Sunday night’s historic but generally surprise-free Emmys ceremony ended with a twist: “Hacks” won best comedy series over “The Bear,” which was expected to win the prize for the second time this year.
The drama categories felt less repetitive. With HBO’s “Succession” out of contention this time around, there was room for FX’s “Shogun” to dominate — and boy, did it. In addition to winning best drama series, the critically acclaimed historical drama landed lead actor prizes for Hiroyuki Sanada and lead actress for Anna Sawai, who became the first Japanese performers to win in their respective categories. (Sawai is the first Asian person to ever win lead actress.) Counting the Creative Arts Emmys the show already won, that makes for a total of 18 trophies for the largely Japanese-language series.
Elsewhere, “Baby Reindeer,” Netflix’s psychological thriller about a man who confronts his traumas as he is stalked by a woman, made a splash with wins across the limited series categories. The ceremony hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy also featured cast reunions, including “The West Wing,” and nostalgic throwbacks to beloved TV shows, with the occasional nod to politics and the upcoming election.
All in all, it was a very normal Emmys, with a dash of drama in, well, the comedy categories. (Fitting, if you watch “The Bear.”) Here are the night’s biggest moments.
‘The Bear’ almost got away with it
“The Bear,” which won 10 Emmys earlier this year for its first season, returned as a force to be reckoned with. It won three of four acting categories — best lead actor in a comedy for White, best supporting actor for Moss-Bachrach and best supporting actress for Liza Colón-Zayas — but ceded lead actress (for which Ayo Edebiri was nominated) to “Hacks” star Jean Smart, who received a standing ovation.
Smart’s win foreshadowed the best comedy series upset — likely to the delight of Laraine Newman, an original “Saturday Night Live” cast member and the mother of “Hacks” actress Hannah Einbinder. In a since-deleted post on X, Newman directed some to-the-point profanity at “The Bear” in all-caps. She explained, in a follow-up post that still exists, that she believes the FX series to be “a great show but IMHO it’s not a comedy — not even a dark comedy.”
‘Shogun’ swept the awards
“Shogun” mounted a pitched battle at the Emmys, winning 18 of its 25 nominations — a record for the most wins ever by a single season of television. Sanada and Sawai earned back-to-back wins for best actor and actress in a drama, making history together. While accepting best drama series, co-creator and showrunner Justin Marks expressed awe at the fact that FX, a Disney subsidiary, “green-lit a very expensive, subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax revolves around a poetry competition.”
‘Baby Reindeer’ triumphed as a limited series
Richard Gadd’s psychological thriller “Baby Reindeer” also had a big night, taking home six Emmys — including the award for best limited series. Jessica Gunning won best supporting actress in a limited series for her portrayal of Martha, a deeply lonely and wounded woman who relentlessly stalks the protagonist, Donny. Donny is played by Gadd, who also won an Emmy for his performance in the series.
While accepting the series’ award, Gadd referred to Hollywood’s resurgence after last year’s writers strike by noting that “no slump is ever broken without the willingness to take risks.” “Baby Reindeer” demonstrated that a show could be a hit without proven stars or a reliance on long-standing intellectual property, he said. The show presented a haunting portrayal of stalking and abuse that required Gadd to mine some of his most traumatic experiences — and it became a critical success.
“Really, the only constant across any success in television is good storytelling — good storytelling that speaks to our times,” Gadd said.
Remember, it’s an election year
Presenters and winners sprinkled a few political statements in throughout the night, nodding at the looming presidential election and the issues animating it. While presenting the award for best actress in a comedy series, Candice Bergen, who won five Emmys for her CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown,” reminded audiences how Vice President Dan Quayle criticized her character for becoming a single mother in 1992.
“Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids. So, as they say, my work is done,” she quipped before ending her speech with a “meow” — a presumed nod at Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s widely mocked comment from 2021 about Democrats being “childless cat ladies.”
In another moment, “The Bear” actress Colón-Zayas, the first Latina winner of best supporting actress in a comedy series, called for “all the Latinas who are looking at me [to] keep believing, and vote. Vote for your rights.”
John Leguizamo championed Latinos
When veteran actor John Leguizamo sauntered to center stage and declared himself one of Hollywood’s DEI hires, rebranding the acronym as “diligence, excellence and imagination,” folks should have strapped in. Because for the next few minutes — before he introduced Television Academy chair Cris Abrego — Leguizamo schooled the Emmys crowd and those watching at home on what true diversity in La La Land really meant.
First, he took the audience back to his youth in Jackson Heights, Queens. Back then, Leguizamo said, he didn’t see people like him — a Colombian American — on TV or in movies. Instead, he saw a lot of “brownface.” Al Pacino playing a Cuban gangster in “Scarface.” Natalie Wood playing a Puerto Rican beauty in “West Side Story.”
“Everybody played us except us,” Leguizamo said.
He went on to call out the stereotypical depictions of Latinos on TV. Ricky Ricardo, Speedy Gonzales, Slowpoke Rodriguez. And the A-listers in the room began to get quiet. This was a reckoning on the very night Hollywood likes to pat itself on the back. “Turns out, not complaining doesn’t change anything,” said Leguizamo, who earlier this year took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling out the Television Academy and urging its voters to consider artists of color. He did have some good news, though. This year’s Emmys, which boasted the most diverse list of nominees ever — including five Latino nominees — was a step forward.
Greg Berlanti was honored for his achievements
Prolific TV writer, director and producer Greg Berlanti received this year’s Governors Award, which honors career achievement. Berlanti started out by writing for “Dawson’s Creek,” on which he championed the first same-sex kiss between men to appear on network television — a feat brought to the audience’s attention by series star Joshua Jackson, who appeared onstage to present Berlanti with the honor.
In his speech, Berlanti recalled television being an early comfort: “There was no internet to connect with other queer kids, no LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in schools,” he said. “Back then, the only way to tell if another kid might be gay was if he also watched ‘Dynasty,’ ‘Dallas’ and could name all four of the Golden Girls.”
Berlanti is known for producing series such as “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl,” “You,” “Riverdale” and “The Flight Attendant.” Many of his shows feature queer characters, and he thanked his mother — who died of cancer — for being a major source of support for him throughout his life.
“Her belief travels through me and out to all of the kids out there who today may feel alone or other or scared to share their truth with the world,” he said. “If my mom were here, she would want you to know that you are loved and you are worthy and you have a story to tell, and we need those stories now more than ever. She believes in you, and I do too, so hurry up to get here.”
TV dads and moms got the praise they deserve
Was it giving rerun? The Emmys were heavy on the nostalgia, and nothing conjures up the warm and fuzzies quite like a TV Mom or TV Dad. Your favorite showed up in two segments that could have seemed yawn-worthy if you weren’t paying attention to the political winks tucked into the witty banter.
First up was a trio of iconic TV dads from beloved sitcoms: George Lopez (“The George Lopez Show”), Damon Wayans (“My Wife and Kids”) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”). Onstage to present the award for best lead actor in a comedy, the fictional fathers gathered round in a “man cave.” When the group decided to pay tribute to their “wives,” Ferguson, who was in a same-sex marriage on “Modern Family,” spoke up: “I'm so sorry, did you watch my show, or …?”
One time for marriage equality!
The ceremony moved on to the progressive arc of TV moms, who, according to actress Meredith Baxter (“Family Ties”), were lucky to get out of the kitchen back in her day. She appeared alongside two other iconic TV matriarchs, Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”) and Susan Kelechi Watson (“This is Us”). The triumvirate declared that the times, they had a-changed.
“We have choices,” Watson said. “Our dreams aren’t deferred.” She added that “it’s okay to ask for as much money as a TV dad.”
The power trio wrapped with a nod to the birds and the bees: “Thank God we are way past the days when we couldn’t even say the word ‘pregnant’ on ‘I Love Lucy,’” Baxter said. Or when married couples slept in separate beds. Which, of course, prompts the question: How did all those characters become moms in the first place?
John Oliver eulogized his dead dog
She may not have made it into the In Memoriam segment — during which an orchestra accompanied Jelly Roll singing “I Am Not Okay” — but comedian John Oliver’s dog will go down in Emmys history. While accepting the award for best scripted variety show, the “Last Week Tonight” host had the usual people to thank: his staff, his wife, HBO for not canceling his show and his sons (one whom he first mistakenly called “husband,” though “his name is Hudson”).
But who the Emmy winner really wanted to acknowledge was his family’s dog.
“I also want to thank — this is going to be very silly — our dog. We had the most fantastic dog,” Oliver said. The furry friend attended his wedding, saw the couple through two pregnancies and rode through the pandemic with the family. The music playing Oliver off began to overtake his story, but he pressed on. “Perfect choice of music,” he continued. “We had to say goodbye to her. I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now. She was an amazing dog. This isn’t just for her, this is for all dogs.”
‘The Traitors’ triumphed over ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
Emmy voters agree with the growing sentiment that “The Traitors” is one of the greatest reality TV shows of all time. The delectably goth competition series about fake murder, which is filmed in a Scottish castle and hosted by Alan Cumming, unseated “RuPaul’s Drag Race” from its admirable run as a five-time winner of best reality competition series. Perhaps even more significant was Cumming breaking RuPaul’s eight-year streak of winning best reality competition host.
“Drag Race” is as groundbreaking and powerful as ever, but “The Traitors,” which pits reality stars from shows like “The Bachelor,” “Survivor” and “Real Housewives” against one another in a high-end version of the parlor game Mafia, simply out-camps them all.
