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Eddie Murphy Wins His First Emmy for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at Creative Arts Emmys

Michael Kovac/Getty Eddie Murphy

The Creative Arts Emmy for guest actor in a comedy series goes to ... Eddie Murphy!

On Saturday, the actor, 59, was crowned winner for his role as Saturday Night Live host.

This was the fifth Emmys nomination and first win for Murphy, who was nominated alongside Fred Willard (Modern Family), Adam Driver (Saturday Night Live), Dev Patel (Modern Love), Brad Pitt (Saturday Night Live) and Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).

This year's nomination was Murphy's first in 21 years. He was last nominated in 1999 for outstanding animated program (for programming one hour or less) for Fox's The PJs.

In December, Murphy reprised some of his most iconic SNL characters when he hosted the show for the first time in 35 years.

At the beginning of the show, the audience immediately began chanting Murphy’s name as he stepped out on stage. “This is the last episode of 2019, but if you’re Black, this is the first episode since I left in 1984,” Murphy joked.

After sharing updates about some of his recent projects, including the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name and the upcoming sequel to Coming to America, Murphy was joined on stage by some longtime friends and fellow comedians: Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle.

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Following the opening monologue, Murphy got back into character to revisit many of his iconic SNL skits from back in the day. To start, he returned to the rundown apartment of “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” to teach kids about the now-gentrified area.

And in the next skit, the comedian participated in a Masked Singer parody to revive Buckwheat, a character who was so popular that Murphy himself killed him off on the show during the 1980s.

The comedian also transformed into the green cigar-smoking Gumby to visit Michael Che and Colin Jost on Weekend Update. After yelling at them for not letting him on the segment earlier, Murphy’s Gumby joked, “This is the thanks I get for saving this show from the gutter?” alluding to when he revived the character in the ’80s and ’90s.

Murphy was previously a cast member from 1980 to 1984 and last hosted the show in 1984. He also briefly returned for the show’s 40th anniversary special in 2015.

The Creative Arts Emmys honor the artistic and technical accomplishments across a variety of television genres. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual ceremony, hosted by Nicole Byer, was split into five different nights leading up to Sunday's primetime show.

Saturday night's broadcast, hosted by Nicole Byer, is airing on FXX. The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, are airing live on ABC from 8-11 p.m. ET.

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