Emmys 2026 key moments: Widow's Bay takes six awards and Hacks star makes history

Emmys 2026 key moments: Widow's Bay dominates categories and makes history for first season The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards are over for another year, and there was a clear winner. Widow's Bay, described as "weird" by the show's creator, dominated most categories it was nominated for, taking six awards home, while another frontrunner The Pitt only picked up two. Here are your key moments from the ceremony. Widow's Bay sweeps categories Matthew Rhys, who plays a New England mayor trying to boost tourism on his supposedly cursed island of Widow's Bay, made Emmy history. Rhys is the first man to win two lead acting categories in the same year, after taking home the award for Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series for The Beast in Me and Lead Comedy Actor in Widow's Bay. "This is purely because of the depraved and twisted mind of Katie Dippold and my hero Hiro Murai," Rhys said when accepting the award for Widow's Bay. "We had the crew of all crews. "To the great people of Wales, who were as much a nurturer as anything else, we are a small but mighty nation." The Welsh actor's partner Keri Russell, who was nominated for The Diplomat, was in the audience cheering and clapping in support. Japanese filmmaker Hiro Murai went on to take out the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Widow's Bay. Widow's Bay won the first award of the ceremony when Kate O'Flynn took out Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her brilliant depiction of the awkward but loyal mayoral assistant Patricia. "This is the role of a lifetime," O'Flynn said. Widow's Bay continued its winning streak with Stephen Root winning Best Supporting Actor. Root acknowledged his fellow nominees, who included Colman Domingo, Paul W Downs, Harrison Ford, Nick Offerman, Michael Urie and Tyler James Williams. "You are all unbelievable. I am a huge fan," Root said. "Thank you, Harrison Ford, because my son came running up to me and said, 'You're in a category with Harrison Ford!' Thank you, sir, for your many years of great, great, great, great acting." The debut season of the Apple TV horror comedy also won eight Creative Arts Emmys. Rhea Seehorn wins her first Emmy Rhea Seehorn expressed shock when she won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Pluribus as Carol, the most miserable person on Earth who must save the world from happiness. It was Seehorn's first Emmy. She had been nominated three times at previous ceremonies, including twice for the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, and was a hot favourite to take out the award this year. In an emotional speech, Seehorn thanked the members of the television academy who voted for her. She went on to thank her fellow nominees. "All brilliant, brilliant performances," Seehorn said. "Keri Russell, among them, sent a gift and a card quoting — I didn't know we were going to lose her so soon — Gloria Steinem saying, 'We are linked not ranked', and I feel that way about all you women, so thank you for that." Vince Gilligan went on to win the Emmy for Writing for a Drama Series for Pluribus. Gilligan and Seehorn worked together on Better Call Saul, which was nominated for 53 Emmys, but won zero. Gilligan was also the creator, showrunner and executive producer of Breaking Bad. He said in his speech there was nothing weirder than "our current reality". "We will never agree on everything," he said. "But we can show respect to one another, maybe even kindness, and we can stop listening to a relative few who tell us that that is for suckers and who get their power from dividing us." Law and Order jokes and Taylor Swift cameo in Mariska Hargitay's hosting The 2026 Emmys began with host Mariska Hargitay singing a cringeworthy interpolation of I Love Rock 'n' Roll, swapping out the words in the chorus and replacing them with I Love TV Screens. It wasn't the only time during the ceremony she broke out in song. The Law & Order: SVU star, who plays Captain Olivia Benson on the long-running show, pointed out in her opening monologue that it had been 15 years since a woman had hosted the awards show. "Imagine that, for 15 years Amy and Tina said no," she joked. Hargitay went on to say she had arrested many of the actors in the crowd on SUV. At one point during her monologue, Hargitay was interrupted by Australian superstar Nicole Kidman, who told her she was reading out her line. "Zip it, movie lady," Hargitay replied. "It's TV's turn tonight." Later in the ceremony, pop star Taylor Swift made an appearance in a Law & Order skit playing a character that was not her, but one contemplating whether Swift would make an appearance at the Emmys. It was established that she wouldn't be doing so, except in the skit (as someone else). The two have often popped up in each other's work, with one of Swift's cats named after Hargitay's character Olivia Benson and the SVU star appearing in Swift's Bad Blood music video. Jean Smart breaks record with lead actress win Jean Smart's Best Leading Actress in a Comedy win makes her the first actress in Emmy's history to take the award for every single season of their show. Smart's show Hacks finished with its fifth season earlier this year, in which she played comedian Deborah Vance, who teams up with a zillennial comedy writer to revamp her career. Jean Smart is now also tied with Cloris Leachman, Allison Janney and Julia Louis Dreyfus for the most acting wins in prime-time Emmy history, with eight wins in total. Allison Janney also reached eight wins tonight for her work on The Diplomat. Julia Louis-Dreyfus came very close with her six consecutive wins for Veep, but was beaten in 2019 when Phoebe Waller-Bridge won for season two of Fleabag. Smart now has five Emmys for Hacks and three for her work on Frasier, Designing Women and Samantha Who. Smart dedicated the award to Hacks creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky. Her speech was short and sharp, telling all the ladies in the audience to sit. "Just the men stay standing, the girls get to sit down," she said. "We just stood up because she's old," she joked. Stephen Colbert wins Emmy for final season, thanks writers Stephen Colbert has taken home an Emmy for Best Late Night Show after he was pulled from the air this year. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert wrapped up for good in May, bringing an end to a late-night franchise that has occupied New York's historic Ed Sullivan Theatre since the early 1990s. CBS executives released a statement calling the move a "purely financial decision", labelling Colbert "irreplaceable". The announcement came in the middle of last year, right as Paramount was seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for a merger with Skydance to create one of the largest entertainment companies in American history. Colbert, a fervent critic of President Donald Trump, had also just days earlier castigated CBS for settling a lawsuit filed by Trump against 60 Minutes for $US16 million, despite many legal experts believing the case had little chance of success (Colbert called the settlement a "big fat bribe"). But Colbert didn't talk about that. Instead, he chose to use the win to shout-out his writers, who are now looking for work. "I just want to point out that if you like the comedy tonight, my old writer wrote it," he opened his speech. "Thank you so much on behalf of the over 200 people who threw themselves at this show for 11 years to try to do the best show they could for you. "Hire them. They will make your show better and they will make your day easier." Colbert joked he had interviewed "thousands" of people in the room over the years, but said his wife Evelyn was his favourite guest. "Well, catch you all on the flip," he signed off. Tributes flow for Dolly Parton, Catherine O'Hara and more The entertainment industry has lost many actors, musicians and artists in the past 12 months, with a significant portion of the night dedicated to them. First up was a rendition of Appalachian Memories performed by Reba McEntire in tribute to Dolly Parton, who died in August. Her Steel Magnolias co-star Sally Field offered kind words about Parton's unique character. "If there are truly angels on Earth, then we just lost one," she starts. "I am not the only one on Earth who will love you forever and forever." The in memoriam portion of the evening began with Catherine O'Hara's co-stars Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone and Annie Murphy and Dan Levy from Schitt's Creek. Annie Murphy spoke of how she had been approached by fans since O'Hara's death in January. Dan Levy shared that the greatest lesson he learnt from O'Hara was to "say yes". "Say yes to the concept of a wig wall," he said. "Say yes to her wearing a wig as a hat. "Say yes to her naming that wig." Jamie Lee Curtis then took to the stage to speak about the loss of Frasier and Will and Grace director James Burrows, and filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner. "Last week, Robby won an Emmy for his work on The Bear and now he holds the record for longest gap between Emmys, which was previously held by his father Carl Reiner. "He was generous and funny and kind and we miss Rob and Michelle."