LOS ANGELES — The 2026 Emmy Awards season has begun with the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, where Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show emerged as the evening’s dominant winner, taking seven trophies, while the reality competition series The Traitors earned six.
The awards were presented Friday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, beginning a two-night Creative Arts ceremony that recognizes technical, documentary, reality, variety, animation and selected acting categories before the major Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sept. 14.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, which became one of the year’s most watched and culturally discussed television events, won seven awards across creative and technical categories. The Traitors, Peacock’s reality competition series, followed with six wins.
The night also brought individual Emmy victories for Mariska Hargitay, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Alan Cumming and Octavia Spencer, reflecting the breadth of the Creative Arts Emmys across documentary, variety, game-show and reality television.
The awards are not yet complete.
A second Creative Arts Emmy ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 6, when additional categories in comedy, drama, limited series, animation, music and guest acting will be presented. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, featuring the major series and lead-acting honors, will take place Monday, Sept. 14, airing on NBC and streaming on Peacock.
For now, the first night’s results offer an early picture of the television industry’s awards momentum, and show that the Emmys are increasingly recognizing not only prestige dramas and comedies but also live events, documentaries, online programming and unscripted television.
Bad Bunny’s halftime show dominates
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was the evening’s biggest winner.
The production collected seven Creative Arts Emmy Awards, according to awards coverage, a major haul for a live musical event that combined choreography, production design, direction, editing, sound and visual spectacle.
The win underscores the growing importance of the Super Bowl halftime show as a television awards contender. While the event is built around music and sports, its production requires the kind of large-scale planning and technical execution usually associated with major broadcast specials.
Halftime shows must be designed for two audiences at once: the tens of thousands of people watching inside the stadium and the far larger global television audience. Production teams have only minutes to transform a football field into a concert stage, place and remove large scenic elements, manage live audio and lighting, coordinate dancers and cameras, and deliver a performance that works from dozens of broadcast angles.
Bad Bunny’s performance became a major cultural moment, and the Emmy wins recognize the team behind it rather than only the artist himself.
The seven awards were the most for any single program during the first Creative Arts ceremony.
The result also highlights how the Television Academy has broadened its awards recognition. Live sports-adjacent entertainment, streaming specials and digital-first programming now compete alongside traditional broadcast television in categories that reward craft and innovation.
For Bad Bunny, the awards add another major accolade to a career that has crossed music, fashion, film, global pop culture and now television production.
The Traitors wins six awards
The Traitors continued its awards momentum with six victories, making it the second-biggest winner of the night.
Hosted by Alan Cumming, the Peacock series combines reality competition, psychological strategy and murder-mystery theatrics. Contestants compete in challenges while trying to identify hidden “traitors” among the group, creating a format built around deception, alliances and dramatic revelation.
The program’s success reflects the continued strength of unscripted television at the Emmys. Reality competition remains a major genre for streaming platforms and broadcasters because it can create repeat viewing, social-media discussion and relatively efficient production compared with scripted series.
Cumming won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program, beating nominees including RuPaul Charles of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Kristen Kish of Top Chef, Ariana Madix of Love Island USA and Jeff Probst of Survivor.
His win shows how important a host can be to a reality series’ identity. Cumming’s theatrical delivery, elaborate wardrobe and dry humor have become central to The Traitors’ tone, giving the competition a style distinct from more conventional reality formats.
The series also won Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program.
That recognition reflects the program’s unusually cinematic presentation. Filmed in a Scottish castle, The Traitors uses dramatic lighting, sweeping outdoor shots and stylized editing to make a reality game feel like a scripted mystery.
Documentary winners: Scorsese and Hargitay
Documentary programming was another major focus of the night.
Mr. Scorsese won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
The program beat nominees including The American Revolution, The Yogurt Shop Murders, Sean Combs: The Reckoning and Rafa.
The recognition for Mr. Scorsese reflects enduring interest in filmmaker Martin Scorsese, whose career has shaped modern American cinema through works including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Mariska Hargitay won two Emmys for My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay, a documentary about her mother, actor Jayne Mansfield.
The film won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, and Hargitay won Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.
The awards carry particular resonance for Hargitay, who is widely known for playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her documentary turns to a personal subject: Mansfield, the film star who died in a car crash in 1967 when Hargitay was a young child.
The directing win recognized Hargitay’s role behind the camera, while the documentary-special award credited her as a producer.
“My Mom Jayne” won over documentary specials including John Candy: I Like Me, Marty, Life Is Short, Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man! and Ocean With David Attenborough.
The result demonstrates the growing awards strength of personal documentaries that combine biography, family history and cultural reassessment.
Colbert and Kimmel collect variety honors
Late-night television also had a strong showing.
Stephen Colbert’s digital series Colbert Before Air won Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert also won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming, Segment.
The awards arrive during a period of change for late-night television, where traditional broadcast programs have faced audience fragmentation, budget pressures and intense competition from podcasts, streaming services and social-media video.
Colbert’s digital win is especially notable because it shows the Television Academy’s willingness to recognize programming made for online platforms and short-form distribution, not only traditional television broadcasts.
Jimmy Kimmel won Outstanding Host for a Game Show for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The award follows a turbulent year for Kimmel, whose ABC late-night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, faced a temporary suspension in 2025. His win for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire demonstrates the resilience of the game-show format and the continuing value of familiar television personalities in a fragmented entertainment landscape.
The award went to Kimmel over nominees Steve Harvey, Ken Jennings, Colin Jost and Martin Short.
Jeopardy! won Outstanding Game Show, defeating Celebrity Family Feud, The Price Is Right, Wheel of Fortune and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The victory reinforces the continuing cultural and commercial strength of the long-running quiz show, which remains a rare example of traditional syndicated television thriving amid streaming competition.
Other key winners
Several additional programs and performers received major recognition during the first night.
Octavia Spencer won Outstanding Narrator for Lost Women of Alaska.
The award marked another notable television honor for Spencer, an Academy Award-winning actor whose voice work helped distinguish a nonfiction program focused on women who disappeared in Alaska.
Tucci in Italy won Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special. The program, hosted by Stanley Tucci, beat entries including Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr., My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman and The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy.
Love on the Spectrum won Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.
The series, which follows people on the autism spectrum as they navigate dating and relationships, has been praised for its empathetic approach and has become one of the most recognized reality programs in recent awards cycles.
Desi Lydic won Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for The Daily Show: Desi Lydic Foxsplains.
The win reflects the increasingly blurred boundary between television, streaming clips and digital political satire. Short-form programming now plays a larger role in how audiences consume comedy and news commentary, especially among viewers who encounter segments first through social platforms rather than a scheduled broadcast.
The revived Muppet Show also collected three awards: Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming.
The wins demonstrate the enduring appeal of the Muppets and the continued recognition of handcrafted variety production in a television industry increasingly dominated by streaming drama and reality formats.
What has not yet been awarded
The first Creative Arts ceremony does not determine the year’s biggest Primetime Emmy winners.
Major awards for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, lead acting, supporting acting, writing and directing will be presented at the Sept. 14 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony.
Shows expected to be central to the remaining awards conversation include The Pitt, Hacks, Beef, Pluribus, Widow’s Bay and All Her Fault.
The second Creative Arts ceremony on Sept. 6 will also present awards in guest acting, animation, television movies, music and technical fields connected to drama, comedy and limited series.
That means the current winner list is incomplete.
Readers seeking a full 2026 Emmy Awards list should distinguish between:
- The Creative Arts Emmys, presented Sept. 5 and Sept. 6.
- The Primetime Emmys, scheduled for Sept. 14.
- Separate Daytime Emmy Awards, which are scheduled later in the year.
- Engineering, science and technology Emmy honors, which are presented separately.
Why the Creative Arts Emmys matter
The Creative Arts Emmys are sometimes treated as a prelude to the main televised ceremony, but they recognize much of the labor that makes television possible.
Awards for sound, editing, cinematography, production design, visual effects, costumes, documentary work, reality production and digital programming honor the people who work behind the scenes and often define whether a show feels ordinary or unforgettable.
Bad Bunny’s halftime-show sweep illustrates that point. The performer is the public face of the event, but seven Emmys reflect the work of designers, directors, camera crews, audio teams, choreographers, editors and production staff.
The same is true for The Traitors, My Mom Jayne, Mr. Scorsese, The Muppet Show and the late-night winners. Television is increasingly a hybrid medium: scripted series, live sports entertainment, streaming documentaries, digital comedy and social-media clips all compete for audiences and awards.
The 2026 Creative Arts Emmys show that the Academy is recognizing that change.
For now, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance stands as the early awards leader. But the industry’s biggest honors remain ahead, with the Primetime Emmys still to be awarded on Sept. 14.