'SNL' wins big for season 50 at the Creative Arts Emmys. Obama, Kimmel
and Lamar also take trophies
[September 08, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Barack Obama won his third career Emmy and Kendrick
Lamar won his second, while the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was
the biggest winner with 11 on the second night of the Creative Arts Emmy
Awards.
Lamar and Tony Russell won for the music direction of his Super Bowl
halftime show. He won his first Emmy in 2022 as a performer at the Super
Bowl halftime headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
Obama won a star-studded documentary narrator category that also
included Tom Hanks, Idris Elba and David Attenborough. He won the same
award in 2022 and 2023.
Neither Lamar nor Obama was at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to
accept his Emmy. Neither were expected to be, at a show that despite
several high-profile winners including Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien and
Alan Cumming is primarily devoted to behind-the-scenes crew members a
week before TV's stars take the same stage for the bigger Emmys
ceremony.
Presenter Jordan Klepper laughed along with the crowd as he said,
“Apparently, Barack Obama couldn’t be here tonight” after announcing the
winner.
“SNL 50: The Anniversary Special,” the pinnacle of a season-long
celebration for the NBC sketch institution, won seven Emmys, including
awards for its directing, writing, hairstyling and editing. A pop-up
immersive experience tied to the special won an Emmy for emerging media
and regular episodes of the show won three more.
HBO's “Pee-wee as Himself” won four awards including best documentary,
posthumously giving its star and subject Paul Reubens, who died in 2023,
his first primetime Emmy.
O'Brien an Emmy for his travel series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” taking
his career total to six. And while he didn't get one personally for the
show, Netflix's “Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For
American Humor” beat out football halftime shows from Lamar and Beyoncé
to win best variety special.
Beyoncé did win a previously announced special Emmy for the costumes on
her Christmas Day “Beyoncé Bowl” on Netflix.
Kimmel, who has hosted both the Oscars and the Emmys multiple times, was
here to accept his fourth primetime Emmy, for best host of a game show
for his work on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
He thanked the show’s late original host Regis Philbin for making
“Millionaire” a cultural phenomenon.
“Regis was the best at this,” Kimmel said backstage. “It is exciting to
have this and to know that he has this same Emmy in his family’s
collection somewhere.”
“Jeopardy” won best game show, while Cumming won best host of a reality
show for “The Traitors.”
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The team from "White Rabbit" pose in the press room with the award
for outstanding innovation in emerging media programming during
night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025,
at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
 The two-night Creative Arts Emmys
hands out nearly 100 awards in hyper-specific categories that can
bring oddities. Like the Grammys and Oscars winning Emmys, as each
did Sunday.
The CBS Grammys telecast won for its choreography, while ABC's
Oscars telecast — also hosted by O'Brien — won for its production
design.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was honored with the
Television Academy's Governors Award even as it winds down its
nearly 60-year work after the U.S. government withdrew funding from
the institution that has helped pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio
and TV stations
The award goes to a person or entity “made a profound,
transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or
science of television.”
“Even an act of Congress can not erase an indelible legacy,” Henry
Louis Gates Jr., host of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, said during
the presentation.
“Queer Eye” won best structured reality show, while “Love on the
Spectrum” won best unstructured reality show.
The Creative Arts show runs quickly and efficiently — 47 awards are
handed out on Sunday aloe in about 2 1/2 hours — but the atmosphere
is loose. Swearing is allowed because of the lack of TV, as Kimmel
showed when he told nominee Will Ferrell to shut up during his
speech.
“This is the Emmys for the people that the people who run the Emmys
don’t think should be seen on network TV,” presenter Sarah Silverman
said when she opened the show as a presenter.
The two nights are edited down into one show that will air on TV on
FXX on Saturday. The following day, the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards,
hosted by Nate Bargatze, will air live on CBS.
While Sunday honored variety, documentary and reality TV, scripted
series had the stage on Saturday.
“The Studio” won nine early Emmys including best guest actor in a
comedy for Bryan Cranston, making it the front-runner to end up with
the biggest total after next Sunday's main show.
“Severance” was tops among dramas with six awards, including best
guest actress in a drama for Merritt Wever.
“The Penguin” pulled in eight in the limited series categories, and
Julie Andrews won her third Emmy at age 89 for her voice-over work
on “Bridgerton,”
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