Emmys Analysis: On the ‘Widow’s Bay’ Sweep, Sally Field Surprise and Weird Variety Series Situation

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards is now in the books , bringing an end to the 2025-2026 TV awards season. Now it’s time to try to figure out why we wound up with the results that we did.

Let’s start with Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay , which essentially swept the comedy categories. Between Monday’s Primetime ceremony and last week’s Creative Arts ceremonies, it claimed a field-leading 14 wins including best comedy series, actor (Matthew Rhys), supporting actor (Stephen Root), supporting actress (Kate O’Flynn), directing (Hiro Murai) and writing (Katie Dippold) — all despite barely registering on anyone’s Emmys radar until well after it began rolling out at the end of April, just one month before the eligibility cutoff. Even the good folks at Apple were fully on the Shrinking train until momentum really began to shift in June. Related Stories TV Most Memorable Moments at 2026 Emmys, From Taylor Swift's Cameo to Mariska Hargitay Recreating Nicole Kidman's AMC Ad TV Matthew Rhys Says Keri Russell Is "Always Really the Winner" After His Historic 2026 Emmy Wins

Rarely, if ever, has a show come out of nowhere so late in the season and then dominated to this extent. Indeed, the only major comedy award that didn’t go to Widow’s Bay was best comedy actress, a category in which Widow’s Bay didn’t even have a contestant. (That one went to Jean Smart, the star of HBO Max’s Hacks , which was the show that most had expected would coast to a best comedy win for its fifth and final season before Widow’s Bay came along, and that still wound up with five more noms than Widow’s Bay did, 24 to 19. Deservedly, Smart is now the first person to win an acting Emmy for every season of her show.)

What explains the Widow’s Bay surge? A few things, I think. It’s a comedy/horror hybrid that debuted in a moment when horror is all the rage; indeed, it was being consumed at the same time that the films Obsession and Backrooms were becoming surprise mega-blockbusters. It’s also fresh, in terms of its story and style and talent, whereas Hacks , in the view of numerous TV Academy members with whom I spoke, had grown to feel a bit stale by the end of its run. (A common refrain was, “How many times can you break up and reunite Deborah and Ava without it getting old?”) And lastly, the TV Academy likes crowning new shows even more than celebrating departing ones — four times versus two over the past decade in the best comedy category, for those keeping track at home.

The folks behind Hacks will be fine — over the course of the show’s run, it was recognized not only five times for Smart, but also once for Hannah Einbinder, once for best comedy, once for best comedy directing and twice for best comedy writing. I feel sorrier for the folks behind Shrinking , which has gotten better as it has gone along, and was up for its best season yet. A second loss in a row for Harrison Ford — last year to Somebody Somewhere ‘s Jeff Hiller, this year to Root — is particularly sad, as Ford, who is now 84, couldn’t have a better season than the one for which he was nominated this year.