outstanding Production Design For a Variety Special
- Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming
With all six nominations decided at Creative Arts, there’s no other possible award for The Muppet Show on September 14th.
Fallout
Fallout continues adapting Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic video game franchise for Prime Video, tracking survivors across a nuclear wasteland stitched together from 1950s Americana and radioactive ruins. Season 2 promoted Aaron Moten to lead actor alongside Walton Goggins, and the costume and production design teams pushed the retro-apocalyptic aesthetic further, most visibly in the Vegas-set episode “The Strip” and the New California Republic-focused “The Wrangler.” As a result, the season pulled in nine Emmy nominations. Even though that’s a drop from the first season’s 17 nominations, Season 2 of Fallout still took two trophies home.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Production Design For a Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour Or More)
- Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
Every Fallout nomination was already decided.
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Primal follows a caveman and a Tyrannosaurus who lose their own families and form an unlikely partnership, hunting and surviving together in a prehistoric world. The show is the latest in Tartakovsky’s beloved TV shows list, which also includes Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. The nominated season, Primal‘s third, opens with a controversial twist, killing a key character and resurrecting them as a zombie. Curiously, those opening episodes brought the series to the Emmys.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation (“Kingdom of Sorrow”)
- Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation (“Vengeance of Death”)
Primal went two for two, a perfect record in a juried category that leaves nothing open for September 14th.
Widow’s Bay
Widow’s Bay premiered on Apple TV as a horror-comedy from Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, following Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), the mayor of a cursed New England island town where supernatural threats keep disrupting daily life. The series arrived with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and became the season’s biggest breakout, submitted as a comedy to the Emmys despite its horror-and-suspense blend, a strategy to avoid the disputed drama race. Widow’s Bay collected 19 Emmy nominations, the third-highest total of the year behind only The Pitt and Hacks, including a sixth career nomination for Rhys and his first as a comedy lead, six years after he won the drama trophy for The Americans. It also led all programs at Creative Arts with eight wins.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Guest Actress In a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Casting For a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Cinematography For a Series (Half-Hour)
- Outstanding Production Design For a Narrative Program (Half-Hour)
- Outstanding Music Composition For a Series (Original Dramatic Score)
- Outstanding Music Supervision
- Outstanding Sound Editing For a Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation
- Outstanding Sound Mixing For a Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation
Seven nominations remain open heading into September 14th. Emmys that Widow’s Bay can still win:
- Outstanding Comedy Series
- Outstanding Lead Actor In a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Supporting Actor In a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Comedy Series (two nominees)
- Outstanding Directing For a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Writing For a Comedy Series
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas for HBO. The six-episode debut season follows Dunk (Peter Claffey), a wandering hedge knight, and his young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), who is secretly a member of the Targaryen royal family. Every prior show in the Game of Thrones franchise has won at least one Emmy, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms pulled in nine total nominations, including a first-year bid for Outstanding Drama Series against established players like The Pitt and Pluribus.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Stunt Performance (“In the Name of the Mother”)
The win for the finale’s sword fight kept the franchise’s Emmy streak alive, though it was the only one of eight Creative Arts nominations to land. One nomination remains open heading into September 14th:
- Outstanding Drama Series
South Park
South Park has spent 27 seasons making episodes based on real-world controversy faster than most news cycles can process it. The latest season premiere, “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” has Cartman spiraling down after Donald Trump cancels NPR, while the town fights back after Trump forces Jesus into South Park Elementary as part of a legal settlement, a plot lifted directly from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s own real-life deal with Paramount, the “Mount” of the title. The episode gave South Park its sixth Outstanding Animated Program trophy from its 19th nomination in the category, arriving the same year Parker and Stone were inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Animated Program (“Sermon on the ‘Mount”)
There’s no other award left for South Park on September 14th.
Stranger Things
Stranger Things wrapped its fifth and final season on Netflix last December, closing out the Upside Down-set horror saga that turned Hawkins, Indiana, into one of television’s most recognizable settings. The farewell season’s Emmy list is noticeably quieter than in years past, skipping the major categories entirely after getting shut out at the Golden Globes a few months ago. The show’s entire Emmy presence this season lies in craft work like sound design, prosthetic makeup, and visual effects. Stranger Things pulled in seven total nominations, a modest showing with only a single win.
Creative Arts Emmy wins:
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects In a Season Or a Movie
The effects team, which has built the practical and digital work behind the Upside Down’s creatures for nearly a decade, picked up the season’s lone win. The other six nominations came up short, closing the book on Stranger Things‘ final-season Emmy run.
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Sam and Dean Winchester in Supernatural looking out a window.
