‘Widow’s Bay’ Wins Best Comedy Series, Breaks Emmy Comedy Record With 14 Wins, Topping Last Year’s ‘The Studio’

After one of the most talked-about Emmy races in recent memory, Katie Dippold’s Apple TV comedy about a group of oddballs living on a haunted Massachusetts island has taken home the Emmy for best Comedy Series, making a record-breaking total of 14 wins for the show — the most of any comedy series in a single year. Last year The Studio held the record with 13 wins, and before that, The Bear with 11 in 2024.

Katie Dippold, creator of this year’s Outstanding Comedy Series said from the winner’s podium, “I have to thank my mom for always making Halloween fun,” before thanking all the cast and creatives and Apple “they truly just let us do this weird show, we can’t thank you enough,” she said, before also thanking “the evil entity on the island that trusted us with its story.”

Dippold, who also won for Writing in a Comedy Series, was joined on stage by EP and director Hiro Murai who tonight became the first Asian person to win in the Directing in a Comedy Series category. Beside them was lead actor Matthew Rhys, who won twice this evening — for both Widow’s Bay and in the Lead Actor in a Limited Series category for The Beast in Me — and by first-time Emmy-winning Widow’s co-stars Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root.

In the show, Rhys plays Mayor Tom Loftis, who tries desperately to boost tourism revenue despite the centuries-old curse that plagues the islanders, including fisherman Wyck (Root), the town hall staffers Patricia (O’Flynn), Dale Dickey (Rosemary), Dale (Jeff Hiller) and Sherriff Bechir (Kevin Carroll).

It’s not often that a stealth new series rides in on a late wave to take the win from an existing Emmy favorite — and one in its fifth and final season, no less. By all accounts, the Comedy Series category was neck and neck in recent weeks between Widow’s Bay and HBO Max’s long-running hit Hacks, starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder as veteran comedian Deborah Vance and her writing partner Ava.

Widow’s Bay had a total of 19 total nominations, and during last weekend’s Emmy Awards ceremonies, formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys, Betty Gilpin won for her guest role on the show, among a total of eight awards last weekend, including Casting, Cinematography, Production Design, Music Composition and Supervision, Sound Editing and Mixing.

With Hacks in its fifth and last season, Jean Smart won this evening in Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and the show as a whole had 25 nominations this year, with 87 total Emmy noms over its five seasons.

Widow’s Bay is set for a second season with its writers’ room already well under way.