Sunday, September 6, 2026

Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime show wins seven Emmys


As I promised yesterday, I'm examining some of last night's Creative Arts Emmy Award winners for the Sunday entertainment feature. Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show was the big winner, taking home seven Emmy Awards, so I'm re-examining the predictions Gold Derby and I made. Follow over the jump.


First, the prediction for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).
Every expert and editor along with 94.7% of users have chosen The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, to use its official name, to win. The Oscars follow with 2.6% of users, then the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards and 78th Annual Tony Awards tie at 1.3%; no one is picking the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
Gold Derby called it, but some of the prognosicators either lost confidence in their picks or the late pickers decided to make long-shot selections. An editor or two opted for The Oscars while some of the users thought the 78th Annual Tony Awards would upset. Nope. Watch The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny wins an Emmy.

Jesse Collins accepts the emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show.
Congratulations!
Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – Hamish Hamilton (NBC)
  • Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable... – Rikki Hughes (Netflix)
  • Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show – Glenn Weiss (Disney+)
  • 78th Annual Tony Awards – Glenn Weiss (CBS)
  • Wanda Sykes: Legacy – Julie Dash (Netflix)
Once again, every expert and editor plus 94.3% of users have Hamish Hamilton taking home the statuette. Glenn Weiss for both Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show and 78th Annual Tony Awards ties himself at 2.9% each, so he has a combined 6.8% chance, while no one thinks Rikki Hughes for Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable... and Julie Dash for Wanda Sykes: Legacy have a chance.
I updated these predictions in 'The Muppet Show' leads Taylor Swift and 'Wicked' for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) at the Emmys.
Despite my using the Twitter/X publicity image for Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable..., Gold Derby still thinks its director has no chance. On the other hand, users are trickling away from The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny to Glenn Weiss's projects, splitting their votes evenly at 3.5% for 7% total. I'm not convinced.
Hamish Hamilton won, as Gold Derby predicted, despite even more users picking Weiss's projects and an editor and few users feeling sorry enough for Rikki Hughes to change their votes or make late long-shot picks.
Outstanding Music Direction
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – Miguel Gandelman (NBC)
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Series Finale" – Louis Cato (CBS)
  • The Oscars – Michael Bearden (ABC)
  • Saturday Night Live: "Host: Jack Black" – Lenny Pickett, Leon Pendarvis, Eli Brueggemann, and Maddie Rice (NBC)
  • Wicked: One Wonderful Night – Stephen Oremus (NBC)
For the third and final time, every expert and editor along with 90.1% of users think The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny will win, giving Miguel Gandelman an Emmy. Wicked: One Wonderful Night notched 9.1% of users, The Oscars 0.8%, and the rest of the field earned no votes at all.
Once again, the update.
This may be Wicked: One Wonderful Night's best shot at winning, but even here user opinion is consolidating around The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny with 91.6% and all the rest with Wicked: One Wonderful Night at 8.4%. The users have abandoned The Oscars, which has joined the rest of the field without any votes at all.
Again, Gold Derby called Miguel Gandelman walking off the stage with the Emmy, but while user opinion continued to consolidate around Bad Bunny, one of the experts jumped off the bandwagon to climb aboard Wicked: One Wonderful Night, while a few users bet on a Late Show with Stephen Colbert sweep. That last move was not a bad idea, but it didn't work here.

Now for the four categories I called on my own that The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny won.
Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming (Juried)
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny: "Casita Medley" / "EoO" / "Nuevayol" – Charm La'Donna and Karina Ortiz (NBC)
  • 2025 MTV Video Music Awards: "Tate McRae Performance" – Robbie Blue (CBS)
  • The Oscars: "Golden" – Mandy Moore (ABC)
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: "Versatile" / "Stimulate" / "What's in a Ball?" – Jamal Sims (MTV)
  • Wicked: One Wonderful Night: "The Wizard and I" – Christopher Scott (NBC)
I'll wait until I after examine the nominees for Outstanding Variety Special (Recorded) and Outstanding Reality Competition Program to make a call.
I managed to miss this category in Once again, 'RuPaul's Drag Race' leads nominations for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, but 'The Traitors' will likely win for the third time, so I never made the call. Darn. Just the same, I'm not surprised Charm La'Donna and Karina Ortiz won. Congratulations!
Outstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Special
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – Al Gurdon, Ben Green, Harry Forster, Mark Humphrey, Eric Marchwinski, Alen Sisul, Lee Spencer, and Jason Rudolph (NBC)
  • 68th Annual Grammy Awards – Noah Mitz, Madigan Stehly, William Gossett, Hannah Kerman, Andy O'Reilly, Patrick Boozer, Ryan Tanker, Erin Anderson, Matt Benson, Matthew Cotter, Terrance Ho, and Guy Jones (CBS)
  • The Oscars – Robert A. Dickinson, Noah Mitz, Ryan Tanker, William Gossett, Jeff Behm, Tyler Ericson, Hannah Kerman, Andy O'Reilly, Akash Bartlett, Guy Jones, Kevin Faust, and Terrance Ho (ABC)
  • 78th Annual Tony Awards – Robert A. Dickinson, Ed McCarthy, Tyler Ericson, Madigan Stehly, Harry Sangmeister, Chris Moeller, Jason Rudolph, JM Hurley, and Ka Lai Wong (CBS)
  • Wicked: One Wonderful Night – Bryan Klunder, Noah Mitz, Andrew O'Reilly, Patrick Boozer, Ryan Healey, Alen Sisul, Mike Hankowsky, and Jason Rudolph (NBC)
The Grammy Awards won last year, so it could repeat. I'll reserve my final judgment until after I blog about recorded variety specials.
I think it's between the GRAMMies and the Super Bowl Halftime Show, especially if the Television Academy feels like giving the latter a sweep. Bring out the broom?
It was the latter, and winning seven awards out of nine nominations is sweep enough.
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – Thomas Holmes, Alex Guessard, Dave Natale, Christian Schrarder, Thomas Pesa, and Pablo Munguia (NBC)
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Series Finale" – Jim Murray, Harvey Goldberg, Greg Allen, and Alan Bonomo (CBS)
  • The Muppet Show – Christopher Neely, John Chamberlin, Sean Madsen, Jordan McClain, Sanaa Kelley, Sam Sgriccia, and David Michel-Rudy (Disney+)
  • The Oscars – Paul Sandweiss, Tommy Vicari, Biff Dawes, Steve Genewick, Pablo Munguia, Patrick Baltzell, Mike Parker, Tom Pesa, John Perez, Shane O'Connor, and Kristian Pedregon (ABC)
  • Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show – David Payne and John Ross (Disney+)
I'd say this is between Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. May the bigger pop star win!
Bad Bunny's sound mixing team won, which I suppose makes him the bigger pop star. What say you, Swifties?
Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Special
  • The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny – Rod Wardell, Eric Becker, Dylan Sanford, Rob Balton, Danny Bonilla, Keith Dicker, Sean Flannery, Jeremy Freeman, Kevin French, Helena Jackson, Martin Kitchen, Bettina Levesque, David Plakos, Matt Roe, Jofre Rosero, Keyan Safyari, Monte Seaborn, Matt Trujillo, Brad Zerbst, Scott Acosta, Santiago Benet, Gilberto Cruz, Robert Smith, Cody Taylor, Kevin Denning, Andrew Moore, Rick Compeau, Su-Jeng Sang, Chris Hill, Matt Conrad, and Adam Lighterman (NBC)
  • The Oscars – Eric Becker, John Pritchett, Kenneth Shapiro, Rod Wardell, Shaun Harkins, Danny Bonilla, Nathanial Havholm, Bobby del Russo, Helena Jackson, Sean Flannery, Dave Kanehann, Jay Kulick, Adam Margolis, David Plakos, Jofre Rosero, Keyan Safyari, Dylan Sanford, Matt Trujillo, Suzie Weis, Mark Whitman, Easter Xua, Scott Marshall, and Tore Livia (ABC)
  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction 2025 – Eric Becker, Dylan Sanford, David Rudd, Jofre Rosero, Easter Xua, Nathanial Havholm, John Porter, Sean Flannery, Zachariah Jones, Dave Levisohn, Kary D'Alessandro, Jeff Johnson, Rob Palmer, David Eastwood, Danny Bonilla, Danny Webb, Keith Dicker, Chad Smith, David Plakos, and Jeremy Freeman (ABC)
  • Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show – Eric Becker, Brett Turnbull, Danny Bonilla, Mike Dinsmore, Chris Ferguson, Josh Fisch, Sean Flannery, Freddie Frederick, Shane Geddes, Manny Gutierrez, Jonny Harkins, Shaun Harkins, Christopher Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Ian Kerr, Jay Kulick, Tore Livia, Gallant Ly, Adam Margolis, Steve Martyniuk, Rob Palmer, Karin Pelloni, David Plakos, Carly Plett, Tim Quigley, Brian Reason, Paul Sapsis, Kate Smith, Jim van Dijk, Victor Wong, and Rich York (Disney+)
  • Wicked: One Wonderful Night – Brandon Smith, Brett Turnbull, Rob Palmer, Karin Pelloni, Bobby del Russo, Cary Symmons, Dean Clish, Jorge Ferris, Suzanne Ebner, Andrew Georgeopoulos, Danny Bonilla, Chad Smith, Jonny Harkins, Alex Hernandez, Rob Vuona, Scott Acosta, Randy Gomez Jr., Jeremy Freeman, and Tim Farmer (NBC)
I'm holding off until I examine the recorded variety specials to call this, too.
I think live events have an advantage, all things being equal, so my choices are the Oscars and the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Again, the broom came out for the Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Congratulations!

For what it's worth, I thought the Super Bowl Halftime Show would win Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special but lose Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Program. I was wrong about the first — The Muppet Show won — but right about the second, as RuPaul's Drag Race beat my pick SNL. I'll get to their Emmys later. In the meantime, stay tuned for a sequel to Alexis Dahl describes 'The Incredible Engineering Behind Michigan's Iconic Bridge' for Labor Day.

Previous posts about the 2026 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards
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