For the first time since it launched in late 2019, Apple TV won more Emmys than any other network or streamer. Its 28 awards across the Creative Arts ceremonies and Sunday's telecast put it ahead of HBO and HBO Max on 21 and Netflix on 16, and nine of the 28 came in the major categories handed out on the night. It is Apple's best Emmy year by some distance, and the first time the streamer with the smallest catalog in the room has finished on top.
The interesting number is not 28 but 85. That is how many nominations Apple went in with, against 123 for HBO and HBO Max and 109 for Netflix. Apple produces a fraction of what its rivals do, so it cannot win by volume. It won by conversion: roughly one in three of its nominations turned into a trophy, a rate neither of the bigger players came close to. That is the payoff of a strategy built on a short slate of expensive, distinctive shows rather than a wall of content.
Half of the total is one program. Widow's Bay won 14, a record for a comedy in a single year, and the record it broke belonged to Apple too: The Studio set it with 13 only last year. Pluribus, Vince Gilligan's first series since Better Call Saul, added six, including Rhea Seehorn's first Emmy for lead actress in a drama and Gilligan's own for writing. Slow Horses won drama directing, Mr. Scorsese took a documentary award, and Shrinking and Margo's Got Money Troubles picked up craft wins at Creative Arts.
The shape of that list is the point. A horror comedy, a slow-burn science fiction drama about the last unhappy person on Earth, a shabby spy series now six seasons deep, and a documentary portrait of a filmmaker. None of it is built to be background viewing, and none of it is a franchise. The Emmys have rewarded HBO for that kind of curation for thirty years. This is the first year they have said the same about Apple.
Everything above is on Apple TV in the US, UK and Australia. If you want the one-service Emmy catch-up, start with Widow's Bay for the record, move to Pluribus for the performances, and keep Slow Horses for when you want something with a long runway.
