Late Night With Stephen Colbert went out in style, winning outstanding variety series at the 78th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which were presented at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Monday (Sept. 14). The show won a total of six Emmys for its final season, the most it ever won in any one season.
Widow’s Bay won a total of 14 Primetime Emmys, setting new records for the most wins in a single season by a comedy series, and most wins in a freshman season by a comedy series. It tops The Studio, which set new records in both categories with 13 wins last year.
Widow’s Bay was the top award recipient this year across the three nights of the Primetime Emmys. Runners-up were The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, DTF St. Louis, The Pitt and The Traitors, each of which won seven awards.
Mariska Hargitay hosted the show, becoming the first woman to host the show in 15 years. She opened with “I Love TV Screens,” a parody version of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ’N Roll,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks in 1982. The spot featured cameos by basketball star Jalen Brunson, Jennifer Coolidge and Jean Smart.
Later in the show, she did a parody version of Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger,” a No. 15 hit on the Hot 100 in 1979, in which she saluted the many shows that are ending their runs this year.
Hargitay and the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit performed a clever sketch, which spoofed Taylor Swift fans’ obsessive search for clues about her next moves. Swift, a friend of Hargitay, made a fun cameo appearance in the sketch.
Sally Field and Reba McEntire paid tribute to Dolly Parton, who died three weeks ago.
Noah Kahan performed Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in the In Memoriam spot.
Colbert’s show had won outstanding talk series in 2025, soon after its cancellation was announced. This year it won in the outstanding variety series category that Colbert had won twice (2013-14) with The Colbert Report, his previous show on Comedy Central, and that Late Show With David Letterman won six times (1994 and 1998-2002).
Beginning this year, the Television Academy combined outstanding scripted variety series and outstanding talk series into a single category: outstanding variety series. The academy also converted it to what they call “an area award,” which means the nominees aren’t directly competing against each other. Instead, voters answer one question for each nominated show: “Does this nominee merit an Emmy?” Any series that receives at least 90% “yes” votes is awarded an Emmy. (If no nominee meets that threshold, the show with the highest approval percentage takes the trophy.) So, all five nominees could have won – or as few as one, which is what transpired this year.
The other nominees in the category were The Daily Show (Comedy Central), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO) and Saturday Night Live (NBC). Three of these shows had won an outstanding series award in the past. The only one that hadn’t previously won is Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has now gone 0-15 in the category.
“Thank you so much on behalf of the over 200 people who threw themselves at this show for 11 years to try to do the best show they possibly could for you,” Colbert said upon winning the award. “… I want to thank so many people in this room. Over the last 21 years, I’ve interviewed at least 1,000 of you. Thank you for coming on to talk to this idiot. I want you to know that you were the perfect guest. The segment went great, and I’m sorry I forgot to play your clip.
“But of course, there can only be one favorite guest, and that is my wife, Evelyn McGee, thank you, darling. … And I want to say to the audience, thank you so much for watching. We hope you enjoyed the show. We had a great time doing it for you. That’s it. Thank you. We’ll catch you all on the flip.”
Early in the telecast, Jean Smart (Hacks) and Allison Janney (The Diplomat) each won their eighth Primetime Emmys as performers, moving into a tie with Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most Emmy wins in performing/acting categories.
Matthew Rhys became the first person to win outstanding lead actor honors in two fields: comedy series (Widow’s Bay) and limited or anthology series or movie (The Beast in Me).
Notably, a series in its first season has won outstanding comedy series in three of the past four years. The Bear won in 2023, preceding these back-to-back wins for The Studio and Widow’s Bay.
The Traitors won outstanding reality competition program for the third year in a row. It’s the first show to win three times in a row in this category since RuPaul’s Drag Race won four in a row from 2018-21.
The Pitt is the first show to take best drama series in each of its first two seasons since Mad Men, which won in each of its first four seasons.
There were cast reunions to honor Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Baywatch; and Charlie’s Angels. Of these three shows, only Buffy won an Emmy during its run. Baywatch was never even nominated.
Programs that won multiple awards across the three nights of the 2026 Primetime Emmys:
Widow’s Bay, 14
The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, 7
DTF St. Louis, 7
The Pitt, 7
The Traitors, 7
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, 6
Pluribus, 6
Spider-Noir, 5
The Muppet Show, 4
Beef, 3
Love on the Spectrum, 3
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, 3
Palm Royale, 3
The Beast In Me, 2
Bridgerton, 2
Fallout, 2
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, 2
Hacks 2
My Mom Jayne: A Film By Mariska Hargitay 2
Ocean With David Attenborough 2
Remarkably Bright Creatures 2
Individuals that won multiple awards across the three nights of the 2026 Primetime Emmys:
Stephen T. Colbert, 3, executive producer, host, writer
Steven Conrad, 3, director, executive producer, writer
Judah Getz, 3, ADR mixer
Matthew Rhys, 3, actor, executive producer
Larry Benjamin, 2, re-recording mixer
Michael Brumm, 2, producer, writer
Aaron Cohen, 2, supervising producer, writer
Alan Cumming, 2, executive producer, host
Paul Dinello, 2, supervising producer, writer
Katie Dippold, 2, executive producer, writer
Ariel Dumas, 2, head writer, supervising producer
Gabe Gronli, 2, producer, writer
David Harbour, 2, actor, executive producer
Mariska Hargitay, 2, director, producer
Tim Hoogenakker, 2, re-recording mixer
Barry Julien, 2, co-executive producer, writer
Jay Katsir, 2, head writer, supervising producer
Matt Lappin, 2, co-executive producer, writer
Opus Moreschi, 2, co-executive producer, writer
Hiro Murai, 2, director, executive producer
Cian O’Clery, 2, casting by, executive producer
Denise Pizzini, 2, production designer
Dave Porter, 2, composer, scoring mixer
Tom Purcell, 2, executive producer, writer
Albertina Rizzo, 2, executive producer, writer
Christian Sprenger, 2, director of photography, producer
Noah Wyle, 2, actor, executive producer
