Barack Obama won his third career Emmy and Kendrick Lamar won his second, while the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was the biggest winner with 11 on the second night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Lamar and Tony Russell won for the music direction of his Super Bowl halftime show. He won his first Emmy in 2022 as a performer at the Super Bowl halftime headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
Obama won a star-studded documentary narrator category that also included Tom Hanks, Idris Elba and David Attenborough. He won the same award in 2022 and 2023.
Neither Lamar nor Obama was at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to accept his Emmy. Neither were expected to be, at a show that despite several high-profile winners including Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien and Alan Cumming is primarily devoted to behind-the-scenes crew members a week before TV's stars take the same stage for the bigger Emmys ceremony.
Presenter Jordan Klepper laughed along with the crowd as he said, “Apparently, Barack Obama couldn’t be here tonight” after announcing the winner.
“SNL 50: The Anniversary Special,” the pinnacle of a season-long celebration for the NBC sketch institution, won seven Emmys, including awards for its directing, writing, hairstyling and editing. A pop-up immersive experience tied to the special won an Emmy for emerging media and regular episodes of the show won three more.
HBO's “Pee-wee as Himself” won four awards including best documentary, posthumously giving its star and subject Paul Reubens, who died in 2023, his first primetime Emmy.
O'Brien won an Emmy for his travel series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” taking his career total to six. And while he didn't get one personally for the show, Netflix's “Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For American Humor” beat out football halftime shows from Lamar and Beyoncé to win best variety special.
Beyoncé did win a previously announced special Emmy for the costumes on her Christmas Day “Beyoncé Bowl” on Netflix.
Kimmel, who has hosted both the Oscars and the Emmys multiple times, was here to accept his fourth primetime Emmy, for best host of a game show for his work on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
He thanked the show’s late original host Regis Philbin for making “Millionaire” a cultural phenomenon.
“Regis was the best at this,” Kimmel said backstage. “It is exciting to have this and to know that he has this same Emmy in his family’s collection somewhere.”
“Jeopardy” won best game show, while Cumming won best host of a reality show for “The Traitors.”
The two-night Creative Arts Emmys hands out nearly 100 awards in hyper-specific categories that can bring oddities. Like the Grammys and Oscars winning Emmys, as each did Sunday.
The CBS Grammys telecast won for its choreography, while ABC's Oscars telecast — also hosted by O'Brien — won for its production design.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was honored with the Television Academy's Governors Award even as it winds down its nearly 60-year work after the US government withdrew funding from the institution that has helped pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and TV stations
The award goes to a person or entity “made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television.”
“Even an act of Congress cannot erase an indelible legacy,” Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, said during the presentation.
The Creative Arts show runs quickly and efficiently — 47 awards are handed out on Sunday alone in about 2 1/2 hours — but the atmosphere is loose. Swearing is allowed because of the lack of TV, as Kimmel showed when he told nominee Will Ferrell to shut up during his speech.
“This is the Emmys for the people that the people who run the Emmys don’t think should be seen on network TV,” presenter Sarah Silverman said when she opened the show as a presenter.
The two nights are edited down into one show that will air on TV on FXX on Saturday. The following day, the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Nate Bargatze, will air live on CBS.
While Sunday honored variety, documentary and reality TV, scripted series had the stage on Saturday.
“The Studio” won nine early Emmys including best guest actor in a comedy for Bryan Cranston, making it the front-runner to end up with the biggest total after next Sunday's main show.
“Severance” was tops among dramas with six awards, including best guest actress in a drama for Merritt Wever.
“The Penguin” pulled in eight in the limited series categories, and Julie Andrews won her third Emmy at age 89 for her voice-over work on “Bridgerton.”
