Key events
WINNER: The Daily Show With Trevor Noah — best talk series
Adrian Horton
It’s the first time in eight year that the late-night shows have competed without Last Week Tonight, and winner Trevor Noah knows what good luck that is. “I told you we would beat John Oliver if he wasn’t in our category!” he exclaims before thanking the team of the show he departed at the end of 2022 (I know, time is a construct with this year’s Emmys).
“It’s been so long, it’s been so crazy, it’s been so wonderful,” he says, as well as a note to Daily Show predecessor Jon Stewart – “Thank you for calling me up.”
WINNER: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver – writing for a variety series
Adrian Horton
Last Week Tonight almost never loses an Emmy – the show has 28 wins – and picks up another one for best writing, with its head writer shouting out all the support they received during the writers’ strike – “The strike felt long, it did not feel lonely,” she said.
WINNER: RuPaul’s Drag Race — reality competition program
Adrian Horton
RuPaul, the most awarded host in Emmys history, accepts Drag Race’s fifth win for reality competition series (and elicits and very enthusiastic cheer from Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham).
Joined by a legion of the show’s drag queens on stage, RuPaul alludes to the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws sweeping the country: “If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her, because knowledge is power, and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they’re trying to scare you.”
WINNER: Christopher Storer (The Bear) — writing for a comedy series
Adrian Horton
The Bear is basically sweeping the comedy awards at this point. Just a reminder that this is just for the first season; the (superior) second season, which aired last summer, is eligible only for the 2024 Emmy awards that will air … in a matter of months.
WINNER: Christopher Storer (The Bear) — directing for a comedy series
Adrian Horton
It’s really shaping up to be The Bear’s night – a fourth award for the series, this time to director and creator Christopher Storer, who is not in attendance (the cast of Cheers accepted on his behalf).
Adrian Horton
I agree with this take from Variety’s TV critic Alison Herman – the vintage sets constructed for some of these presenting bits (The Sopranos, Martin, Cheers) are giving much more than just cast reunions.
production note: it’s so much more fun and evocative to resurrect the *sets* of vintage shows than just reunite the cast and call it a day. and pays homage to more kinds of craft than acting alone
— Alison Herman (@aherman2006) January 16, 2024
WINNER: Niecy Nash-Betts (Dahmer) — supporting actress in a limited series or TV movie
Adrian Horton
This is a bit of a surprise! Niecy Nash-Betts takes home the first limited series award for her role as a grieving, relentless mother on Netflix’s serial killer series I can’t watch. “I’m a winner, baby!” she exclaims in tears.
It’s an emotional, defiant speech: “I wanna thank me, for believing in me, and doing what they said I could not do,” she adds, accepting the award on behalf of “every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard and over-policed.”
WINNER: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver — variety scripted series
Adrian Horton
No surprise again, John Oliver’s weekly show wins its eighth consecutive Emmy in the new variety scripted series category – sorry, Saturday Night Live!
Oliver thanked his staff and, importantly, “our lawyers, who are angry with us all the time”, as well as his children before successfully listing Liverpool players until he got shooed off by Anderson’s mom, who’s making a full bit out of her attendance here.
WINNER: Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) — actor in a comedy series
Adrian Horton
Continuing this year’s theme of reuniting beloved casts, the stars of Martin, a long-syndicated yet under-appreciated (by the Emmys) 90s sitcom, riffed for a few minutes before presenting best actor in a comedy series to The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White. That’s three already tonight – all of the comedy acting awards except best actress – for the breakout FX on Hulu show which, again, feels spiritually more drama than comedy (and, regardless, is fantastic).
White keeps it short and sweet: “I love this show so much. It filled me up. It set a passion and a fire in me,” he says, as well as thanking “all those who stayed close to me, especially in this past year” and his two young daughters.
WINNER: Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) — supporting actor in a comedy series
Adrian Horton
The second win of the night already for The Bear, and the energy is high – Ebon Moss-Bachrach (my beloved Cousin Richie) hugs star Jeremy Allen White on the way to the stage. “This job is such a gift,” he says, looking genuinely surprised and openly appreciative of the show’s Chicago-based crew.
Adrian Horton
The full speech from the always delightful Jennifer Coolidge, which really must be watched and not summarized:
Benjamin Lee
An Emmys reunion for The Sopranos! It’s been a funny old week for that show …
WINNER: Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) — supporting actor in a drama series
Adrian Horton
No surprise here, Golden Globe winner Matthew Macfadyen aka Tom Wambsgans takes home the first of surely many awards tonight for Succession, thanking his two onscreen wives – Sarah Snook (Shiv) and Nicholas Braun (Cousin Greg) in the process.
WINNER: Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) — supporting actress in a drama series
Adrian Horton
In the first of what is surely to be more to come for The White Lotus, Jennifer Coolidge once again wins an Emmy for her absurd creation of Tanya McQuoid.
“I still don’t have the strength,” she says, putting down the statue for one of her standard freewheeling bits. “He says I’m definitely dead, so I’m going along with it,” she adds of creator and friend Mike White.
“I want to thank all the evil gays,” she says, knowing her audience, before getting playfully shooed off by Anderson’s mom, mic’ed up in the audience with a clock sign.
WINNER: Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary) — actress in a comedy
Adrian Horton
What an honor to be presented by the still funny legend Carol Burnett – Quinta Brunson, star and creator of Abbott Elementary, is emotional accepting the award for best comedy actress and also “the Carol Burnett of it all”.
“I’m so happy to be able to live my dream and act out comedy,” she said through tears. “I didn’t prepare anything because I just didn’t think … ” before thanking her family, husband and cast, voice breaking.
WINNER: – Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) — supporting actress in a comedy series
Adrian Horton
The first award of the night goes to the ever-charming Ayo Edebiri from breakout “comedy” The Bear. Breathless, she shouted our her parents – “I’m making them sit kinda far away from me because I’m a bad kid” for their support. “Probably not a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like ‘I wanna do improv’ – you’re real ones,” she said.
Here we go
Adrian Horton
The lights are up, the stars are seated and we are underway at the 75th annual Primetime Emmy awards. Host Anthony Anderson, an 11-time Emmy nominee himself for Black-ish, kicks things off with a jovial spoof of Mister Rodgers’ Neighborhood, the first sign that his Emmys would celebrate not just the Successions of the world, but the foundational series of TV.
Anderson’s musical introduction – he brought out a church choir – definitely seems to be going down better than Jo Koy’s limp, defensive monologue at last weekend’s Golden Globes. Aided by a piano, Anderson shouted out the series that shaped the world and, more important, himself – Good Times, The Facts of Life and Miami Vice (with drum assistance on Phil Collins’s In The Air Tonight by Travis Barker).
His jokes, however, were dismissed, quite endearingly, by Anderson’s mother, who stood up in the audience and told him to “cut to the chase”. So off to the first award we go!
