‘Widow’s Bay’ Wins Emmy for Best Comedy Series, Setting New Record

Widow’s Bay has won the top comedy award at the 2026 Emmys, which also happened to be the final trophy of the evening. (The Emmy Awards rotate between ending on comedy and drama each year.) In doing so, the freshman series set a new record for most Emmys (14) for a first-year comedy series, topping fellow Apple TV program The Studio (13) from just last year.

The best comedy category this year also included ABC’s Abbott Elementary, the penultimate season FX/Hulu’s The Bear, the final season of HBO Max series Hacks, Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building and Apple TV’s Shrinking.

Hacks set a single-season record this year for most nominations for a comedy series with 24; Widow’s Bay led all new shows with 19 nominations.

Last year, The Studio won the category (and a bunch of others). The Studio received 23 nominations in 2025, tying the prior record for a comedy series (the one Hacks surpassed this year). Seth Rogen’s comedy series defeated all of the same shows that are nominated this year, with one exception: the final season of What We Do in the Shadows in the spot was occupied by season one of Widow’s Bay.

Widow’s Bay hails from Kate Dippold.

Here is the complete list of Widow’s Bay Emmy wins:
Best Comedy Series
Best Actor in a Comedy Series — Matthew Rhys
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series — Kate O’Fkynn
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series — Stephen Root
Best Directing for a Comedy Series — Hiro Murai
Best Writing for a Comedy Series — Kate Dippold
Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series
Best Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour)
Guest Actress in a Comedy Series — Betty Gilpin
Best Score — David Fleming
Music Supervision — Toko Nagata
Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour)
Sound Editing for a Series (Half-Hour)
Sound Mixing for a Series (Half-Hour)