The 2026 Emmys opened Saturday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with the first trophies of the season handed out across 49 Creative Arts categories. Night 1 was the start of a three-night run, and it immediately put unscripted television at the center of the awards race.
That is why the searches are starting now: the Emmys 2026 cycle has moved from nominations to winners, and the first names are already landing. Jimmy Kimmel was among the early winners as the ceremony began, while Saturday Night Live, The Oscars and the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny led the Night 1 field. RuPaul's Drag Race and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert were close behind, as the night spread across documentary, reality, game show, variety special and short form series categories.
Not every result on the board was settled in the room. The TV Academy had already announced juried winners on Aug. 12, and those categories were decided by panels of professionals rather than the full membership. That means some honors, including Best Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming for The Masked Singer and The Traitors, were already known before Saturday’s live updating began, even as the rest of Night 1 continued to fill in the list.
Among the other clear stakes on the ballot, Celebrity Family Feud was the winner in Best Game Show, while Best Variety Series Writing was one of five races moved off the Sept. 14 primetime telecast on NBC. The first two nights of Creative Arts competition will be folded into a single broadcast of the 78th Emmy Awards (Creative Arts), set for Sept. 12 on FXX at 8 p.m. ET/PT and streaming on Hulu the next day. Last year’s unscripted ceremony belonged to SNL50: The Anniversary Special, which took home seven trophies, so the question now is whether this year’s field can produce a similarly lopsided sweep or whether the wins spread out more widely.
The night is only the beginning. Night 2 still has to play out, and then the edited telecast arrives Sept. 12 with the finished picture of the opening Creative Arts run.
