No one could stand in the way of this juggernaut! The biggest shocks from the Emmy awards — SkimNews
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- Jean Smart won lead actress in a comedy for Hacks, becoming the first woman to win an Emmy for every season of a show's run.
- Hacks entered the ceremony with a record 24 nominations for a comedy in a single year but won just one Emmy (Smart's) plus a Creative Arts Emmy for picture editing, losing 22 awards overall.
- Widow's Bay swept the comedy categories with 14 total Emmys, taking six of the seven comedy awards given during the televised broadcast — outstanding comedy series, lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, writing and directing.
- Matthew Rhys won lead actor in a comedy for Widow's Bay and lead actor in a limited or anthology series for The Beast in Me, making him the first actor to win lead actor Emmys across comedy, drama and limited series.
- Allison Janney won best supporting actress in a drama for The Diplomat, an upset over The Pitt's Katherine LaNasa, while Sally Field won for Remarkably Bright Creatures over Beef's Carey Mulligan.
- Rhea Seehorn finally won an Emmy for Pluribus after years of being snubbed for Better Call Saul.
Why it matters: Widow's Bay's sweep — winning six of seven televised comedy awards plus eight more across Creative Arts — represents one of the most dominant single-show performances in Emmy history and sets a new benchmark for comedy genre dominance. Meanwhile, Hacks' collapse from a record 24 nominations to one win underscores how rapidly voter sentiment can shift once a perceived 'protest vote' frontrunner is challenged by a broadly beloved successor.
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