Jean Smart ties the Emmy record and 'The Pitt' sweeps on television's most crowded night in years
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards delivered history at the Peacock Theater Monday night, with Jean Smart's eighth trophy tying the all-time acting record and Noah Wyle finally winning after three decades.
In brief
Jean Smart ties the Emmy acting record as 'The Pitt' and 'Hacks' sweep television's biggest night
Monday night at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, Jean Smart walked out of the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards with her eighth trophy, tying the all-time acting record held by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman. The win, her fifth consecutive for playing Deborah Vance in HBO's Hacks, also made her the only performer in Emmy history to win lead actress for every single season of a series, according to E! News. That is not a minor footnote. That is a fact nobody in that room will forget for a while.
Smart's eighth Emmy tied the all-time acting record as Hacks and The Pitt swept the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, and Noah Wyle won his first Emmy after thirty years in the industry. Wyle, who has been a television fixture since ER in the 1990s, plays an overworked emergency physician in HBO's The Pitt, the drama that entered the night with the most nominations of any show.
HBO's medical drama The Pitt entered the evening leading all contenders with 25 nominations, followed closely by the final season of comedy powerhouse Hacks with 24 nods. Those two shows ate the room. The ceremony, held at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 14, and hosted by Law and Order: Special Victims Unit's Mariska Hargitay, also handed out wins to a field of genuine newcomers that made the night feel less like a coronation and more like a real competition.
A blue carpet, a host who had already won, and a room full of history
Host Mariska Hargitay navigated the ceremony with the authority of someone who understands what the award means from both sides. Earlier in the broadcast, she revealed she had won two Emmys of her own for the documentary My Mom Jayne, a disclosure that gave the evening an unusual early intimacy. She was the first woman to host the Primetime Emmys in fifteen years.
E! hosted red-carpet events throughout the night, with a preshow starting at 5 p.m., and live red-carpet coverage kicking off at 6 p.m., with fans greeted by a blue carpet instead of the traditional red. Presenters included Zendaya, Sally Field, Amy Poehler, Jon Hamm, Macaulay Culkin, Keke Palmer, Florence Pugh, Dan Levy, Niecy Nash-Betts, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz.
Katherine LaNasa completed The Pitt's sweep of the drama acting categories, winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nurse Dana. The win was her second consecutive in the category. The show collected three awards from the main ceremony, with additional technical wins from the Creative Arts weekends giving The Pitt its strongest overall haul since ER last competed at full strength.
The newcomers who showed up ready
This was not a two-show race on paper. Streaming newcomers also made significant splashes, led by Apple TV+ debuts Widow's Bay, which earned 19 nominations, and Pluribus, which earned 18. Among the Creative Arts weekend winners were Linda Cardellini and David Harbour from DTF: St. Louis, who won the supporting acting awards in the limited or anthology series category. Other guest acting winners included Betty Gilpin for Widow's Bay, Ernest Harden Jr. for The Pitt, Shailene Woodley for Paradise, and the late Rob Reiner for The Bear.
Rhea Seehorn was widely expected to win her first Emmy as the star of Vince Gilligan's Pluribus. Seehorn spent years as arguably the most respected actor in television without a trophy, so the anticipation around her category was its own kind of running story all night. On the Creative Arts weekend, Widow's Bay, DTF: St. Louis, and the canceled Spider-Noir were the big winners. Apple's Widow's Bay triumphed in guest acting, casting, sound mixing, production design, cinematography, music supervision, music composition, and sound editing.
The ceremony was anchored by HBO Max's Hacks, The Pitt, Apple TV's Widow's Bay, and Pluribus, all leading the charge into Monday night's main event. The ceremony aired live on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, and also streamed on Peacock.
What Smart's win actually means
Five-peat. That word kept circulating in the room before the ceremony even started. Jean Smart was looking for her fifth win in a row for the role of Deborah Vance in Hacks, and a win would be her eighth overall, tying her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most acting Emmys ever won by a single performer. She got there.
Several of last year's winners, including The Pitt's Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa, in addition to Hacks' Jean Smart, came back to potentially claim another trophy. Smart could become the only female performer to ever win for every season of a series if she took home her fifth consecutive trophy for Lead Actress in a Comedy. She did.
This was also the final season of Hacks, which meant the entire cast and creative team walked in knowing it was their last shot. That kind of energy tends to settle over a room in a particular way. When Smart's name was called, according to Eastern Herald, it landed with the weight of a genuine send-off, not a formality.
The 78th Emmys ran on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The 2026 Emmys broke tradition by giving out statues on a Monday instead of a Sunday, with the NFL being the reason the award show shifted to Sept. 14. Rod Wave's name probably didn't come up once. But that's another story.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
