Sabrina Carpenter won her first Primetime Emmy on Saturday (Sept. 5), night one of the Creative Arts Emmys, when The Muppet Show took the award for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded).
Carpenter won as an executive producer and performer of the Disney+ special, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the debut of the beloved TV series (which went on the air 23 years before Carpenter was born).
The other nominees in the category were Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show (Disney+), Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable… (Netflix), Nikki Glaser: Good Girl (Hulu) and Wicked: One Wonderful Night (NBC).
This marks the second time Carpenter has beaten Taylor Swift for an EGOT-level award. Her Short n’ Sweet won best pop vocal album in February 2025, beating Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. That night, Carpenter also won best pop solo performance for “Espresso,” though Swift wasn’t nominated in that category.
Swift’s Eras Tour was the top-grossing tour in history, but The Muppet Show was a salute to a classic TV show. It’s easy to see its appeal to a body of voters who, after all, work in the TV industry.
Carpenter is now halfway to EGOT status, but then so is Swift. She won a juried award in 2015 — outstanding creative achievement in interactive media — original interactive program as artist and executive producer of AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience. And Swift will likely soon be three-quarters of the way to EGOT status. She is considered the front-runner to win the Oscar for best original song on March 14 for “I Knew It, I Knew You” from Toy Story 5.
The Muppet Show won three other awards on Saturday: outstanding writing for a variety special, outstanding production design for a variety special and outstanding picture editing for variety program.
Only three programs won more Emmys than The Muppets on night one of the Creative Arts Emmys. The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny won seven, followed by The Traitors with six and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with five.
Seth Rogen also won as executive producer of The Muppet Show special, as did fellow executive producers David Lightbody, Leigh Slaughter, Michael Steinbach, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Matt Vogel, Eric Jacobson, Albertina Rizzo and Alex Timbers. Ryan Janata won as co-executive producer and Dani Iglesias as producer.
The Muppet Show has one more nomination at night two of the Creative Arts Emmys on Sunday (Sept. 6): outstanding character voice-over performance for Matt Vogel as Kermit the Frog.
A total of 49 categories were presented on Saturday. A total of 53 categories will be presented on night two of the Creative Arts Emmys on Sunday. Just 19 categories will be presented on the live Emmy telecast, set for Monday, Sept. 14.
The Creative Arts Emmys are not telecast or streamed but highlights from the two ceremonies will air on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. PT on FXX. The program will be available to stream on Hulu starting the next day.
The 78th Emmy Awards telecast, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, will air live coast-to-coast on NBC on Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live. It will also stream on Peacock.
