Rants and Raves from the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards
On Monday, September 12th, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced their picks for the best television and streaming had to offer this past year in a ceremony on NBC and Peacock. Here, I recap the winners and review the show.
Reflections on the Winners
Succession, Squid Game, Euphoria, and Ozark Take the Drama Categories. As expected, HBO’s business empire drama Succession was the big winner on the drama side. Despite leading the field with a jaw-dropping 25 nominations, it didn’t quite dominate, winning only 3 of the 6 categories it was eligible for. It won Outstanding Drama Series (for the 2nd time), Supporting Actor for the brilliant Matthew Macfadyen (his 1st win), and Writing for Jesse Armstrong’s script for the 3rd season finale (his 3rd win in this category for the series). It lost Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Directing to Lee Jung-jae and Hwang Dong-hyuk (respectively) for Netflix’s inventive, uber-violent, Korean-language series Squid Game. It lost Supporting Actress to Julia Garner for the 4th and final season of Netflix’s money laundering crime saga Ozark. Her 3rd win in the category was richly deserving and made history (more on that later). The sole major drama category that Succession wasn’t eligible for — Lead Actress — went to Zendaya for HBO’s unflinching high school drama Euphoria. Her 2nd win in the category made her the only woman of color to win this category twice. (The only other non-white woman to ever win here is Viola Davis for How To Get Away With Murder in 2015). Although deserving, Zendaya’s win meant that Laura Linney ended her absolutely brilliant 4-season run on Ozark Emmy-less and that Sandra Oh extends her near-record string of losses (more on that later).
Ted Lasso, Abbott Elementary, and Hacks Win Big in the Comedy Categories. Similarly to the Drama categories, repeat winners abounded on the Comedy side. Ted Lasso repeated in 3 categories — Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actor (Jason Sudeikis), and Supporting Actor (Brett Goldstein). The show also won Directing for the 2nd season’s best episode (“No Weddings and a Funeral”) after surprisingly losing to the pilot of Hacks last year. Speaking of Hacks, Jean Smart repeated for her instantly iconic role as Deborah Vance. This brings Smart to 5 acting Emmys (before Hacks, she had one for her supporting role on the short-lived Samantha Who? and two for her guest appearances on the classic Cheers spinoff Frasier). The other 2 Emmys went to the freshman breakout Abbott Elementary, an ABC sitcom about a group of teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia elementary school. Supporting Actress went to stage and screen veteran Sheryl Lee Ralph and Writing went to series star and creator Quinta Brunson for her work on the show’s pilot. Although all 3 are great shows, I would have loved to see some gold for the brilliant Only Murders in the Building (it went home empty handed at the main ceremony after a few wins at the Creative Arts Emmys last week.)
All Went as Expected in the Limited Series Categories — Including a Sweep for The White Lotus. When this year’s Emmy nominations were announced in July, I proclaimed the frontrunners in all the major Limited Series categories. Every single one of those I predicted won. HBO’s deeply uncomfortable, occasionally profound, and always entertaining class satire The White Lotus swept the awards, winning all 5 it was nominated for. It won Outstanding Limited Series, Supporting Actor (Murray Bartlett), Supporting Actress (Jennifer Coolidge), and Writing and Directing (both for series creator Mike White). The entire cast of The White Lotus submitted themselves in the supporting acting categories, leaving the lead categories up for grabs. Lead Actor went to Michael Keaton for Hulu’s opioid crisis saga Dopesick and Lead Actress went to Amanda Seyfried for her performance as disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout. My preference would have been for The Dropout to take Series, Writing, and Directing, but I can’t begrudge The White Lotus its wins given how terrific it was.
Repeat Winners Abound in Variety and Reality with One Fabulous Exception. Since the category was introduced in 2003, the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program has only gone to only 4 series — The Amazing Race (10 wins), RuPaul’s Drag Race (4 wins), The Voice (4 wins), and Top Chef (1 win). After a 4-year streak by Drag Race, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls injected some fresh blood into the category with a win for its 1st season. Outside of that exhilarating win, the reality and variety winners were painfully repetitive as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won Variety Talk Series for the 7th consecutive time and Saturday Night Live won Variety Sketch Series for the 6th consecutive time. (Making matters worse, at the Creative Arts Emmys last week, RuPaul Charles won Outstanding Reality Host for the 7th consecutive time and Queer Eye won Outstanding Structured Reality Series for the 5th consecutive time.)
A Small — But Important — Improvement in the Diversity of the Winners. Last year, all 12 of the acting awards went to white actors. This was particularly surprising (and troubling) given how incredibly diverse the field acting nominees was. This year was decidedly more diverse with black actresses Zendaya and Sheryl Lee Ralph and Korean actor Lee Jung-jae all taking home trophies. Murray Bartlett also joined the small but growing list of openly queer performers to win a major acting Emmy. And the win for Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls was a major win for diversity and inclusion. All in all, it wasn’t a banner year for diversity, but it was a significant step up from last year.
Broadcast and Cable Make a Comeback. Of the 25 awards handed out tonight, 10 went to streaming (4 for AppleTV, 3 for Netflix, 2 for Hulu, and 1 for Prime), 11 went to cable (all to HBO), and 3 went to network television (2 for ABC, 1 for NBC). (Note: the win for Hacks is hard to categorize because it is an HBO show that only aired on their streaming service HBOMax.) After streaming dominated for the first time last year, HBO made a strong comeback and Abbott Elementary became the first network television comedy series to win a top award since Allison Janney took home her second trophy for the CBS sitcom Mom in 2015.
Records and Milestones
- With her loss this year for Killing Eve, Sandra Oh is now 0-for-13, making her one of the biggest losers in Emmy history. She is approaching all-time Emmy losing performer Angela Lansbury, who is 0-for-18.
- Saturday Night Live extends its lead as the most winning series of all time with its 87th win tonight.
- With her win for Abbott Elementary, Sheryl Lee Ralph became the 1st woman of color to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 35 years since Jackee Harry for 227 in 1987. They are the only 2 non-white women to ever win this category.
- Julia Garner becomes only 2nd woman to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series 3 times after Nancy Marchand for Lou Grant.
- Lee Jung-jae became the first acting winner for a non-English language performance. Additionally, Squid Game became the first non-English language series to win a major Emmy.
- As mentioned, Jean Smart enters an elite field with 5 acting wins. The only actors with more are Cloris Leachman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Asner, Allison Janney, Tyne Daily, John Lithgow, and Mary Tyler Moore.
- Zendaya became the youngest actor to win 2 acting Emmys and Julia Garner became the youngest actor to win 3 acting Emmys.
- This was the first time in Emmy history that 3 out of the 4 comedy acting winners repeated from the prior year.
- In a true testament to how beloved it is by the Television Academy, Ted Lasso’s 8 Emmys in the major categories over its first 2 seasons means that it now has more major Emmy wins than classic series like Seinfeld, Friends, The Cosby Show, Arrested Development, Sex and the City, Roseanne, and The Office.
- As of last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, RuPaul now has 12 wins, extending his lead as the most awarded black person in Emmys history.
My Prediction Accuracy. Last Saturday, I posted my predictions in all 25 categories. (Click here to read that article.) After going 18-for-27 last year, I rebounded with perhaps my best showing ever. I correctly predicted 21 of the 25 winners (84%). The only 4 that I got wrong were Lead Actor in a Drama Series (I predicted Succession’s Jeremy Strong over Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae), Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (I predicted Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James over her co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph), Directing in a Comedy Series (I predicted Bill Hader for Barry over MJ Delaney for Ted Lasso), and Competition Program (I predicted RuPaul’s Drag Race over Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls). My excellent performance begs the question — was I particularly prescient this year or were the Emmys too predictable?
Thoughts on the Telecast
Host Kenan Thompson. Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson did a decent job of hosting after a rough start. He started the show with some introductory marks that fell very flat. Things got worse when it turned into an elaborate dance number where the original versions of classic theme songs from shows like Friends, The Brady Bunch, Law & Order, Stranger Things, and Game of Thrones segued into painful remixes. One nice moment from it was seeing the surviving cast of The Brady Bunch in attendance. It was random, but it’s the type of honoring of classic television that I think the Emmys should do more of. Thompson actually did better with his subsequent monologue when he made some sharp jokes about the state of the television and streaming industries and later in the show with moderately successful bits with his old comedy partner Kel Mitchell, Silicon Valley and Marvel star Kumail Nanjiani, and his SNL costar Bowen Yang.
Presenters. This year’s lineup of presenters was consistent with the traditional Emmys mix of television veterans (e.g., Oprah Winfrey, Amy Poehler, Sofia Vergara, Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling, Will Arnett, Molly Shannon), stars promoting current popular TV series (e.g., the leading trio of Only Murders in the Building, Diego Luna and Rosario Dawson of upcoming Star Wars shows, the leading duos from Squid Game and The Rings of Power, Taron Egarton and Paul Walter Hauser of the new limited series Black Bird), and shameless self-promotion for the network airing the Emmys (e.g., the Law & Order franchise’s Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, La Brea’s Natalie Zea, late night host Seth Meyers). Most of the presenters ranged from downright awful to middling, but there were a few standouts. The highlight was undoubtedly Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. The Only Murders in the Building stars had such great chemistry and perfectly executed banter that it made you wish they were hosting and wonder how the show went home empty-handed. The Office costars Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak reunited for some hilarious banter, as did SNL castmates Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers. The telecast made some very interesting choices about how they opened and closed the ceremony. They brought the one and only Oprah out for the first award but saddled her with a cloying speech filled with so many cliches that it felt like it was written by a random platitude generator. They wrapped with the arrogant and cloying Pete Davison (feeding his ego with great fanfare) and Selma Blair (making a triumphant return to the stage after disclosing her battle with multiple sclerosis). It was all very random.
Acceptance Speeches. After giving an acceptance speech for the ages earlier this year at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Dopesick, Michael Keaton set the night off on a weird tone when he complained about “fake smiling” and rambled about his childhood of love for television with the 1st acceptance speech of the night. Things got better with Murray Bartlett’s deeply heartfelt and authentic speech and his co-star Jennifer Coolidge was an absolute delight, just as she was when she presented last year. Equally passionate and hilarious were Lizzo, Brett Goldstein, and Jean Smart. But absolutely nothing in the evening could compare to Sheryl Lee Ralph. When the longtime veteran of stage and screen won her 1st Emmy for Abbott Elementary (and became the first non-white woman to win her category in 35 years), she was helped to the stage visibly shaking by her adoring costars. She then composed herself and unexpectedly belted out Diana Reeves’s jazz song “Endangered Species” before launching into a passionate, heartfelt speech. It brought me to tears and felt like an Emmy moment for the ages.
In Memoriam. The Emmys have done a particularly good job of the “In Memoriam” segment the past few years and that trend continued this year. Black-ish star Anthony Anderson introduced John Legend, who crooned his emotional song “Pieces” at the piano. A montage of industry legends who died in the previous year unfolded, often pausing for touching voice clips of notable stars. Fittingly, it began with the Queen of Television Betty White (who died in December just weeks shy of her 100th birthday) and ended with groundbreaking Hollywood icon Sidney Poitier. Other stars highlighted include Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies), Jay Sandrich (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati), Willie Garson (Sex and the City), Robert Morse (Mad Men), Liz Sheridan (Seinfeld), Estelle Harris (Seinfeld), John Madden (sports commentator), Vin Scully (sports commentator), Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek), Bob Saget (Full House), James Caan (The Godfather), Gilbert Gottfried (Aladdin), Jean-Marc Vallee (Big Little Lies), Louie Anderson (Baskets), Anne Heche (Another World), Paul Sorvino (GoodFellas), and Ray Liotta (GoodFellas). It was a touching reminder of how many beloved Hollywood figures were lost in the past year.
Other Aspects. Outside of the “In Memoriam,” the ceremony was thankfully light on bits and clip packages. I suspect this decision was how it actually came in on time. The Governor’s Award presentation to The Geena Davis Institute for Gender on Media was very well-executed (not to mention well-deserved). However, the bits featuring The Simpsons and Star Wars seemed like a forced attempt to appeal to the masses, as did the montage of popular but un-nominated like Yellowstone, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and Young Sheldon. Although I loved the fact that the Emmys picked a young, black, LGBTQ person to serve as the announcer some of the commentary was truly cringe-inducing and too much attention was given to it. I also found the lack of consistency in the awards presentations to be very frustrating. There was no discernible logic to what order the categories were presented in and which categories had clips shown and which didn’t. The producers probably thought it would inject some spontaneity into the evening but all it did was produce chaos.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards was fine as a telecast and produced a set of mostly deserving — albeit somewhat repetitive and predictable — slate of winners. I certainly would have made different choices both as a producer and voter, but nothing was truly disappointing and there were thankfully few cringe-inducing moments. As always, my main wishes for the next ceremony are that they actually embrace diversity among the winners (not just in terms of race and gender, but also spreading the wealth among shows and citing fresh new shows) and that they pay more tribute to television history (not just in the “In Memoriam” section).
74th Primetime Emmy Award Winners:
Drama
- Outstanding Drama Series: Succession (HBO)
- Outstanding Lead Actress: Zendaya, Euphoria (HBO)
- Outstanding Lead Actor: Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game (Netflix)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress: Julia Garner, Ozark (Netflix)
- Outstanding Supporting Actor: Matthew Macfadyen, Succession (HBO)
- Outstanding Writing: Jesse Armstrong, Succession (Episode: “All the Bells Say”; HBO)
- Outstanding Directing: Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game (Episode: “Red Light, Green Light”; Netflix)
Comedy
- Outstanding Comedy Series: Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)
- Outstanding Lead Actress: Jean Smart, Hacks (HBOMax)
- Outstanding Lead Actor: Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary (ABC)
- Outstanding Supporting Actor: Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)
- Outstanding Writing: Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary (Episode: “Pilot”; ABC)
- Outstanding Directing: MJ Delaney, Ted Lasso (Episode: “No Weddings and a Funeral”; AppleTV+)
Limited Series
- Outstanding Limited Series: The White Lotus (HBO)
- Outstanding Lead Actress: Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout (Hulu)
- Outstanding Lead Actor: Michael Keaton, Dopesick (Hulu)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress: Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus (HBO)
- Outstanding Supporting Actor: Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus (HBO)
- Outstanding Writing: Mike White, The White Lotus (HBO)
- Outstanding Directing: Mike White, The White Lotus (HBO)
Variety and Reality
- Outstanding Reality Competition Program: Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (Prime)
- Outstanding Variety Talk Series: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
- Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: Saturday Night Live (NBC)
- Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special: Jerrod Carmichael, Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel (HBO)
Governor’s Award: The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
