The Pitt, Widow’s Bay and DTF St. Louis take the 78th Emmys
Noah Wyle repeated as drama lead actor. Rhea Seehorn won drama lead actress for Pluribus after six Better Call Saul seasons without a statue. Matthew Rhys became the first person to win two lead acting Emmys on the same night. Jean Smart won comedy lead actress for every season of Hacks.
Los Angeles3 min read
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The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Mariska Hargitay at the Peacock Theater on 14 September, split the top series prizes three ways. The Pitt won outstanding drama series. Widow's Bay won outstanding comedy series. DTF St. Louis won outstanding limited or anthology series.
Noah Wyle won lead actor in a drama series for The Pitt, repeating last year's award. Rhea Seehorn won lead actress in a drama series for Pluribus, Vince Gilligan's new series, after six seasons of Better Call Saul without a win in that category. Gilligan won outstanding writing for a drama series for Pluribus, his first writing Emmy in that class.
Matthew Rhys won lead actor in a comedy series for Widow's Bay and, by the end of the night, had also collected a second lead prize, becoming the first person to win two lead acting Emmys at the same ceremony. He already had a drama lead statue for The Americans in 2018. Stephen Root and Kate O'Flynn also won acting prizes for Widow's Bay. Hiro Murai won comedy directing for the same show.
Jean Smart won lead actress in a comedy series for Hacks and, with that vote, became the first woman to win the category for every season of a show's run. The win also tied her with Allison Janney, Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on eight acting Emmys each. Janney won supporting actress in a drama series for The Diplomat the same night.
The rest of the major board
Tom Pelphrey won supporting actor in a drama series for Task. Saul Metzstein won drama directing for Slow Horses. Drama series nominees that left without the top prize included The Diplomat, The Gilded Age, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Paradise, Pluribus, Slow Horses and Your Friends & Neighbors.
Comedy series nominees behind Widow's Bay included Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks, Margo's Got Money Troubles, Nobody Wants This, Only Murders in the Building and Shrinking. Limited series nominees behind DTF St. Louis included All Her Fault, The Beast in Me, Beef and Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.
Seehorn's win is the night's longest-running subplot. Casting directors and critics had treated her Kim Wexler as a perennial bridesmaid. Pluribus gave the Television Academy a new role and a new excuse. Wyle's repeat for The Pitt suggests the medical-drama vote that formed last year has not broken.
What the split prizes say
A night that spreads drama, comedy and limited series across three different shows is harder to turn into a single-network marketing line. The Pitt is an HBO Max hospital series. Widow's Bay is a comedy that arrived as a new vehicle for Rhys. DTF St. Louis is a limited series that beat a field containing Beef and a Kennedy romance. Gilligan's writing prize keeps his name on the drama side even though Pluribus lost the series trophy to The Pitt.
Smart's clean sweep across the life of Hacks is the record that will be cited in future season campaigns. It is also a closed set: the show cannot add another season-by-season lead actress win without another season. Janney tying the eight-win mark puts two women from the same night onto a list that used to be described as a two-person club.
The Creative Arts Emmys had already handed out craft prizes earlier in the month. Monday night was the on-camera board. The names that moved are Wyle, Seehorn, Rhys, Smart, Janney, Gilligan, Murai, Metzstein, Pelphrey and the three series titles. Those are the ones that will be printed on the ads tomorrow.
