‘Widow’s Bay’ breaks Emmys record with 14 wins

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A “Widow’s Bay” wave slammed into the Emmy Awards on Monday night as the Apple TV show set a single-season record for a comedy with 14 wins, including best comedy series and best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who personally took home three trophies.

“The celebrations will be long, varied, and I hope at times wild,” Rhys said backstage while holding two of his Emmys.

“The Pitt” won best drama series for the second straight year, and star Noah Wyle repeated as best actor in a drama, but the HBO Max emergency room drama won no other Emmys and underperformed its expectations.

Rhea Seehorn won best actress in a drama for “Pluribus,” and Jean Smart won her fifth best actress in a comedy award for the fifth and final season of “Hacks.” No actor had won an Emmy every year for a series that lasted more than three seasons until Smart did it Monday.

Every other comedy award went to “Widow’s Bay,” which unequivocally owned the night and broke the comedy series record set last year by “The Studio” when it won 13.

Along with best actor in a comedy, Rhys won best actor in a limited series for “The Beast in Me,” becoming the first man to win two leading actor categories in the same year, and he gets one of the best comedy series trophies as an executive producer for “Widow’s Bay.”

The first-season series created by Katie Dippold leans hard into both comedy and horror as it tells the story of a New England island community, with Rhys as its mayor, reckoning with a centuries-old curse.

“Thank you, Apple, for letting us take this crazy, creative swing,” Dippold said as she accepted the best comedy award. “They truly just let us do this weird show.”

Apple TV solidified its status as the owner of the Emmy comedy categories. Between “Widow’s Bay,” “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” it has won best comedy series four times in six seasons. The latter two shows were between seasons and not eligible this year.

“Widow’s Bay” also won for directing for Hiro Murai and for writing for its creator Dippold, a first-time Emmy winner and first-time nominee who was previously best known for a decade-old viral tweet showing her awkwardly dressed as “The Babadook.”

“When I was sitting there in that costume,” Dippold said backstage after the show, “I did not think that this moment would happen.”

“Widow’s Bay” had won eight Emmys in a previous ceremony before sweeping all six of its categories Monday night. Stephen Root won best supporting actor in a comedy series and Kate O’Flynn won best supporting actress.

“The Pitt” was the top drama nominee with 25 and “Hacks” was the top comedy nominee with 24, but neither made much of a splash when it came time to claim trophies.

Smart’s was the only win for “Hacks” on Monday night.

“What a ride this has been,” an emotional Smart said after getting a standing ovation.

The 75-year-old has won eight Emmys overall in a career that was already more than respectable when she landed her defining role of Deborah Vance, a brash stand-up comic pushing back against age, obscurity and sexism in the HBO Max series.