HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt went into the Emmys with more nominations than any other show. But after the first awards were handed out this weekend, another series is out in front.
Apple TV’s supernatural comedy Widow’s Bay has eight wins so far, the biggest haul of any program. DTF St. Louis has six, the already-canceled Spider-Noir won five, and The Pitt and Pluribus have four each.
The ceremonies are being held across three nights this year, with more than 100 awards already handed out. The biggest prizes will come during the main show, which airs Monday, Sept. 14, on NBC and Peacock — but the early wins are already making a case for some shows worth a closer look.
If you’re looking for something new to watch, here’s what stands out.
‘Widow’s Bay’
This comedy-horror is set on an isolated New England island, where the superstitious residents have long believed their home is cursed. The Americans star Matthew Rhys plays the skeptical mayor, who’s determined to turn Widow’s Bay into a tourist destination — even as the island’s old legends start coming true.
The show arrived with plenty of critical acclaim. The Guardian called it “absolutely wonderful” and singled out Rhys’s “remarkable performance,” while NPR compared the series to “a Stranger Things intended for grown-ups.” Variety praised its mix of deadpan humor and “authentically creepy” moments.
What’s striking about its Emmy haul is how broadly the praise is spread. Widow’s Bay won for casting, cinematography, production design, music and sound, while Betty Gilpin also took an Emmy for her guest performance. Rather than one standout performance carrying the show, the wins point to how much is working around Rhys — from the world the program creates to the way it looks and sounds.
‘DTF St. Louis’
Two unhappy husbands decide to spice up their marriages with a hookup app — and one of them ends up dead. Ozark star Jason Bateman and Stranger Things’ David Harbour play the friends at the center of the dark comedy, with Linda Cardellini as Harbour’s onscreen wife.
TheWrap called it “funny, lurid and creepingly compassionate,” while TV Guide described the series as “audaciously original” and said creator Steven Conrad was working “at the peak of his powers.”
The Emmy results suggest there’s much more going on here than the provocative premise. Conrad won for both writing and directing, while Harbour and Cardellini picked up acting awards. With additional wins in cinematography and picture editing, DTF St. Louis was rewarded in almost every major aspect of its storytelling.
‘Spider-Noir’
Streaming on: Prime Video
Nicolas Cage takes on Spider-Man in this 1930s-set crime drama, playing an aging private detective who was once New York’s masked superhero.
Influenced by classic film noir, the series was released in both black-and-white and color versions. That distinctive approach became one of its biggest strengths at the Emmys: Spider-Noir won five awards, including for cinematography, visual effects and stunt coordination.
Prime Video canceled the show just days before those wins, leaving it with only one season. But the awards make a stronger case for revisiting it: At a time when superhero shows can blur together, Spider-Noir was rewarded for looking and feeling different.
‘Pluribus’
Imagine being one of the last unhappy people left on Earth. That’s the premise behind this mind-bending sci-fi series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn plays a woman who’s unaffected after almost everyone else is absorbed into a permanently happy hive mind.
The Los Angeles Times called Seehorn “marvelous,” while the Washington Post praised the show’s “fascinating, original” concept and “stunning” visuals.
So far, the Emmys have rewarded the machinery that makes that strange premise convincing. Pluribus won for production design, picture editing, sound mixing and its main title theme — a sweep of behind-the-scenes categories that shows just how carefully Gilligan’s unsettling new world has been built.
‘The Pitt’
Of The Pitt’s 13 acting nominees, the first to win wasn’t Noah Wyle or one of the show’s regulars. It was Ernest Harden Jr., 73, who won the Emmy for guest actor for playing patient Louie Cloverfield.
Harden has been acting for more than 50 years, with credits stretching back to Three Days of the Condor and The Jeffersons.
His win also highlights something easy to overlook about The Pitt: Five of its guest stars were nominated, and the show also won for casting. For a medical drama built around a constant flow of people through the ER, the patients are a major part of what makes the show work.
‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’
This comedy-drama follows a young mom (Elle Fanning) who turns to OnlyFans after dropping out of college and struggling to pay the bills. Nick Offerman and Michelle Pfeiffer play Margo’s very different parents: an ex-pro wrestler who moves in with her and a former Hooters waitress with plenty of opinions about her daughter’s choices.
The show is much sweeter than its premise might suggest. The Los Angeles Times called it “terribly sentimental, almost corny” but “undeniably effective,” while RogerEbert.com described it as “wickedly funny.”
Its first three Emmys all went to the people responsible for how that eccentric cast of characters looks: contemporary costumes, makeup and hairstyling. Offerman’s ex-wrestler gets the full spray-tan-and-tattoos treatment, while Margo’s OnlyFans shoots become increasingly elaborate as her following grows.
‘My Mom Jayne’
Mariska Hargitay will host the Emmys on Monday, but she’s already going into the ceremony with two trophies of her own.
The Law & Order: SVU star made her feature directing debut with My Mom Jayne, a documentary about her mother, Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car crash when Hargitay was 3. Using home movies, photographs and conversations with her siblings, Hargitay tries to piece together the life of a mother she barely had the chance to know.
The film won outstanding documentary or nonfiction special, while Hargitay won for directing. They’re her first Emmys for work behind the camera; her previous trophy came 20 years ago for playing Olivia Benson on SVU.
For someone who’s been synonymous with Olivia Benson for decades, the wins make My Mom Jayne more than an interesting side project. They put a spotlight on a different part of Hargitay’s career — and on what she can achieve behind the camera.