‘Widow’s Bay’ sweeps Emmys with record 14 wins for a comedy

The latest:

A horror-comedy about a cursed New England island dominated the 78th Emmy Awards, with Apple TV’s ‘Widow’s Bay’ winning all 14 categories it was nominated in, including outstanding comedy series. The haul broke the record for most single-season wins by a comedy, previously 13. It was the streamer’s fourth comedy-series win in six years.

Details:

• The sweep: Beyond the top comedy prize, the show took lead actor for Matthew Rhys as a mayor trying to turn a cursed island into the next Martha’s Vineyard, supporting actor for Stephen Root as a wary fisherman, supporting actress for Kate O’Flynn, and writing for creator Katie Dippold.
• The record broken: The 14 wins surpassed the 13 collected last year by Hollywood satire ‘The Studio,’ also an Apple TV series, according to the Wall Street Journal. The show debuted over the summer to strong reviews and built a following across its 10 episodes, drawing on ‘Jaws’ and Stephen King.
• Rhys’s double: Rhys won a second lead-actor Emmy the same night for the limited series ‘The Beast In Me,’ playing a real-estate developer suspected of murdering his wife, a character the Journal described as Robert Durst-coded. No performer had previously taken two lead-acting awards in one ceremony.
• Drama repeat: ‘The Pitt’ won outstanding drama series for the second consecutive year, with Noah Wyle repeating as lead actor. Wyle is the first to win back-to-back in the category since Bryan Cranston’s three-peat for ‘Breaking Bad’ between 2008 and 2010.
• Where it lost: ‘The Pitt’ placed four of seven supporting-actress nominees and three of seven supporting-actor nominees, but lost both. Allison Janney won for Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ and Tom Pelphrey for HBO’s ‘Task.’ The Journal reported stacked nominations may have split the show’s votes.
• Smart ties record: Jean Smart took her fifth lead-actress-in-a-comedy Emmy for ‘Hacks,’ giving her a win for every season of the series. It was her eighth career Emmy, tying a record held by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman.
• The host: Mariska Hargitay, star of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,’ became the first woman to host in 15 years, opening with a musical number and joking about how many attendees she had arrested on the show. She had already won two Emmys this year for her documentary ‘My Mom Jayne.’
• Celebrity cameos: Knicks guard Jalen Brunson appeared in a prerecorded intro, and Taylor Swift turned up in a sketch with Hargitay’s ‘SVU’ castmates, bringing her cat, named Olivia Benson. Swift herself spent Monday night watching Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs.
• The tributes: Dolly Parton received a stand-alone tribute, with Sally Field introducing Reba McEntire’s performance of ‘Appalachian Memories.’ The in-memoriam segment opened with Macaulay Culkin, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy honoring Catherine O’Hara, and closed with Jamie Lee Curtis on Rob Reiner.
• Reiner’s posthumous win: Curtis noted Reiner won posthumously for a guest appearance in ‘The Bear,’ his first Emmy since 1978 for ‘All in the Family.’ She said he now holds the record for the longest gap between acting Emmys, previously held by his father, Carl Reiner.

Between the lines:

The Journal reported that producers are racing to copy ‘The Pitt’ because its single-setting format keeps costs low and sustains an annual release schedule, unlike prestige series that take years between seasons. Apple TV’s back-to-back comedy records point the same way: awards attention is consolidating around a shrinking set of titles even as viewing itself fragments.

What’s next

Whether ‘Widow’s Bay’ returns for a second season, and how its sweep affects Apple TV’s comedy slate, are the next signals. ‘The Pitt’ resumes production immediately, Wyle said in his acceptance speech.