LOS ANGELES (AP) — A “Widow’s Bay” wave slammed into the Emmy Awards on Monday night as the Apple TV show set a single-season record for a comedy with 14 wins, including best comedy series and best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who personally took home three trophies.
“The Pitt” won best drama series for the second straight year, and star Noah Wyle repeated as best actor in a drama, but the HBO Max emergency room drama won no other Emmys and underperformed
its expectations.
Rhea Seehorn won best actress in a drama for “Pluribus,” and Jean Smart won her fifth best actress in a comedy award for the fifth and final season of “Hacks." No actor had won an Emmy every year for a series that lasted more than three seasons until Smart did it Monday.
Every other comedy award went to “Widow's Bay," which unequivocally owned the night and broke the comedy series record set last year by “The Studio” when it won 13 as another first-year Apple TV show.
“The celebrations will be long, varied, and I hope at times wild,” Rhys said backstage while holding two Emmys.
Along with best actor in a comedy, Rhys won best actor in a limited series for “The Beast in Me,” becoming the first man to win two leading actor categories in the same year, and he gets one of the best comedy series trophies as an executive producer for Widow's Bay."
The first-season series created by Katie Dippold leans hard into both comedy and horror as it tells the story of a New England island community, with Rhys as its mayor, reckoning with a centuries-old curse.
“Thank you Apple, for letting us take this crazy, creative swing," Dippold said as she accepted the best drama award. "They truly just let us do this weird show.”
It also won for directing for Hiro Murai and for writing for its creator Dippold, a first-time Emmy winner and first-time nominee who was previously best known for an old viral tweet showing her dressed as “The Babadook.”
The show had won eight Emmys in a previous ceremony before sweeping all six of its categories Monday night. Stephen Root won best supporting actor in a comedy series and Kate O’Flynn won best supporting actress.
“The Pitt” was the top drama nominee with 25 and “Hacks” was the top comedy nominee with 24 for its outgoing season, but neither made much of a splash when it came time to claim trophies.
Smart's was the only win for “Hacks” on Monday night.
“What a ride this has been,” an emotional Smart said after getting a standing ovation.
The 75-year-old has won eight Emmys overall in a career that was already more than respectable when she landed her defining role of Deborah Vance, a brash stand-up comic pushing back against age, obscurity and sexism in the HBO Max series.
And best drama and best actor were the only wins for “The Pitt,” though it had won four at an earlier ceremony.
Wyle won for playing Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a role that brought him a major career revival after starring in “ER” in the 1990s.
“This is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and this is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join," Wyle said in his acceptance.
“The Pitt” lost in both supporting acting categories despite having four nominees in one of them and three in the other.
Wyle said backstage that they'd all be back at work in the morning, and they're already midway through this season.
Seehorn won her first Emmy for playing the lone central character on Apple TV's “Pluribus.”
The 54-year-old had been nominated twice without winning for her breakthrough role on “Better Call Saul,” a show from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, who put Seehorn at the center of “Pluribus.” Gilligan won his fifth career Emmy for his writing on the show.
Allison Janney won best supporting actress in a drama for “The Diplomat,” and Tom Pelphrey won supporting actor in a drama for “Task,” both beating several nominees from “The Pitt.”
“Widow's Bay” brought a murderer's row of actors to work on the show, a combination of younger, well-respected unknowns and widely known and beloved veterans.
It was the first Emmy for both O'Flynn and Root.
O’Flynn, a 40-year-old British actor whose previous acclaim came mostly for her work in theater, plays Patricia Moyer, a city worker and social outcast dealing with a demonic darkness on “Widow's Bay.”
“This is the role of a lifetime,” O’Flynn said from the stage. “This is for all the Patricias out there.”
Root, one of the most ubiquitous character actors of the last few decades, beat out Harrison Ford, who many thought would get his first major competitive Hollywood award for his role on “Shrinking.”
“Thank you, sir, for all your many years of great, great, great acting,” Root said to Ford during his acceptance.
Root, 74, is the oldest person to win the category.
Sally Field, 79, became the oldest woman to win best actress in a limited or anthology series or TV movie for “Remarkably Bright Creatures.”
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," taken off the air by CBS, won best variety series. It's one of six Emmys the show has won this year after the show was cancelled for what the network said was economic reasons while many believe it was his criticism of the Trump administration.
“If you like the comedy tonight, my old writers wrote it,” Colbert said.
Mariska Hargitay opened the NBC telecast with a musical tribute to television viewing, “I Love TV Screens,” sung to the tune of “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.” A recorded start featured NBA champion Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks and actor Jennifer Coolidge.
“NBC is celebrating its 100th year, and I have been on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ for all of them,” said Hargitay, a three-time Emmy winner who has starred in the show for 27 seasons.
Taylor Swift acted alongside Hargitay in a pre-recorded “Law & Order”-based bit during the show.
Michael J. Fox, a nominee for his work with Ford on “Shrinking," received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
Field paid tribute to her “Steel Magnolias" co-star Dolly Parton in a tribute during the telecast that also included Reba McEntire.
