Bad Bunny Wins First Primetime Emmy for 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show
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Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show has won the Primetime Emmy for outstanding variety special (live), becoming only the second Super Bowl halftime performance ever to take the category and the most-awarded halftime show in Emmy history, with seven wins overall compared with three for the 2022 Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg show. The result, announced at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles on Saturday 5 September, is also the first time a Spanish-language programme has won outstanding variety special (live), and lands seven months after Bad Bunny became the first artist to win the Grammy album of the year for a Spanish-language record.
Bad Bunny picked up his first Primetime Emmy as both lead performer and producer, alongside executive producers Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), Desiree Perez and Jesse Collins, who also won for the 2022 halftime show, beating nominees including the Golden Globes, Grammys, Oscars and Tony Awards broadcasts. His halftime show additionally won music direction, directing, sound mixing, choreography, lighting design, and technical direction and camerawork, while an episode of Saturday Night Live he hosted separately won for makeup. Elsewhere at the ceremony, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour finale special lost the pre-recorded variety category to Disney+'s Muppet Show tribute, and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert picked up five awards in its final year on air.
- Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show wins seven Emmys, a record for the format.
- First Spanish-language show to win outstanding variety special (live).
- Taylor Swift's Eras Tour special lost to Disney+'s Muppet Show tribute.
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Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican singer and rapper who has become one of the biggest names in global music, blending reggaeton and Latin trap with mainstream pop appeal. He performed the halftime show at Super Bowl LX, the biggest annual event in American sport, held earlier in 2026. Halftime shows are watched by tens of millions of people and are considered one of the most prestigious performance slots in entertainment.
The Emmys are television's leading awards, handed out each year to honour outstanding work across genres, from drama and comedy to live and variety programming. The Creative Arts Emmys are a separate set of ceremonies, usually held shortly before the main Primetime Emmys broadcast, that recognise technical and craft achievements such as choreography, lighting, sound and camerawork. Super Bowl halftime shows have occasionally been nominated in these categories, but have rarely dominated them.
Bad Bunny performs largely in Spanish, which is notable in the context of major American entertainment awards, historically dominated by English-language productions. His halftime show was produced in partnership with Apple Music, which has held the Super Bowl halftime sponsorship in recent years after Pepsi stepped back from the role.
Full account
Bad Bunny picked up his first Primetime Emmy on Saturday 5 September, the opening night of the Creative Arts Emmys at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The Puerto Rican star was recognised in the outstanding variety special (live) category for The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, which aired on NBC, taking the award in his dual role as headline performer and producer.
The halftime show went on to sweep every category in which it had been nominated, seven in total, making it the most decorated Super Bowl halftime special in Emmy history and the most-awarded programme of the night. Alongside the top prize, it won for music direction, directing, choreography, sound mixing, lighting design, and technical direction and camerawork. It was also the first Spanish-language production to win outstanding variety special (live). Jay-Z (credited as Shawn Carter), Desiree Perez and Jesse Collins collected further statuettes as executive producers, while Dave Meyers was honoured as co-executive producer.
Bad Bunny featured in a second winning programme on the night: the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted at the start of its 51st season took the award for outstanding makeup in a variety, nonfiction or reality programme. Elsewhere in the variety categories, Sabrina Carpenter won her first Emmy as performer and executive producer on The Muppet Show, which claimed outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) ahead of rival nominee Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concert film for Disney+. The Muppet Show tribute also featured Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogen among its cast.
Other winners on the night included the Billy Joel HBO documentary And So It Goes, honoured for sound mixing on a nonfiction programme, and the Diddy documentary Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which won for picture editing on a nonfiction programme. The Emmy recognition follows Bad Bunny's win earlier this year for album of the year at the Grammys, where he became the first artist to take that prize for a Spanish-language record, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Taylor Swift, though unsuccessful on this occasion, remains a Primetime Emmy winner from a non-competitive juried award in 2015 and is widely tipped as a contender for an Academy Award next year.
Where outlets differ
The two reports disagree on the halftime show's place in Emmy history: one says it is only the second Super Bowl halftime show to win the top outstanding variety special (live) prize, following the 2022 Dr Dre-led show; the other describes it as merely the third halftime show ever to win that category.
One account frames Jay-Z's renewed Emmy success by pointing back to the 2022 hip-hop halftime show he also produced, while the other links it to Kendrick Lamar's 2025 Super Bowl LIX performance, which it says had previously held the record for the most Emmys won by a halftime show.
Coverage of unrelated winners differs: one source details additional wins for the Billy Joel documentary and the Diddy documentary, which the other does not mention at all.
One report gives more background on Bad Bunny's recent Grammy win and Taylor Swift's prior Emmy history and Oscar prospects, context largely absent from the other account.