The 78th Emmy Awards have already delivered one of their most emotional nights. On Sunday, September 6, The Pitt collected four trophies, including a long-awaited first Emmy for 73-year-old Ernest Harden Jr., while Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay emerged as the biggest winner of Night Two with eight awards.

But Harden’s victory was only one part of a surprisingly stacked night. DTF St. Louis followed with six Emmys, the canceled Spider-Noir still managed five, and several major performers received awards before the main September 14 telecast.

The Full Night Two Breakdown: Every winner from Widow’s Bay’s dominant showing to Spider-Noir’s surprising haul, laid out in one place. For more, read our companion piece: Creative Arts Emmys 2026: Widow’s Bay Dominates Night Two — But Did Spider-Noir’s 5 Wins Change the Emmy Race?.

Ernest Harden Jr. Wins His First Emmy After Five Decades of Acting

For Ernest Harden Jr., the moment had been a very long time coming.

The 73-year-old actor won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Louie Cloverfield in The Pitt, playing the emergency room’s troubled, constantly present alcoholic.

Harden’s win came after a career spanning five decades without a previous Emmy nomination. His first speaking film role came in the 1975 Robert Redford-Faye Dunaway thriller Three Days of the Condor, and he later appeared in three seasons of The Jeffersons.

He was competing against fellow The Pitt guest star Jeff Kober, as well as Colman Domingo for Euphoria, Jeff Hiller for Pluribus, Jonathan Pryce for Slow Horses and Bradley Whitford for The Diplomat.

When Harden’s name was announced, he became visibly emotional and wept onstage.

Backstage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Harden described what the victory felt like:

“I am just on cloud 25.”

He added:

“I’m not saying it’s a complete surprise because ‘The Pitt’ is such a powerful show to come from, but just to get it in your hands is unreal.”

The award represents a remarkable late-career milestone for an actor who has continued working steadily for decades despite never previously receiving Emmy recognition.

And Harden wasn’t the only reason The Pitt had a major night.

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The Pitt Actually Won Four Emmys on Night Two — Not Three

There was an important correction to the earlier reporting surrounding The Pitt.

While the supplied initial report described the series as taking three early Emmys on Sunday, the final Television Academy results confirm that The Pitt won four awards during Night Two.

Here is the complete Night Two haul:

Category	Winner/Recipient
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	Ernest Harden Jr.
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup	Myriam Arougheti, Arjen Tuiten, Thom Floutz, Chris Burgoyne, Martina Sykes and Hanny Tjan
Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series	Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Erica Berger and Seth Caskey
Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics	“Need Someone” — Gavin Brivik, music; Andrew Bird, music and lyrics

The fourth win came for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for “Need Someone.”

Andrew Bird also explained the unusual musical role he played in the medical drama:

“It’s not a music-heavy show. But they gave us a beautiful moment with a character that we love.”

With those four Night Two victories, The Pitt reached nine total Emmys across the 2025 and 2026 awards cycles, according to the Television Academy.

And the story is far from finished.

The Pitt entered the 78th Emmys as the year’s most-nominated program with 25 nominations. It also returned to the ceremony as the reigning Outstanding Drama Series winner after taking the top prize for its first season.

The September 14 primetime ceremony still gives the medical drama major opportunities, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Noah Wyle.

But despite The Pitt’s strong showing, another show quietly dominated the numbers.

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Widow’s Bay Leads the 2026 Emmy Night Two Winners With Eight Awards

The biggest winner of Night Two was Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, which collected eight Emmys for its debut season.

The horror-comedy mixes small-town humour with supernatural mystery, following a New England island community dealing with strange and unexplained phenomena.

Matthew Rhys stars as Mayor Tom Loftis, whose community becomes entangled in a centuries-old curse.

Among the show’s victories was an acting award for Betty Gilpin, who won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Widow’s Bay also picked up several craft awards, including recognition for cinematography, sound and production design.

Gilpin made her acceptance speech stand out with a rapid-fire comic poem.

Two of the lines were:

“our business is stupid, but actors are the bomb”

and:

“let’s all lean more toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman.”

The eight-award haul makes Widow’s Bay one of the breakout Emmy stories of the year, particularly because it is a first-season contender competing alongside established television favourites.

And the show’s Emmy campaign isn’t over yet.

It remains in contention in major categories at the September 14 primetime ceremony, meaning its Night Two momentum could turn into an even bigger awards haul.

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DTF St. Louis Scores Six Emmys as Performing Categories Shake Up Emmy Weekend

HBO’s DTF St. Louis was another major force on Night Two, collecting six Emmys in the limited or anthology series categories.

Two of its biggest victories came through its performers.

David Harbour and Linda Cardellini both won their first Emmys.

Their victories were especially significant because of a major structural change to the 2026 Emmy Awards.

Several performance categories that would traditionally have been presented during the main primetime broadcast were moved to the earlier ceremonies.

That meant Night Two had considerably more star power than audiences might normally expect from a Creative Arts Emmy event.

Harbour and Cardellini were among the prominent performers benefiting from that restructuring.

But the changes didn’t stop there.

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Shailene Woodley Finally Wins Her First Emmy for Paradise

Shailene Woodley also walked away with her first Emmy, winning Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Annie in Hulu’s Paradise.

Woodley had previously received an Emmy nomination for playing Jane Chapman in HBO’s Big Little Lies, but this was her first victory.

Her winning episode, “Graceland,” follows Annie as a survivor who has spent years isolated inside Elvis Presley’s former Memphis home.

Backstage, Woodley said she had been a fan of the dystopian Hulu series since its first season and particularly enjoyed getting the opportunity to explore Annie’s unusual circumstances.

She described the experience by saying:

“The whole ‘Paradise’ journey from beginning to end is just a gift that continues to give.”

Woodley’s victory came in a category packed with The Pitt representation.

Three The Pitt guest actresses had been nominated — Brittany Allen, Tal Anderson and Tina Ivlev — but none took home the award.

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Spider-Noir Wins Five Emmys Even After Amazon Canceled the Series

Then there was one of the weekend’s strangest Emmy stories.

Spider-Noir, the Nicolas Cage-led series, collected five Emmys despite Amazon canceling the show after its first season.

The series won recognition in technical areas including visual effects and stunt work.

The Television Academy’s final results also confirm a win for Outstanding Title Design among its multiple technical victories.

That leaves Spider-Noir with a surprisingly substantial Emmy weekend haul despite having no second season ahead.

In other words, cancellation didn’t stop the series from leaving the 78th Emmy Awards with a serious awards tally.

Rob Reiner Wins a Posthumous Emmy for The Bear

One of Night Two’s most emotional moments came with Rob Reiner’s posthumous Emmy victory.

Reiner won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Albert on The Bear.

Reiner died in December along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.

The victory came nearly five decades after his earlier Emmy success for his acting on All in the Family.

He had been nominated alongside Michael J. Fox, who was recognized for his performance as a patient on Shrinking. Fox has lived with Parkinson’s disease since being diagnosed in the 1990s.

Reiner’s 2026 Emmy adds another chapter to a television career that already included multiple Emmy wins and nominations across several decades.

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Mariska Hargitay Wins Two Emmys for My Mom Jayne

Emmy host Mariska Hargitay also had a major weekend, collecting two new awards for her documentary My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay.

The film explores the life of her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield.

Hargitay won:

• Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
• Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program

The victories arrive 20 years after Hargitay won her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006.

And her Emmy weekend isn’t over yet.

Hargitay is scheduled to host the main 78th Emmy Awards primetime ceremony on September 14.

Pluribus Picks Up Four Emmys Ahead of the Major Drama Awards

Apple TV’s Pluribus, created by Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan, also had a strong Night Two.

The series collected four technical Emmys, including awards in areas such as editing, production design and sound mixing.

Its performance adds to the growing sense that Pluribus could become one of the strongest challengers to The Pitt when the major drama categories are finally decided during the September 14 telecast.

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Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Beef Also Score Multiple Emmy Wins

Margo’s Got Money Troubles picked up three craft awards, putting it among the more successful programs of the night alongside Widow’s Bay, The Pitt and Pluribus.

Netflix’s Beef also had a productive night, taking three Emmys in the limited-series field, including awards connected to costumes and sound.

Several other programmes collected two awards during the weekend:

• Palm Royale
• Bridgerton
• Fallout
• Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal

But the Emmy weekend had already produced a major winner before Night Two even began.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Wins Seven Emmys on Night One

Saturday’s first night delivered a major crossover between music, sports and television.

Bad Bunny’s Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show won seven awards, giving the performer his first career Emmy.

The Television Academy records the production as the winner of Outstanding Variety Special (Live).

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, was credited as both a producer and performer.

The halftime production also won Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Special, among its seven total victories.

That made the opening night of the 78th Emmys a significant one even before the major acting moments arrived on Sunday.

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Why the 2026 Emmy Awards Are Being Held Across Three Nights

The 2026 Emmys are being presented in a format that differs from previous years.

The Television Academy had traditionally referred to the weekend ceremonies as the Creative Arts Emmys.

For 2026, however, the two September ceremonies have been incorporated into the overall Emmy presentation as the first two nights of the 78th Emmy Awards.

The Academy distributes well over 100 Primetime Emmys, with the majority going to the creative and technical teams responsible for television productions.

But Night Two looked different this year because five categories traditionally reserved for the main September 14 telecast were moved to the earlier ceremony.

Those included:

• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

The change brought performers including Jason Bateman, Charles Melton, Laurie Metcalf and Dakota Fanning into the weekend ceremonies alongside the traditional craft categories.

That restructuring is a major reason Night Two featured such a striking collection of high-profile acting winners.

When and Where to Watch the Remaining 2026 Emmy Awards

The first two nights of the 78th Emmy Awards are scheduled to be edited together for television and will air September 12 on FXX, with streaming on Hulu the following day.

The main 78th Emmy Awards ceremony will then take place on Monday, September 14, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles.

Mariska Hargitay will host the primetime ceremony.

The September 14 show will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock.

The main ceremony will determine the winners of the major remaining categories, including:

• Outstanding Drama Series
• Outstanding Comedy Series

That means The Pitt, Widow’s Bay and the other leading contenders still have plenty of room to increase their Emmy totals.

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2026 Emmy Awards: Key Dates and Broadcast Details

Date	Event	Official details
September 6, 2026	Night Two	Peacock Theater, Los Angeles
September 12, 2026	Edited Night One & Night Two broadcast	FXX
September 13, 2026	Streaming of weekend ceremonies	Hulu
September 14, 2026	78th Emmy Awards primetime ceremony	Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE; NBC and Peacock
September 14, 2026	Host	Mariska Hargitay

The Biggest Emmy Night Two Winners at a Glance

The final results make the scale of the weekend easier to see.

Show/Person	Night Two Emmy wins	Major recognition
Widow’s Bay	8	Biggest Night Two winner
DTF St. Louis	6	Includes wins for David Harbour and Linda Cardellini
Spider-Noir	5	Technical wins despite cancellation
The Pitt	4	Includes Ernest Harden Jr.’s acting win
Pluribus	4	Multiple technical categories
Margo’s Got Money Troubles	3	Craft awards
Beef	3	Limited-series awards
Palm Royale	2	Multiple weekend wins
Bridgerton	2	Multiple weekend wins
Fallout	2	Multiple weekend wins
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal	2	Multiple weekend wins

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The Emmy Weekend Has Already Changed the Awards Conversation

By the end of Night Two, the biggest storylines were no longer just about technical achievements.

Ernest Harden Jr. finally had his Emmy moment after decades in the industry. The Pitt added four trophies to an already impressive awards campaign. Widow’s Bay established itself as the night’s biggest winner with eight awards, while DTF St. Louis continued its strong showing with six.

Meanwhile, Shailene Woodley earned her first Emmy, Rob Reiner received a posthumous victory for The Bear, Mariska Hargitay added two awards of her own, and Spider-Noir managed to turn a canceled first season into a five-Emmy weekend.

And yet, the biggest prizes have not even been handed out.

The September 14 ceremony still has the power to reshape the final 2026 Emmy leaderboard, particularly with major categories such as Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Comedy Series still waiting to be decided.

For The Pitt, Widow’s Bay, Pluribus and the other leading contenders, the race is very much still alive.

Final Take: Ernest Harden Jr.’s First Emmy May Be the Moment People Remember Most

Awards shows are often remembered for the biggest totals, the headline winners and the races that dominate the next day’s conversation.

Night Two of the 78th Emmy Awards certainly had those.

Widow’s Bay led the night with eight wins. DTF St. Louis took six. Spider-Noir somehow walked away with five despite being canceled. The Pitt added four more trophies to its already formidable Emmy campaign.

But Ernest Harden Jr.’s victory carries a different kind of weight.

After five decades of acting work, from Three Days of the Condor to The Jeffersons and eventually The Pitt, the 73-year-old actor finally had an Emmy in his hands.

And as the September 14 primetime ceremony approaches, the question now shifts from who made the biggest statement during the first two nights to who will ultimately own the 78th Emmy Awards.

The answer is still waiting under those primetime lights.

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Disclaimer and Sources

This article has been prepared on the basis of thorough research and cross-checking of the verified information available following the September 6, 2026 ceremony. Award totals, winners, category information and broadcast details reflect the latest available results at the time of publication and may be updated as the September 14 primetime ceremony takes place.

The primary sources used for verification were the Television Academy’s official Night Two recap and Emmy records, including the official pages for The Pitt, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Paradise, Rob Reiner and My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay. Independent reporting from the Associated Press and WTAE-TV was also used to cross-check the September 6 ceremony, winners and major developments.

Sources

• Television Academy — Night Two of the 78th Emmy Awards — Official recap and final Night Two results.
• Television Academy — The Pitt Emmy Awards page — Official record confirming “The Pitt” and its 2026 Emmy wins.
• Television Academy — Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series — Official confirmation of Ernest Harden Jr.’s category and nomination.
• Television Academy — Paradise Emmy Awards page — Official confirmation of Shailene Woodley’s first Emmy.
• Television Academy — Rob Reiner Emmy profile — Official confirmation of Reiner’s posthumous 2026 Emmy.
• Television Academy — My Mom Jayne Emmy page — Official confirmation of Mariska Hargitay’s two documentary Emmys.
• Associated Press — ‘Widow’s Bay’ dominates with 8 Emmys at early ceremony and ‘The Pitt’ takes 4 — Independent reporting on the September 6 ceremony, winners and major moments.
• WTAE-TV — ‘The Pitt’ wins early Emmys including Ernest Harden Jr. — Source material supplied for the original report.

Featured Image Credit: Warrick Page / HBO Max