“The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” was the top winner with seven statuettes while the Peacock competition series “The Traitors” was second with six as the 78th Emmy Awards began Saturday at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE.
The halftime show won for outstanding live variety special, directing for a variety special, choreography for variety or reality programming, lighting design/lighting direction for a special, music direction, sound mixing for a variety series or special and technical direction and camerawork for a special.
“The Traitors”’ host Alan Cumming won for outstanding host for a reality or competition program for the third consecutive year, winning in a field that also included RuPaul, the winner for eight consecutive years as host of MTV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” before Cumming began his streak.
The other nominees were “Survivor” host Jeff Probst, who won each year from 2008 to 2011, the first four times it was presented but hasn’t won since; three-time nominee Kristen Kish of Bravo’s “Top Chef”; and Ariana Madix of Peacock’s “Love Island USA,” the only member of the field that wasn’t also nominated last year.
“The Traitors” could add to its Emmy haul Sept. 14 when awards in the top 19 categories are presented, including outstanding reality competition program.
“Jeopardy!” won for outstanding game show for the seventh consecutive time and a record 23rd time since the show was revived in 1984. The category was part of the Daytime Emmy Awards from its inaugural 1974 ceremony, then shifted to the Primetime Emmys in 2023.
The field of nominees was identical to last year’s, with “Celebrity Family Feud,” “The Price is Right,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” comprising the rest of the field.
Jimmy Kimmel of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” won for outstanding game show host for the second consecutive year, beating out Steve Harvey (“Celebrity Family Feud”), the winner in 2014, 2017 and 2022; four-time nominee Ken Jennings (“Jeopardy!”); two-time nominee Colin Jost (“Pop Culture Jeopardy!”); and first-time nominee Martin Short (“Match Game.”)
Mariska Hargitay was a two-winner. The documentary she produced about her late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, “My Mom Jayne: A Film By Mariska Hargitay” won for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special.
Hargitay won for outstanding directing for a documentary/nonfiction program.
Hargitay won the outstanding lead actress in a drama series Emmy for her portrayal of Detective Olivia Benson on the NBC crime drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” in 2006 and been nominated seven other times.
David Attenborough was denied the opportunity to become the oldest winner of a Primetime Emmy at 100 as Octavia Spencer won for outstanding narrator for “Lost Women Of Alaska.”
The British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer was nominated twice in the category for “A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough,” which streams on Netflix, and “Ocean with David Attenborough,” which airs on National Geographic.
The late producer Norman Lear became the oldest Primetime Emmy winner in 2019 when he won a producing victory for outstanding variety special for “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons” at age 96.
Attenborough also had a chance to set the record last year, but lost to former President Barack Obama.
Attenborough and Obama share the record for wins in the category with three with actor Keith David. Two of David’s victories came for outstanding voice-over performance. That category was separated into outstanding narrator and outstanding character voice-over performance in 2014.
Saturday’s awards were predominantly for reality, nonfiction and variety programming and in such technical categories as picture editing, sound mixing and lighting. On Sunday, awards in 53 categories of scripted programming will be presented.
The Saturday and Sunday ceremonies will be edited into a single broadcast that will air at 8 p.m. next Saturday on FXX and stream on Hulu the following day.
The awards presented Saturday and Sunday had been known as the Creative Arts Emmys, but a shift of seven awards from what had been known as the Primetime Emmy Awards to the earlier ceremonies prompted a rebranding of all three ceremonies to the 78th Emmy Awards.
The shift of the seven awards was prompted by what the Television Academy called an attempt to freshen what had been known as the Primetime Emmy Awards.