“Widow’s Bay” ran away with eight early Emmys for its debut season Sunday at a ceremony eight days before the main awards show and telecast, while “The Pitt” had a strong second-year showing with four of its own and Rob Reiner posthumously won an acting Emmy nearly nine months after his killing.
“DTF St. Louis” won big with six awards in the limited series categories, with co-stars and veteran actors David Harbour and Linda Cardellini both becoming first-time Emmy winners.
“Widow’s Bay,” the Apple TV horror comedy with Matthew Rhys as the mayor of a small New England town dealing with a centuries-old curse, won categories including cinematography, sound, music and production design.
Betty Gilpin won best guest actress in a comedy for her role on the show, and read a rapid-fire comic poem as her acceptance speech. It included the lines “our business is stupid, but actors are the bomb” and “let’s all lean more toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman.”
‘The Pitt’ has strong second-year showing
HBO Max’s day-in-the-life medical series “The Pitt” — the year’s top nominee with 25 and the reigning best drama winner for its first season — had wins Sunday in categories including prosthetic makeup and best guest actor in a drama for 73-year-old first-time nominee Ernest Harden Jr.
Harden, who won for portraying the last days of Louie Cloverfield, the emergency room’s constant presence and constantly struggling alcoholic on “The Pitt,” wept when his name was called.
“I am just on cloud 25,” he said backstage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “I’m not saying it’s a complete surprise because ‘The Pitt’ is such a powerful show to come from, but just to get it in your hands is unreal.”
Harden’s first speaking role was in the 1975 Robert Redford-Faye Dunaway thriller “Three Days of the Condor” and he had a three-season role on the sitcom “The Jeffersons” in the 1970s, but has acted for decades without awards recognition.
Singer-songwriter Andrew Bird and Gavin Brivik won for original music and lyrics for a song they wrote about the character.
“It’s not a music-heavy show,” Bird said backstage. “But they gave us a beautiful moment with a character that we love.”
Rebranding the Creative Arts Emmys and adding some star power
The Television Academy hands out well over 100 primetime Emmys, and most of them are being presented this weekend in a pair of ceremonies. They were previously known as the Creative Arts Emmys but have now been rebranded as simply the first two nights of the 78th Emmy Awards.
The weekend’s awards primarily go to behind-the-scenes crew members, but they include the guest-acting awards that tend to go to bigger names. And the shows’ star power got a boost when five categories normally on the main telecast were bumped to the earlier weekend, among them best supporting actor in a limited series, won by Harbour in his third nomination, and best supporting actress in a limited series, won by Linda Cardellini in her fourth nomination in an elite TV career that included roles on “Freaks and Geeks” and “Mad Men.”
“Thank you to everybody who along the way through the years helped me get to this moment of a real dream come true,” Cardellini said from the stage, through tears.
Rob Reiner gets a somber ovation
At a ceremony that otherwise moved at a blazing-fast clip with a breezy mood, a long, thoughtful ovation came when Reiner was announced as best guest actor in a comedy for his work on “The Bear.” Reiner’s friend and fellow “Bear” guest star Jamie Lee Curtis was among those in the crowd paying him tribute.
Reiner was killed along with his wife Michele Singer Reiner in December, and their son, who has pleaded not guilty, has been charged with stabbing them to death. His win came about 50 years after winning two Emmy Awards for his acting on “All in the Family.”
Saturday and Sunday’s ceremonies will be edited together to air Sept. 12 on FXX and stream on Hulu the following day. The primetime Sept. 14 ceremony, also at the Peacock Theater and hosted by Mariska Hargitay, will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock.
Both “Widow’s Bay” and “The Pitt” can add up to six more Emmys to their totals on that final night.
“Pluribus,” another Apple TV Emmy rookie from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan that could challenge “The Pitt” in the top drama categories, won four trophies Sunday night, including editing, production design, and sound mixing.
Shailene Woodley and a canceled ‘Spider-Noir’ are also winners
Shailene Woodley won best guest actress in a drama for her role on “Paradise.” It was her first Emmy.
“Spider-Noir,” the Nicolas Cage series which was canceled after one season last week by Amazon Prime Video, won five Emmys including visual effects and stunts.
Hargitay was among this weekend’s winners, getting two Emmys for the documentary she directed about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, “My Mom Jayne,” to go with the best actress in a drama Emmy she won in 2006 for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
And Bad Bunny won his first career Emmy Award for his Super Bowl halftime show, which took seven trophies at the first of the weekend’s ceremonies on Saturday.
—Andrew Dalton, entertainment writer