<\/p>\n
SNL50: The Anniversary Special<\/em> won outstanding variety special (live) at the 2025 Primetime Emmys, beating an exceptionally high-powered field of nominees \u2014 The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar, Beyonc\u00e9 Bowl, SNL50: The Homecoming Concert <\/em>and The Oscars. <\/em>The awards were held on Sunday (Sept. 14) at the Ovation Theater at L.A. Live. Comedian Nate Bargatze served as host.<\/p>\n Lorne Michaels, the show\u2019s longtime executive producer, accepted the award by saying, \u201cI won this award for the first time 50 years ago, in 1975. I was younger and I had a lot of dreams \u2014 and not one of those dreams was that I\u2019d still be doing the same show for the next 50 years, however here we are. I want to thank NBC and Comcast for their support. The show was two years in the making.\u201d [Editor\u2019s Note: Michaels first won 49 years ago, in 1976.<\/em>]<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n This was the 106th Primetime Emmy that SNL <\/em>has won in competition, combining the flagship series and anniversary specials. That\u2019s nearly twice as many Emmys as the runner-up show in total Emmy wins, Game of Thrones<\/em>, with 59 awards. (SNL<\/em>\u2019s total does not count Hall of Fame citations to the show and its first-season cast.)<\/p>\n This was the third SNL<\/em> anniversary special to win a top program Emmy. Saturday Night Live: The 25th Anniversary Special<\/em> won outstanding variety, music or comedy special in 2000. The Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special<\/em> won outstanding variety special in 2015.<\/p>\n It\u2019s rare for a special based on a regular TV program to win a top program Emmy. Three \u201cCarpool Karaoke\u201d specials based on the popular segment on The Late Late Show Starring James Corden<\/em> won outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) from 2016 to 2019. In addition, five \u201cCarpool Karaoke\u201d specials won outstanding short-form program awards. The West Wing Documentary Special<\/em> won outstanding special class program in 2002. Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear\u2019s All in the Family and The Jeffersons<\/em> won outstanding variety special (live) in 2019. A similar special, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: All in the Family and Good Times<\/em>, won in the same category the following year.<\/p>\n Lorne Michaels was executive producer of SNL50: The Anniversary Special<\/em>; it was his 24th Primetime Emmy (not counting his induction into the TV Hall of Fame in 1999).<\/p>\n Though she lost in the highest-profile variety category, Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> won her first Primetime Emmy for Beyonc\u00e9 Bowl<\/em> prior to the main telecast \u2014 a juried award for outstanding costumes for variety, nonfiction or reality programming.<\/p>\n Likewise, though Kendrick Lamar<\/a> lost in the highest-profile variety category, he won at the Creative Arts Emmys for outstanding music direction. He won in tandem with Tony Russell.<\/p>\n SNL50: The Anniversary Special<\/em> featured several musical performances. Paul Simon<\/a> and Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> performed Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cHomeward Bound\u201d as a cold open. Other performances were Miley Cyrus <\/a>and Brittany Howard<\/a> teaming on the Prince song \u201cNothing Compares 2 U\u201d (a song also famously recorded by Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor), Adam Sandler<\/a> playing \u201c50 Years\u201d (which received an Emmy nod for outstanding music and lyrics at last weekend\u2019s Creative Arts Emmys), Lil Wayne <\/a>and The Roots<\/a> performing a hip-hop medley, and Paul McCartney<\/a> performing the prized closing sequence from The Beatles\u2019 1969 masterwork Abbey Road<\/em>.<\/p>\n Though the anniversary special won eight awards, SNL<\/em> lost outstanding scripted variety series to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver<\/em> for the third year in a row. John Oliver<\/a>\u2019s program has won an outstanding series award for 10 consecutive years. It won outstanding variety talk series for seven years before being moved to its current category, where it has won for three straight years.<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SNL50: The Anniversary Special won outstanding variety special (live) at the 2025 Primetime Emmys, beating an exceptionally high-powered field of nominees \u2014 The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar, Beyonc\u00e9 Bowl, SNL50: The Homecoming Concert and The Oscars. The awards were held on Sunday (Sept. 14) at the Ovation Theater at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2022415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[305353,371851,371896,371897],"class_list":["post-2022414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-lorne-michaels","tag-primetime-emmys","tag-snl-anniversary-special","tag-variety-category"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\u2018SNL50-Tops-Beyonce-Kendrick-Lamar-to-Win-Primetime-Emmy-for.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}