Sabrina Carpenter Wins First Emmy, Beats Taylor Swift Again

Sabrina Carpenter just got her first taste of Emmy gold, and she earned it over a familiar rival. On Sept. 5, night one of the Creative Arts Emmys, the pop star won her first Primetime Emmy when The Muppet Show took home the award for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded). Carpenter won as an executive producer and performer of the Disney+ special, which marked the 50th anniversary of the original series' debut. The show first went on the air 23 years before Carpenter was born. Her win came in a category that included Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show (Disney+), marking the second time Carpenter has beaten her friend Swift for an EGOT-level award.

The first win came at the Grammys in February 2025, when Short n' Sweet took best pop vocal album, beating The Tortured Poets Department. Carpenter also won best pop solo performance for Espresso that night, though Swift was not nominated in that category. With the Emmy now in hand, Carpenter is halfway to EGOT status. Swift is also halfway, thanks to a juried Emmy she won in 2015 for outstanding creative achievement in interactive media, as artist and executive producer of AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience.

Swift may not stay at the halfway mark for long. She is considered the front-runner to win the Oscar for best original song on March 14 for "I Knew It, I Knew You" from Toy Story 5. That would put her three-quarters of the way to EGOT, with only a Tony missing. For now, the two pop stars are locked in a friendly awards race that keeps resetting the narrative around their careers.

The Muppet Show did not stop with the marquee category. The special also won outstanding writing for a variety special, outstanding production design for a variety special, and outstanding picture editing for variety program. That gave the Muppets four total wins on night one. Only three programs won more: The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny earned seven, The Traitors took six, and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert grabbed five.

Carpenter was not the only recognizable executive producer on the winning special. Seth Rogen also won as an executive producer, alongside David Lightbody, Leigh Slaughter, Michael Steinbach, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Matt Vogel, Eric Jacobson, Albertina Rizzo and Alex Timbers. Ryan Janata won as co-executive producer, and Dani Iglesias won as producer. The Muppet Show still has one more shot on night two of the Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 6: Matt Vogel is nominated for outstanding character voice-over performance for his work as Kermit the Frog.

The Creative Arts Emmys are not telecast or streamed live, but they carry real weight. The two ceremonies handed out 102 categories total, 49 on Saturday and 53 on Sunday, while the live Emmy telecast on Sept. 14 will feature only 19 categories. Highlights from the Creative Arts ceremonies will air on FXX on Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. PT, and stream on Hulu the next day. The 78th Emmy Awards telecast, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, will air live coast-to-coast on NBC and stream on Peacock from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live.

For entertainment executives, the results are a reminder of how voter psychology works. The Eras Tour was the top-grossing tour in history, but The Muppet Show was a salute to a classic TV show, one that naturally appeals to a body of voters who work in television. Legacy IP, nostalgia, and craft categories can outperform commercial scale when awards voters are the audience. The takeaway for producers and marketers: a well-timed anniversary special with deep creative involvement from talent can be both a cultural moment and a hardware magnet.