Emmy Juried Winners Revealed: The Masked Singer, The Traitors, Primal and More Take Early Honours
The Television Academy has announced the first winners of the 78th Emmy Awards, with juried categories in animation, costume design, and emerging media revealing their honourees on August 12, 2026. These are awards decided by peer panels rather than a public vote — entrants are screened by professionals in the relevant field through a one-step evaluation with no nominees, meaning there is no shortlist and no televised suspense ahead of the result (Deadline).
In costume design for variety, nonfiction or reality programming, the Emmy went to two shows: FOX's The Masked Singer for the episode 'Premiere Part 1', and Peacock's The Traitors for 'The Black Banquet' (Deadline). Both programmes live or die by their visual theatricality — the elaborate disguises on The Masked Singer and the cloaks-and-candles atmosphere of The Traitors — and both now hold an Emmy for it.
The animation honours spread across four shows and five individual artists. Disney+ picked up two: Eyes of Wakanda won for character design by Uzoma Dunkwu on the episode 'Into the Lion's Den', and Star Wars: Visions won for character design by Takashi Okazaki on 'The Duel: Payback'. Adult Swim's Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal took two awards — David Krentz for storyboard on 'Kingdom of Sorrow' and Scott Wills for art direction on 'Vengeance of Death'. Prime Video's The Mighty Nein won for background design by Howard Chen on 'Mote of Possibility' (Deadline).
In a less common outcome, the Outstanding Innovation in Emerging Media Programming category went to Crafting Crimes on Meta Quest, placing an Emmy in the VR space. Meanwhile, no Emmy was awarded in the Outstanding Motion Design category — the peer panel can simply choose to make no award if no entry meets the standard (Deadline).
For fans and creatives, these early wins land before the main ceremonies — and they come with a full schedule. The 78th Emmys unfold across three nights at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles. The juried awards will be presented on Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6. An edited broadcast of those two nights airs Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FXX, streaming on Hulu the following day. The main ceremony follows on Sunday, September 14, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, broadcast live on NBC and streaming live and on demand on Peacock (Deadline).
Final-round Emmy voting opens on August 17, 2026, ahead of the September ceremonies (Television Academy).
