The Bad Bunny Emmy win at the 78th Creative Arts Emmy Awards was not just a personal first, it was a piece of television history. The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, for which Bad Bunny was credited as performer and producer, became the first Spanish-language programme to win Outstanding Variety Special (Live), according to Billboard.
Sabrina Carpenter picked up her own first Emmy on the same night, recognised as executive producer and performer on The Muppet Show, which took Best Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). Neither artist was present at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, where the ceremony was held on 5 September, and neither had addressed the awards on social media by the time the evening wrapped.
Bad Bunny Emmy Win Sweeps All Seven Nominated Categories
The halftime show did not simply win, it dominated. Pitchfork reports that the production swept all seven categories in which it was nominated, making it the most-awarded halftime performance in television history. That is a clean sweep across the board, not a partial haul.
Jay-Z, an executive producer on the halftime show, added to his own Emmy collection in the process. He had previously won for his work on Kendrick Lamar’s performance at Super Bowl LIX, also according to Pitchfork. Two consecutive Super Bowl halftime shows, two Emmy wins, not a bad run.
The show’s historic status goes beyond the trophies. As the first Spanish-language programme to claim Outstanding Variety Special (Live), it marks a genuine first in the category’s history, one that lands differently given the scale of the Super Bowl’s global viewership.
Carpenter, EGOT Status and What Comes Next
For Carpenter, the Emmy completes a different kind of milestone moment. The Muppet Show, which was released in February, received six nominations and won four. Her recognition in the Best Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) category came for her dual role as executive producer and performer on the special.
Both she and Bad Bunny now sit halfway to EGOT status, the rare achievement of winning a Grammy, Emmy, Oscar and Tony. Each already holds Grammys: Carpenter won two at the 2025 ceremony, while Bad Bunny has accumulated six Grammys and 17 Latin Grammys, with his first Grammy arriving in 2021. To complete the set, both now need an Oscar and a Tony.
On Sunday, Carpenter broke her silence on Instagram. ‘A lot of love and happiness and hard work and diva fights went into making this special,’ she wrote. Concise, and probably accurate on all four counts.
Elsewhere in the evening, The Traitors took six awards overall, including Outstanding Directing for a Reality Programme and Outstanding Host for Alan Cumming, making it the second-most-decorated show on the night behind the halftime show. Octavia Spencer was among the other first-time Emmy winners, honoured for her work on the true-crime series Lost Women of Alaska.
Wanda Sykes opened the ceremony with a defence of the technical categories the Creative Arts Emmys exist to celebrate. ‘Television isn’t made by a handful of people,’ she said. ‘It’s made by thousands of talented people solving impossible problems together to create something great. So, the more excellence there is to recognise, the more time we should spend celebrating it.’ The Primetime Emmys follow on 14 September, where Apple Music‘s halftime show may yet add to its total.
