The 76th Primetime Emmys took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night, a ceremony its co-host Dan Levy celebrated as “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.” Jodie Foster, a winner for “True Detective: Night Country,” must have felt so seen.
Levy, who hosted alongside his father, Eugene Levy, presided over a generally predictable ceremony, sprinkled with a few surprises. Supporting acting awards for Liza Colón-Zayas, for “The Bear,” and Lamorne Morris, for “Fargo,” seemed to startle even the winners.
The broadcast slumped in the second hour, which included a lengthy introduction to the Television Academy chair Cris Abrego and an in memoriam sequence set to Jelly Roll’s “I Am Not Okay.” (It worked better if you didn’t think too hard about the lyrics.) But it rebounded in the third, which saw substantial wins for “Baby Reindeer” and “Shogun,” which set a record for the most Emmy Awards in a single season (18). And the ceremony concluded with perhaps the night’s biggest shock: The award for best comedy went not to the heavily favored FX restaurant dramedy “The Bear” but instead to the Max showbiz sitcom “Hacks.” The 11 awards “The Bear” received are the most won by a comedy in a single season, which must be some consolation.
The hosts strode into “The Bear” comedy-not-a-comedy debate early in the night. “In the spirit of ‘The Bear,’ we will not be making any jokes,” Eugene Levy said. But there were some good ones, including two — courtesy of Selena Gomez and Candice Bergen — about childless cat ladies. In a big night for diversity and kilts, these were the best and worst moment of the Emmys. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Best award trend: Sharing the wealth
We went into the night knowing which shows were going to dominate these Emmys — or did we? It turned out that a night of runaway winners and foregone conclusions had some surprises for us after all.
“Baby Reindeer” did walk off with best limited or anthology series, but “Ripley” and “Fargo” pulled off wins as well. “Slow Horses” and “The Morning Show” made a couple of dents in the dominance of “Shogun.” And while “The Bear” cleaned up overall, the show that many felt was not a real comedy was upset in the night’s last award by “Hacks,” which is not only a comedy, but is also about comedians. (I would have preferred an upset for the luminous “Reservation Dogs,” but at least the Emmys kept things interesting.) JAMES PONIEWOZIK
Worst running bit: Those ‘TV archetype’ dioramas
The Emmys love to reminisce; the program this year saw tributes to “The West Wing” and “Happy Days,” itself a pioneer of TV nostalgia. But we could have done without the repeated, tepid segments, on generic sets, commemorating familiar prime-time character types: TV Moms, TV Dads, TV Villains, TV Doctors. It reminded us, I guess, that TV has done a lot of the same things, over and over? Point taken. JAMES PONIEWOZIK
Best constructive criticism: John Leguizamo
Amid all of Sunday’s nostalgia, it stood out when John Leguizamo took to the Emmy stage and reminded us that the old days weren’t always happy days for everybody.
Leguizamo recalled watching TV when he was young, seeing sitcoms and cartoons traffic in negative Latino stereotypes and watching sci-fi shows like “Star Trek” imply that people like him wouldn’t exist in the future. Leguizamo has since become an activist for diversity in entertainment.
“Turns out not complaining didn’t change anything,” he said. “So for the past few years, I’ve been complaining.” JAMES PONIEWOZIK
Worst shameless promotion: That Johnnie Walker ad
Promotions masquerading as legitimate material is a scourge in any medium. Shoehorning an ad into the Emmys themselves is disgraceful. When the ceremony had Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Taylor Zakhar Perez shilling for booze as a prelude to presenting what is ostensibly television’s highest honor, it was distracting and bizarre. (Also, no: Having a drink before you present is, in fact, a terrible idea.) MARGARET LYONS
Best banter trend: Rhetorical love taps
Awards ceremonies are necessarily exercises in self-congratulation. Happily, the broadcast didn’t always play nice.
The Levys gave each other a hard time. Four “Saturday Night Live” performers turned up to tease the veteran producer Lorne Michaels. (Bowen Yang kept calling him “Lauren.”) Rob McElhenney may have referred to Meryl Streep as a jockstrap. The “Only Murders in the Building” trio drew comedy blood with Martin Short saying of Steve Martin, “What an honor it is for me to be working with someone who looks like he’s fallen and can’t get up.” Martin responded, “Let me say what an honor it is for me to be working with someone who looks like a former women’s tennis champion.” Selena Gomez called them “two guys who are this far away from being childless cat ladies.”
Even the dead were ribbed, with Jimmy Kimmel saying of Bob Newhart: “He did not have range. He didn’t need to have range. Bob had what very few comedians have, especially today: a degree in accounting.” ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Best speechifying: Richard Gadd
Gadd delivered three of the night’s better speeches, and in his acceptance speech for his show’s win for best limited or anthology series, he spoke to the TV industry at large, which seems to be spinning its wheels in many regards.
“No slump is ever broken without a willingness to take risks,” Gadd said. “If ‘Baby Reindeer’ has proved anything, it’s that there’s no set formula to this — that you don’t need big stars, proven I.P., long-running series, catchall storytelling to have a hit.”
“The only constant across any success in television,” he continued, “is good storytelling — good storytelling that speaks to our times. So, take risks, push boundaries, explore the uncomfortable, dare to fail in order to achieve.” Combine this with Jodie Foster’s “love and work equals art,” and we could really have something. MARGARET LYONS
Best look: Endearing fluster
Liza Colón-Zayas did not expect to win best supporting actress in a comedy for her work in “The Bear.” Onstage, she said that her husband, the actor David Zayas, had encouraged her to write a speech, but she hadn’t because she did not think a win was possible. Her ad lib — poignant, heartfelt — was one of the great pleasures of the evening, as was her win, a first for a Latina actress in her category.
Also sweetly flustered was Lamorne Morris (“Fargo”), a winner for supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie. He thanked his mother, stumbling over an anatomical description of his own birth, then went on to thank his daughter, who “always doubted me,” he joked. Then he asked his fellow nominee Robert Downey Jr. to autograph a poster.
While John Oliver couldn’t have been shocked to receive an Emmy for outstanding variety series, he was just befuddled enough to refer to his older son, Hudson, as “husband.” “Ouch. Ouch,” he said. “That’s going to come back to haunt me.” ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Worst look: Humidity chic
Is it hot in the Peacock Theater or is it just them? It’s possible that most of Hollywood has gone menopausal. Or maybe something was wonky with the indoor lighting and temperature. On camera, nearly everyone seemed to be glistening, and some stars looked absolutely damp. Flop sweat is a fact, of course, but Tinseltown’s winners, losers and those not even nominated were all unusually shiny. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Best fashion choice: Kilts
It was a fortuitous night for Scots rocking kilts. Alan Cumming, the flamboyant host of the Peacock reality competition series “The Traitors,” started by accepting the Emmy for best reality competition program wearing a black kilt over black pants, complete with a tartan sash. (He also won an Emmy for best reality host earlier in the week.)
Richard Gadd, the star and creator of the hit Netflix series “Baby Reindeer,” gallivanted onstage in a blue-and-green tartan kilt — accessorized with a black fanny pack over black tights — to accept the top award for best limited or anthology series, along with awards for writing and acting. Gadd’s success did create a bit of a wardrobe conundrum: He’ll need a bigger fanny pack to carry all that hardware home. SARAH BAHR
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