Key events
That’s a wrap!
Adrian Horton
And with that, this very awards-heavy night comes to a close. Besides a chuckle-worthy opening skit poking fun at the quirks of the television business, host Nate Bargatze mostly stuck to chiding winners for talking too long, threatening to deduct money for the Boys & Girls Club with a ticker and actual children on stage. The bit didn’t really work, but it ultimately didn’t matter – Bargatze, as expected, donated his own money to bring the tally to $350,000 at the end of the show.
The ticker did keep the speeches mostly under 45 seconds, and thus mostly underwhelming. But there were still emotional highlights – Cristin Milioti’s exuberant win for lead actress in a limited series, 15-year-old Owen Cooper becoming the youngest supporting actor winner ever, Stephen Colbert’s jubilance in the Late Show’s Emmy swan song and the shock win for Jeff Hiller, from the little-show-that-could Somebody Somewhere.
Most heartwarming of all was the triumph of Noah Wyle and The Pitt over much more expensive, much more prestige-y shows than the HBO max medical drama. Less surprising was the dominance of The Studio, now the most awarded comedy for a single season (when counting the Creative Arts Emmys), and the sweep by Netflix hit Adolescence. Creator Stephen Graham provided one of the night’s most moving speeches, calling for equality and respect on television sets.
Well, that’s it from us. Thanks for sticking with us, and we’ll see you next year!
Adrian Horton
My colleague Benjamin Lee wrote a full rundown of tonight’s awards, reunions and speeches:
Benjamin Lee
It feels like it happened a few days ago now, but there was a red carpet and it looked a bit like this:
Benjamin Lee
The night’s most genuine moment:
Benjamin Lee
Here’s the full list of winners if you need to catch up:
Adrian Horton
Just before the Pitt’s triumph, the Emmys brought together one final cast reunion tribute. Ice-T, Christopher Meloni, Tony Goldwyn, Epatha Merkerson and Mariska Hargitay came together to celebrate Law & Order: SVU – or, more accurately, to celebrate Hargitay’s 27-year tenure as Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU.
As Goldwyn aptly noted: “Mariska Hargitay has solved more fictional crimes than most actual precincts.” I believe it.
Benjamin Lee
Emmy winner Jack Thorne wrote this about the inspiration for his hit drama Adolescence back in March:
WINNER: The Pitt – best drama series
Adrian Horton
In the end, Emmy voters went with their hearts over their heads, picking fast-paced, topical medical drama The Pitt over the cerebral Severance, in a huge win for HBO Max and the concept of true episodic, network-style television for streaming.
Creator and showrunner R Scott Gemmill thanked the village behind the breakout hit show, currently filming its second season, and dedicated the award to all frontline healthcare workers – “respect them, protect them, trust them!”
Benjamin Lee
Here’s Stephen Colbert’s speech which had the most enthused audience reaction of the night:
WINNER: Noah Wyle (The Pitt) – lead actor in a drama series
Adrian Horton
No wonder they saved this award to the very end – Noah Wyle’s win for best actor in a drama caps one of the best feel-good TV stories of the year.
“What a dream this has been,” the former ER actor says to enthusiastic applause, before thanking everyone on The Pitt: “You bring your A game every day, which inspires me to bring mine.”
He signs off with a nod to the real-life medical workers who inspire and advised on a show about a beleaguered ER in Pittsburgh: “To anybody who’s going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job. This is for you!”
WINNER: The Studio – best comedy series
Adrian Horton
No surprise here – The Studio has been all over this Emmys telecast, and is now the most awarded comedy for a single year, as well as the most awarded freshman comedy.
“I’m legitimately embarrassed by how happy this makes me,” says Seth Rogen, accepting on behalf of the show with an ad hoc speech that included, after all the family and friend and agent shout-outs, a nod to the people the show so successfully skewered: “Thank you to the executives!” said Rogen as farewell. (For what it’s worth, Apple CEO Tim Cook looked delighted.)
Benjamin Lee
This is indeed pretty charming:
WINNER: Adolescence – best limited or anthology series
Adrian Horton
And just like that, it’s a full sweep for Adolescence at the Emmys, winning every award in which they were nominated tonight.
Stephen Graham accepts on behalf of the team, making sure to emphasize the egalitarianism inherent to the show. “What we do, it’s not a game of footie, you know? There are no winners and there are no losers, it’s all subjective.”
On set, from executive producer to toilet cleaner in the Winnebago, “we were treated equally”, he added. “Everyone was treated with the utmost respect. We’re all the same.” Well said.
WINNER: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – best talk series
Adrian Horton
The long pause before the announcement said it all: this is the Emmy send-off for the Late Show, its first win in what we now know is its last season.
Colbert appears jubilant, to chants of “Stephen!” from his writers and his staff. He spares CBS from any barbs, instead thanking his network for “giving us the privilege to be a part of the late-night tradition which I hope continues long after we’re done doing this show”.
He also recalls telling Spike Jonze, when first starting in 2015, that he wanted to make a show about love, but eventually – “and you can probably guess when this was” – he realized he was making a show about loss. “Sometimes you only know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” he says. “I’ve never loved my country more desperately.”
Colbert signed off with enthusiastic words of encouragement: “Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator ever tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor!”
WINNER: Stephen Graham (Adolescence) – lead actor in a limited or anthology series
Adrian Horton
This is really Adolescence’s night. Longtime UK character actor Stephen Graham, already a winner for writing tonight, wins for his absolutely gutting performance as the dad of a 13-year-old killer and is quickly engulfed by his cast and family.
“This doesn’t normally happen to a kid like me,” he says, seeming overwhelmed. “I’m just a mixed-race kid from a block of flats in a place called Kirkby.”
He also emotionally thanks his dad, for “taking me to a video shop as a kid”, as well as his wife – “You know, and I know, without you I would be dead.” This is a feel-good win for a devastatingly dark show.
Adrian Horton
And now it’s time for the in memoriam segment … Phylicia Rashad kicks off the somber proceedings with a special tribute for her late Cosby Show co-star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who tragically drowned in July at the age of 54.
Country singers Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson then take over, memorializing the many performers and TV workers we lost this year, including Teri Garr, John Amos, David Lynch, Ozzy Osbourne and Quincy Jones.
Adrian Horton
Continuing this temporary break from the firehose of TV awards, Michael Schur and Kristen Bell present the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson.
The award honors the couple’s charity work, including but not limited to: preserving the world’s oceans, arts funding in schools, standing up for the LGBTQ+ community, pediatric AIDS and their Angels At Risk charity for addiction prevention and support.
“There’s no honor that would mean more to Mary and me than this one,” says Danson. “This life is not about us … it’s about our stewardship of what we’ve been given.”
Adrian Horton
Cris Abrego, the TV Academy president, has appeared to pay tribute to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a critical resource for local television since 1967 and which will shut down at the end of this year after the Republican-led Congress voted to defund it.
“It silences another cultural institution,” Abrego lamented. But “at a time when division dominates the headlines, storytelling still has the power to unite us. Television and the artists to make it do more than shape our society, they shape our culture.”
Abrego, tipping into politics without specifically antagonizing anyone or naming names, calls on the room to “continue to champion that power and wield it responsibly”, as “neutrality is not enough”.
He also celebrates the 30,000-strong TV Academy for being the largest, youngest and most diverse voting bloc in history – part of the mission to ensure that “culture is not a platform for the privileged, but a public good for all”, to a vigorous nod of support from Selena Gomez.
