Emmy Analysis & Scorecards: Apple Breaks Records & Leads Honors With Huge Night For ‘Widow’s Bay’

From the moment that “Lancashire lass” Kate O’Flynn won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as “sassy broad” Patricia, it was clear that Apple and Widow’s Bay were going to have a big night. The cast of the horror comedy and the streamer will certainly be celebrating at sunset cocktails after the show broke the record for the number of statuettes that a comedy landed in one year and the company dominated the Emmys. Apple took in a haul of 28 Emmys (29 if you include the commercials win) across the first two nights last weekend and at tonight’s Primetime event, topping off the night with the big comedy win for Widow’s. Watch on Deadline For the first time since its launch in 2019, it beat HBO/HBO Max and Netflix to take the most gold back to Culver City (or Cupertino), breaking the recent hegemony of the two streamers. It managed to do this with far fewer shows and submissions that its rivals; Apple submitted 31 shows compared to Netflix’s 125 and HBO’s 86. Apple came into the night with 19 wins (20 if you count its commercial win). In addition to O’Flynn’s supporting actress in a comedy series win, Widow’s Bay took home wins for Outstanding Comedy Series, Matthew Rhys, who plays lead Mayor Tom Loftis, won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Stephen Root won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, creator Katie Dippold landed Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Hiro Murai won Outstanding Director for a Comedy Series. “Thank you Apple for letting us take this crazy, creative swing, they truly just let us do this weird show and we can’t thank you enough,” Dippold said after winning the main comedy series award. Elsewhere, Pluribus also helped Apple’s awards stock; Rhea Seehorn won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and creator Vince Gilligan won his first individual Emmy in a writing win. British spy drama Slow Horses also got in on the act with a win for director Saul Metzstein. The fact that Apple has broken two comedy series records in consecutive years (The Studio broke the record last year) is remarkable. The fact that Apple’s dominance comes only a year after it landed its best-ever awards haul last year and the two shows that helped it reach that – Seth Rogen’s comedy and Severance – were not eligible made it even more remarkable. Last year, the iPhone maker landed its most ever nominations with 81 and it surpassed that figure this year with 89 nominations across 15 shows. After the nominations, Apple TV’s head of programming Matt Cherniss, told Deadline that its “quality over quantity strategy” is the “best path forward”. “I believe we had 15 different shows nominated this year, we had 31 [show] submissions, so that kind of track record, and that kind of conversion, I think is rewarding in that it backs up sort of our strategy,” he said. Last year, HBO and Netflix shared the honors with 30 Emmy wins apiece but neither could match Apple this year. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network and streamer came in second this year with 21 wins across all three nights. It came into the Primetime Emmys with 16 awards, thanks to DTF St. Louis’s six wins and The Pitt’s four. The David Harbour/Jason Bateman drama added to that haul with the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, The Pitt examined two more wins including the main drama prize and one for Noah Wyle, while Tom Pelphrey took home a win for Task and Hacks went out with another Jean Smart win. Netflix, meanwhile, came into the night with 13 and added three more to its total: Matthew Rhys won two individual awards on the night including the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for his role in The Beast In Me; The Diplomat’s Allison Janney landed the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award and Sally Field surprised many with a win in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in Remarkably Bright Creatures. Finally, Peacock and Paramount took home one win each on the night; the former won for The Traitors in the reality category, while CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert landed the late-night award. As the Emmys closed out with its big comedy win for Widow’s Bay, the category was unveiled by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, stars of Apple’s upcoming comedy series Brothers, which will likely be on this stage, in some form, next year. To paraphrase Vince Gilligan when he picked up his Emmy, there’s nothing weirder than the current reality.