The 78th Emmy Awards opened in Los Angeles over the weekend with a run of first-time winners, a streaming land grab and a simmering dispute over how the ceremony itself is run.

Across two Creative Arts nights at the Peacock Theater on 5 and 6 September, the Television Academy handed out 102 statuettes ahead of the main NBC telecast, which Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay will host on 14 September.

Bad Bunny collected his first Emmy, winning Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for the Apple Music Super Bowl LX halftime show — the weekend’s single biggest draw, with seven wins. Sabrina Carpenter also claimed a maiden statuette, taking Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for The Muppet Show, while Oscar winner Octavia Spencer was recognised as outstanding narrator for Lost Women of Alaska.

They were not alone among the newly anointed. Betty Gilpin won her first Emmy for the Apple comedy Widow’s Bay, using her speech to deliver what she called a “manic poem”. Shailene Woodley was honoured for a guest turn in Hulu’s Paradise, and Hargitay herself took two awards for the documentary My Mom Jayne, which she directed.

The tally underlined how thoroughly streaming now dominates television’s biggest honours. Apple TV led all platforms with 19 wins, ahead of HBO Max on 16 and Netflix on 13. Widow’s Bay was the most-decorated programme of the weekend with eight, followed by the Bad Bunny special and HBO Max’s dark comedy DTF St. Louis, which earned six through wins for David Harbour, Linda Cardellini and creator Steven Conrad. South Park, meanwhile, secured its fifth animated-series Emmy — its first since 2013.

Not everything was celebratory. The Academy’s decision to move five categories, including the DTF St. Louis acting and writing races, off the live telecast has drawn sharp criticism from the directors’, writers’ and screen actors’ guilds, who argue the change sidelines the very craftspeople the awards are meant to champion.

Attention now turns to 14 September, when the marquee prizes are decided. HBO Max medical drama The Pitt leads the field with 25 nominations, and its star Noah Wyle — who opened the second night with a tribute to below-the-line workers — is among the favourites. Apple’s Pluribus, Netflix’s Beef and the perennial Hacks are also in contention, setting up a finale in which the streamers look certain to tighten their grip on the medium’s most coveted honours.