Alan Cumming scores hat-trick with third straight Emmy win

Alan Cumming has outsmarted his competitors yet again.

The actor and filmmaker is crowned with Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday, September.

This marked Alum's third consecutive win in the same category for hosting The Traitors. He previously won the category in 2024 and 2025.

The 61-year-old actor, who is all set to host the new series of The Traitors: New Blood, became part of the reality show back in 2023 which was its first season.

The previous seasons had celebrities as contestant but the current season has an all-civilian cast, premiering on NBC Thursday, September 17.

Alum was not in attendance at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony to accept his third consecutive award and a former contestant on The Traitors—accepted the trophy on the host's behalf.

He said of his second trophy back in 2025 to People, "I didn’t imagine that being a host of a show like this would be such a sort of combination of hosting and acting.”

He added at the time, “I feel like it’s a character I play who happens to be a host. I haven’t really seen things like that before. And so actually it’s kind of funny just to suddenly find yourself doing this thing and making up this character who’s also a host. You have to sort of rely on spontaneity and letting certain situations play out, and that’s when you get the best stuff.”

Other nominees for the same category this year were Ariana Madix for Love Island USA, RuPaul Charles for RuPaul’s Drag Race, Kristen Kish for Top Chef and Jeff Probst for Survivor.