The 2026 Emmys have honoured a first wave of actors while awarding TV’s best guest stars of the year at the Creative Arts ceremony, which included a posthumous award for the late Rob Reiner.
Reiner, the beloved director behind classic films including The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and This Is Spinal Tap, was found murdered along with his wife Michele Singer Reiner at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles last December. Their son Nick Reiner has been charged with their killing, and has pleaded not guilty.
On Sunday (6 September), Rob won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his role in The Bear, and received a standing ovation from the audience. The trophy was accepted by Wendi McLendon-Covey, who said: “It's appropriate to stand for this one. I know we all wish Rob could be here tonight.”
The late Hollywood legend beat Michael J Fox and Brett Goldstein (Shrinking), Hamish Linklater (Widow’s Bay), Christopher McDonald (Hacks) and Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie (nominated for his Saturday Night Live hosting stint). Reiner’s win arrived 48 years after his last Emmy win, for sitcom All in the Family in 1978, beating his father Carl Reiner’s record for longest gap between acting wins in Emmy history.
Linda Cardellini and David Harbour took home Supporting Actor and Actress in a Limited Series for HBO series DTF St Louis.
It was Cardellini’s fourth nomination, and she told the audience: "Thank you to everybody who along the way through the years helped me get to this moment of a real dream come true.”
Betty Gilpin won Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Apple TV’s horror-comedy Widow’s Bay, which surged ahead with eight early trophies for its debut season on Sunday, eight days before the main telecast, with Shailene Woodley winning her first Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama for her role on Paradise.
Meanwhile, medical drama The Pitt – the leading nominee this year with 25 nods and the defending Best Drama winner – claimed four awards, including Supporting Actor in a Drama for Ernest Harden Jr, 73, who received his first ever nomination for playing the alcoholic patient, Louie Cloverfield.
Harden wept as 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.”
Despite appearing in the 1975 thriller Three Days of the Condor and spending three seasons on the 1970s sitcom The Jeffersons, Harden had spent decades acting without award recognition.
Widow’s Bay, starring Matthew Rhys as the mayor of a cursed New England town, won technical categories including cinematography, sound, music and production design.
When Gilpin won, she delivered a rapid comic poem as her acceptance speech that featured 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 Television Academy presents over 100 primetime Emmys, with most awarded across a weekend double ceremony. Formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys, they have been rebranded as the opening two nights of the 78th Emmy Awards.
The weekend ceremonies will be edited into a broadcast airing 12 September on FXX (in the US) and streaming on Hulu the next day. The main 14 September telecast at the Peacock Theater, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, will broadcast live on NBC and stream on Peacock.
Both Widow's Bay and The Pitt could add up to six further Emmys on the final night.
Pluribus, an Apple TV drama from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan capable of challenging The Pitt, collected four trophies on Sunday, including editing, production design and sound mixing.
Spider-Noir, cancelled last week after one season by Amazon Prime Video, claimed five Emmys, including visual effects and stunts.
Hargitay picked up two Emmys for directing the documentary about her mother Jayne Mansfield, My Mom Jayne, complementing her 2006 Best Drama Actress Emmy for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Bad Bunny also earned his first career Emmy for his Super Bowl halftime show, which gathered seven awards during Saturday’s initial ceremony.
Additional reporting by Agencies
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