‘SNL’ wins big for season 50 at the Creative Arts Emmys. Obama, Kimmel and Lamar also take trophies

LOS ANGELES AP Kendrick Lamar and Barack Obama each won their second career Emmys on Sunday night while the th season of Saturday Night Live was the biggest winner with on the second night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Lamar and Tony Russell won for the music direction of his Super Bowl halftime show He won his first Emmy in as a performer at the Super Bowl halftime headlined by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg Obama won a star-studded documentary narrator category that also included Tom Hanks Idris Elba and David Attenborough He won the same award in Neither Lamar nor Obama was at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to accept his Emmy Neither were expected to be at a show that despite several high-profile winners including Jimmy Kimmel Conan O Brien and Alan Cumming is primarily devoted to behind-the-scenes crew members a week before TV s stars take the same stage for the bigger Emmys ceremony Presenter Jordan Klepper laughed along with the crowd as he revealed Apparently Barack Obama couldn t be here tonight after announcing the winner SNL The Anniversary Special the pinnacle of a season-long celebration for the NBC sketch institution won seven Emmys including awards for its directing writing hairstyling and editing A pop-up immersive experience tied to the special won an Emmy for emerging media and regular episodes of the show won three more HBO s Pee-wee as Himself won four awards including best documentary posthumously giving its star and subject Paul Reubens who died in his first Emmy O Brien won two Emmys for his expedition series Conan O Brien Must Go taking his career total to six And while he didn t get one personally for the show Netflix s Conan O Brien The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize For American Humor beat out football halftime shows from Lamar and Beyonc to win best variety special Beyonc did win a previously publicized special Emmy for the costumes on her Christmas Day Beyonc Bowl on Netflix Kimmel who has hosted both the Oscars and the Emmys multiple times was here to accept his fourth Emmy for best host of a contest show for his work on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire He thanked the show s late original host Regis Philbin for making Millionaire a cultural phenomenon Regis was the best at this Kimmel mentioned backstage It is exciting to have this and to know that he has this same Emmy in his family s collection somewhere Jeopardy won best event show while Cumming won best host of a reality show for The Traitors The two-night Creative Arts Emmys hands out nearly awards in hyper-specific categories that can bring oddities Like the Grammys and Oscars winning Emmys as each did Sunday The CBS Grammys telecast won for its choreography while ABC s Oscars telecast also hosted by O Brien won for its production design The Corporation for Society Broadcasting was honored with the Television Academy s Governors Award even as it winds down its nearly -year work after the U S leadership withdrew funding from the institution that has helped pay for PBS NPR local radio and TV stations The award goes to a person or entity made a profound transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and or science of television Even an act of Congress can not erase an indelible legacy Henry Louis Gates Jr host of Finding Your Roots on PBS stated during the presentation Queer Eye won best structured reality show while Love on the Spectrum won best unstructured reality show The Creative Arts show runs fleetly and efficiently awards are handed out on Sunday aloe in about hours but the atmosphere is loose Swearing is allowed because of the lack of TV as Kimmel evidenced when he notified nominee Will Ferrell to shut up during his speech This is the Emmys for the people that the people who run the Emmys don t think should be seen on structure TV presenter Sarah Silverman explained when she opened the show as a presenter The two nights are edited down into one show that will air on TV on FXX on Saturday The following day the th Primetime Emmy Awards hosted by Nate Bargatze will air live on CBS While Sunday honored variety documentary and reality TV scripted series had the stage on Saturday The Studio won nine early Emmys including best guest actor in a comedy for Bryan Cranston making it the front-runner to end up with the biggest total after next Sunday s main show Severance was tops among dramas with six awards including best guest actress in a drama for Merritt Wever The Penguin pulled in eight in the limited series categories and Julie Andrews won her third Emmy at age for her voice-over work on Bridgerton