Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Sweeps Emmy Awards
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Bad Bunny's 2026 Super Bowl LX Halftime Show swept the Creative Emmy Awards, winning seven trophies and setting a new record for the most Emmys won by a halftime performance. The ceremony, held on the Saturday before the main Emmy Awards, honours craft and technical achievement across variety, reality and nonfiction programming, and the halftime show's dominance underscored its critical acclaim beyond the record television audience it drew during the game itself.
Bad Bunny picked up his first Emmy for outstanding variety special (live), making the halftime show only the second in this category's history to win, after Kendrick Lamar's the previous year; the show also took choreography, directing, music direction, lighting design, sound mixing and technical direction/camerawork. Producer Jay-Z secured his third Emmy through the performance, having previously won for Lamar's halftime show. Elsewhere at the ceremony, Sabrina Carpenter won her first Emmy for Disney+'s The Muppet Show reboot, beating Taylor Swift's Eras Tour special, while Traitors and the final season of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert were among the night's other big winners.
- Bad Bunny's halftime show won seven Emmys, a record for the segment
- It's Bad Bunny's first Emmy; Jay-Z earned his third as producer
- Sabrina Carpenter also won her first Emmy, beating Taylor Swift's special
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Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper and singer whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, headlined the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show earlier this year, one of the most-watched entertainment slots in American television. His performance has now been recognised at the Creative Arts Emmys, a set of awards handed out ahead of the main Emmy ceremony that honours the technical and craft work behind television, such as choreography, directing, lighting and sound.
The Emmys themselves are among the most prestigious awards in American television, and the Creative Arts ceremony forms the opening night of the wider 78th Emmy Awards. Halftime shows are judged not just on the performer but on the whole production team, so wins in categories like directing, music and technical work reflect on everyone involved in staging the event, not just the headline act.
This year's Super Bowl also featured a rival halftime broadcast fronted by musician Kid Rock, organised by the conservative group Turning Point USA as an alternative to the main NFL show. The two events have been compared as representing different cultural and political audiences, which is relevant context for understanding why their contrasting fortunes at the Emmys have drawn attention.
Full account
Bad Bunny picked up his first Primetime Emmy on Saturday, as his Super Bowl LX Halftime Show dominated the opening night of the Creative Arts Emmys at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The Puerto Rican star's set, broadcast on NBC as The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny, took the outstanding variety special (live) prize, with the artist credited both as lead performer and as one of its producers.
The victory made it only the second Super Bowl halftime show to win television's top variety-special award, following the 2022 Pepsi show fronted by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. Bad Bunny's performance went considerably further than that, however, collecting seven Emmys in total — the categories included music direction, directing for a variety special, sound mixing, choreography, lighting design, and technical direction and camerawork — making it the most decorated Super Bowl halftime show in the awards' history and the most-awarded programme of the night. It is also understood to be the first Spanish-language production to win the outstanding variety special (live) category. Jay-Z, through his Roc Nation ventures, along with Desiree Perez and Jesse Collins, were recognised as executive producers of both this year's and the 2022 show, while Dave Meyers again won as co-executive producer.
Bad Bunny's success was not confined to the Super Bowl broadcast: the season-opening episode of Saturday Night Live, which he hosted, separately won an Emmy for outstanding makeup. Elsewhere in the same category as the halftime show, Taylor Swift had been nominated for her Disney+ special documenting the final night of the Eras Tour, but lost out to a Muppet Show tribute special that also brought Sabrina Carpenter her first Emmy win. The halftime show beat other star-studded ceremonies for the top prize, including broadcasts of the Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Oscars and the Tony Awards, underlining how unusual it is for a musical special to top that field.
The awards arrived around seven months after Bad Bunny became the first artist to win the Grammy for album of the year with a Spanish-language record, for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, reinforcing a run of mainstream recognition for the star. Coverage of the night also noted a pointed contrast away from the official broadcast: Kid Rock's rival Turning Point USA alternate halftime show, staged as a conservative counter-programme to the NBC special, received no Emmy nominations or wins at all.
Where outlets differ
One outlet (Source 1) goes into far greater depth on the individual award categories, the history of Super Bowl halftime shows at the Emmys, and related wins/nominations that night — including the SNL makeup award, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour special losing to The Muppet Show, and the full list of rival nominees for the top prize.
The other outlet (Source 2) is much shorter and frames the story more broadly around the whole Creative Arts Emmys ceremony, while adding a detail not present in the first source: that Kid Rock's Turning Point USA alternate halftime show was shut out of nominations/wins entirely.
Source 1 provides additional biographical context (Bad Bunny's recent Grammy album-of-the-year win) that Source 2 omits.