From the opening, a classic skit for the ages lovingly spoofing TV, to the very last award, in which the year’s most-nominated series was denied the big prize, the 77th Emmy Awards was chock full of surprises.
Yes, there were sweeps — Netflix’s shattering drama Adolescence won every award Sunday night in the limited-series categories for which it was eligible, each one a no-brainer. And Seth Rogen‘s Apple TV+ Hollywood satire The Studio, which set an Emmys record with 13 total wins (including nine from the Creative Arts awards last weekend), nearly swept as well. The most significant awards The Studio lost were in the supporting categories, which provided a true shocker, albeit a pleasant one, when the adorably quirky Jeff Hiller won for HBO’s criminally underappreciated and heartfelt sleeper Somebody Somewhere. And after several losses, Hacks‘ Hannah Einbinder finally got the Emmy she’d long deserved.
For every Jean Smart (her fourth win in five years) in Hacks or Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (its 10th in a row, spanning two different categories), the Emmys showed a refreshing streak of unpredictability, shutting out The White Lotus and passing over the two front-runners in drama, Severance and The Pitt, for writing and directing — those Emmys went, respectively, to Andor and Slow Horses — thus keeping the suspense palpable over whether The Pitt or Severance (which dwarfed the competition in nominations) would win for Best Drama.
An early hint came when the wonderful Katherine LaNasa won for supporting actress as The Pitt‘s scrappy charge nurse, a veteran character actor in the role of a lifetime, upstaging the much higher-profile cast of The White Lotus. But Severance also had its moments, with Tramell Tillman winning for supporting actor and Britt Lower upsetting the odds-on favorite in the lead actress category, Matlock‘s Kathy Bates.
Ultimately, The Pitt and its star Noah Wyle won for drama series and lead actor, a triumph for old-fashioned storytelling that breaths dynamic new life into the traditional medical drama.
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Earning standing ovations twice (once as a presenter and then a winner), Stephen Colbert reveled in the spotlight, taking the variety talk show prize in the wake of CBS’s inexplicable and unpopular canceling of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He was unquestionably a crowd favorite.
But so in most regards was first-time host and Hollywood outsider Nate Bargatze. He set the whimsical tone with a brilliant opening sketch featuring members of the Saturday Night Live ensemble, echoing his acclaimed shtick as an SNL host in which he plays historic figures ruminating on the future — in this case, the future of TV as imagined by the medium’s inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth. After he describes Severance‘s bizarre premise, an underling admits he doesn’t understand it, to which Farnsworth quips: “People who watch it won’t either, but by God, it will be on TV.” He also described a History Channel that airs precious little history, a Learning Channel (TLC) with no learning, and “a world where the finest artists craft stories of staggering beauty that millions of people will watch on their phones while they’re sitting on the toilet.”
The affably low-key Bargatze’s other main contribution to the show was a stunt in which he pledged $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, but only if winners kept within their 45-second allotment for acceptance speeches, with $1,000 subtracted for each second that they went over. As a running gag, it had its moments — when a winner from Adolescence ate up time, bringing the total down to $36,000, he remarked, “A show called Adolescence did that to adolescents.” The emotional blackmail was good-natured but also pulled focus from the spontaneous euphoria of deserving winners like The Penguin‘s Cristin Milioti.
Besides, if they were really concerned about time, they could have limited some of the banter spouted by long-winded presenters, though as Bargatze joked, “We are only penalizing the people that have worked the hardest to get here.” And when the presenters were as amusing as White Lotus veteran Jennifer Coolidge and the Everybody Loves Raymond duo of Ray Romano and sad sack Brad Garrett, who fretted that he may not make the cut in a future In Memoriam tribute (don’t worry, he will), the business of putting on a memorable show outweighed the ever-ticking clock.
As most probably suspected, there was never any intention of taking money away from the kids. While the final tally went deep into negative territory, Bargatze announced he would add $250,000 to CBS’s own $100,000 donation to the organization.
And when it was all over, the show only went a few minutes long. With key categories announced from recreated sets of TV classics marking significant anniversaries for The Golden Girls, Gilmore Girls, and the Law & Order franchise, there was a sense that for all of the ribbing, this Emmys broadcast was a pleasurable celebration of an ever-evolving medium.