For the first time in Emmys history, Outstanding Comedy Series is getting spooky.
“Widow’s Bay” wrapped up Emmys night by dethroning the reigning champ, “Hacks,” in its final season to win Outstanding Comedy Series — making it the first horror show in Emmys history to win the award.
Other creepy comedies have been represented in the category before. Netflix’s “Wednesday” picked up several key nominations across its two seasons, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Jenna Ortega) for Season 1 (notably, the original “The Addams Family” scored zero nominations at the Emmys, as did “The Munsters” around the same time).
“Wednesday’s” nominations overlapped with the run of “What We Do in the Shadows,” Jemaine Clement’s vampire comedy that nabbed 35 nods in total, including Outstanding Comedy Series nominations in 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025.
And then there are the early contenders that were bringing a horror tinge to the comedy Emmys long before the quirky show about the next Martha’s Vineyard came about. “Bewitched” picked up 22 nominations from 1964-1972, including four series nominations. “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” got six nominations in 1969 and 1970, with two wins for leading actress Hope Lange.
But none of these shows ever managed to get the top prize. In fact, there’s a case to be made that no horror series has ever won Outstanding Series across Comedy, Drama and Limited/Anthology — depending on how you would categorize a few potential spoilers.
For example, do the supernatural elements of “Lost,” which won Outstanding Drama Series for its debut season, push the show into the horror camp? What about Leslie Bohem’s “Taken,” an alien miniseries executive produced by Steven Spielberg that won Outstanding Miniseries in 2003? Do the thriller qualities of “Baby Reindeer,” Richard Gadd’s 2024 Outstanding Limited Series winner, make it a horror show too?
One could argue the finer points of what qualifies as horror, but no previous series veered into horror as directly as Katie Dippold’s Apple TV show, which weaves slashers, haunted hotels, curses and sea hags into a comedy steeped in folklore and genre trappings. Clearly, she didn’t scare too many Emmy voters away.
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