‘SNL’ Has Won The Most Primetime Emmy Awards, Ever: Here’s How They’ve Done It

For the fifth straight year, Saturday Night Live has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. That’s after winning seven more times during the 2021 Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies, including statues for Dave Chappelle and Maya Rudolph for guest actor and guest actress, respectively.
That’s now 86 Emmy wins from 307 nominations for SNL since premiering back in 1975.
You’re not imagining things. It’s downright daffy that the most decorated TV series of all time at the Primetime Emmys doesn’t even air regularly in primetime.
SNL, which has always broadcast new episodes live after NBC’s late local news at 11:30 p.m. Eastern at the very end of the week, somehow has more Emmy Awards than any other show. Ever. Of course, no other American TV show has remained on the air for 46 years, either. The longest-running TV series in primetime in the U.S. is The Simpsons, and yet over the course of its 32 seasons, it somehow has only managed to nab 34 Emmy statues across 96 nominations.
The Television Academy’s website has split designations for SNL. One page lists 11 nominations and five awards for NBC’s Saturday Night, covering the first two seasons. Meanwhile, the main Emmys page for SNL counts another 296 nominations, with 80 Emmy Awards and one honor for the show, including two noms from the second season. And that number does not include the two separate inductions into the TV Academy’s Hall of Fame: For Lorne Michaels, that honor came back in 1999; the O.G. seven-member “not ready for primetime players” in the cast, meanwhile, had to wait until 2017.

So how did SNL win all them dang Emmys, anyhow?
Let’s take a deeper dive into the stats through the years.

1976: 5 noms, 4 wins (comedy variety music series) (Chevy Chase supporting actor) (directing comedy variety music) (writing for comedy variety music) 

1977: 8 noms, 1 win (writing for comedy variety music) 

1978: 8 noms, 1 win (Gilda Radner, supporting actress variety music)

1979: 3 noms

1980: 1 nom

Original cast/crew: 25 nominations, 6 wins. The Emmys took note of Saturday Night‘s inaugural season, for sure! Note: Both of the individual cast wins, for Chevy Chase in the first season and Gilda Radner after season 3, came through acting categories for supporting roles in variety or music. SNL wasn’t yet competing in the main comedy categories.
Then Lorne Michaels, the original cast and many writers leave.

1981: 0

1982: 0

1983: 2 noms, 1 win (technical direction and electronic camerawork)

1984: 3 noms

1985: 2 noms, 1 win (graphic and title design)

1986: 1 nom

1987: 2 noms

1988: 0 

Seasons 6-13 subtotals: 10 nominations, 2 wins, both in behind-the-camera work. Note: The Writers Guild went on strike in March 1988, shortening that season to only 13 episodes. Also that season, Season 13, welcomed three new writers named Greg Daniels, Conan O’Brien and Bob Odenkirk.

1989: 3 noms, 1 win (writing, variety series)

1990: 4 noms, 1 win (technical direction/camera/video)

1991: 2 noms

1992: 2 noms

1993: 5 noms, 2 wins (outstanding variety music comedy series) (Dana Carvey, individual performance in variety)

1994: 6 noms, 1 win (technical direction/camera/video)

1995: 1 nom, 1 win (technical direction/camera/video)

Seasons 14-20: 23 nominations, 6 wins. Known as the resurgence of SNL with some of the all-time greatest cast members, yet only Dana Carvey took home an individual Emmy Award, following the 1992 election with Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety Series. The crew, however, did begin to rack up multiple nominations and wins in the category for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camera Work and Video Control. At the end of Season 20, though, came a major cast overhaul as Michaels looked to stave off cancellation by NBC, as critics and fans savaged the quality of the episodes.
Season 21 saw a new director in Beth McCarthy Miller, new writers in Steve Higgins, Adam McKay, Paula Pell, Frank Sebastiano and Colin Quinn. Higgins remains with the show to this day! New cast members included a guy named Will Ferrell, another guy named Darrell Hammond (who’s also still with the show as announcer), plus Jim Breuer, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri and Nancy Walls.

1996: 2 noms

1997: 1 nom

1998: 1 nom

1999: 5 noms

2000: 4 noms, 2 wins (technical direction/camera/video) (hairstyling)

2001: 5 noms

Seasons 21-26: 18 nominations, 2 wins. Despite this revival, the show only broke through Emmy-wise twice, after season 25, with wins in hairstyling and for technical direction. Season 27 opened in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with new hires including Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler.

2002: 4 noms, 2 wins (technical direction/camera/video) (writing, variety music comedy series)

2003: 5 noms, 1 win (technical direction/camera/video)

2004: 4 noms, 1 win (technical direction/camera/video)

2005: 1 nom

2006: 2 noms

2007: 3 noms, 2 wins (technical direction/camera/video) (music and lyrics, DICK IN A BOX)

2008: 6 noms, 1 win (hairstyling for multicam or special)

Seasons 27-33: 25 nominations, 7 wins, mostly in technical direction. But Season 32 foresaw the beginning of the sea change for SNL and the Emmys, with a breakthrough win for Original Music and Lyrics for Justin Timberlake’s music video with Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island guys, “Dick in a Box!”
Seasons 1-33: 101 nominations and 23 wins overall. Seasons 34-46? More than double the nominations and three times as many wins. So how did this happen?! Cue the 2008 election cycle.
From here on out, we find SNL earning nominations almost every year for guest actor and actress from the host slots, while the cast begins to grab a foothold in the main comedy supporting actor and actress categories, the writing staff almost automatically qualifies for consideration, and the consistent production of music videos provide ample opportunities for more awards.

2009: 13 noms, 2 wins (guest actor Justin Timberlake, guest actress Tina Fey as Sarah Palin)

2010: 12 noms, 3 wins (guest actress Betty White) (makeup non-prosthetic multicam or special) (directing variety music comedy series)

2011: 16 noms, 4 wins (music/lyrics for JT monologue) (guest actor JT) (makeup non-prosthetic multicam or special) (directing variety music comedy series)

2012: 14 noms, 4 wins (hairstyling for multicam or special) (technical direction/camera/video) (directing variety series) (guest actor Jimmy Fallon)

2013: 15 noms, 4 wins (art direction variety or nonfiction) (hairstyling for multicam or special) (makeup non-prosthetic multicam or special) (directing variety series) 

2014: 15 noms, 5 wins (hairstyling for multicam or special) (makeup non-prosthetic multicam or special) (directing variety series) (guest actor Jimmy Fallon) (costumes)

2015: 8 noms, 2 wins (hairstyling for multicam or special) (technical direction/camera/video)

2016: 17 noms, 4 wins (hairstyling) (guest actress Tina/Amy) (supporting actress Kate McKinnon)

2017: 22 noms, 9 wins plus HALL OF FAME honors for 7 cast members (makeup) (production design) (tech/camera) (supporting actor Alec Baldwin) (supporting actress Kate McKinnon) (directing) (guest actress Melissa McCarthy) (guest actor Dave Chappelle) (variety sketch series)

2018: 21 noms, 8 wins (makeup) (tech/camera) (lighting design) (production design) (music/lyrics for Come Back, Barack) (variety sketch series) (directing) (guest actress Tiffany Haddish) 

2019: 18 noms, 5 wins (variety sketch series) (directing) (lighting design) (makeup) (production design) 

2020: 15 noms, 6 wins (guest actor Eddie Murphy) (variety sketch series) (guest actress Maya Rudolph) (directing) (production design) (lighting design)

2021: 21 noms

Over 46 seasons, SNL has received nominations in the category for technical director working with the camera crew and video control 30 years, winning 13 times. It’s the show’s closest thing to an automatic now. Even more automatic after 2008? Lighting Design. Nominated every year since 2009 for lighting design, but never before that. Other almost sure-things of late have included Directing for a Variety Series, with 10 wins and four consecutive trophies coming into 2021, and Production Design, also winning the past four yeas.
How did SNL fare this year, again? (WINS IN BOLD; losses in italics)

• Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program
• Outstanding Contemporary Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program (Non-Prosthetic)
• Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series
• Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, Dave Chappelle, Daniel Kaluuya, Dan Levy
• Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series: Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig
• Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
• Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming (lost to HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show)
• Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Reality or Competition Series
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang (lost to Brett Goldstein from Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong (lost to Hannah Waddingham from Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso)
• Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerwork, Video Control for a Series (lost to HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)
• Outstanding Variety Sketch Series
• Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (lost to HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

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