Netflix’s ‘Blue Eye Samurai’ And ‘Big Mouth’ Are Triumphant At Creative Arts Emmy Awards

The first half of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards took place on Saturday evening in Los Angeles, with Netflix emerging triumphant in the night’s two key (and only) animation categories: animated program and character voice-over performance. It marks the first time that Netflix has won both categories in the same year.

The streamer’s cg action series Blue Eye Samurai won outstanding animated program for the episode “The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride.” The series was nominated against two perennial contenders – The Simpson and Bob’s Burgers – as well as Max’s Scavengers Reign and Disney+’s X-Men ’97. It marks Netflix’s second overall win the category, having previously won in 2022 for Arcane.

The six people who won the award for Blue Eye Samurai were Michael Green (executive producer/director), Amber Noizumi (executive producer/writer), Erwin Stoff (executive producer), Jane Wu (supervising director/producer), Nick Read (producer), and Michael Greenholt (animation director).

Accepting the award, series co-creator Noizumi applauded Netflix for investing in original animation and said during her speech, “You cannot have tomorrow’s franchises if you don’t bet on originals today.”

Blue Eye Samurai also recently won three individual achievement Emmy Awards for the work of specific artists on the show, giving the show’s first season a total of four Emmy Awards.

In the category of character voice-over performance, Maya Rudolph won for her portrayal of Connie the Hormone Monstress in Netlflix’s Big Mouth. The submitted episode was “The Ambition Gremlin” in season seven.

Rudolph was up against Hank Azaria (Moe Zsyslak, The Simpsons), Alex Borstein (Lois Griffin, Family Guy), Sterling K. Brown (Angstrom Levy/Angstrom #646, Invincible), and Hannah Waddingham (Deliria, Krapopolis).

This was Rudolph’s fourth win in the category over the last five years. The only time she has lost in the category during the last half-decade was in 2022 when Chadwick Boseman won posthumously for his work on Disney+’s What If…?