TWO-WAY SWEEP

Succession, the powerful family saga that bowed out with a flourish after its fourth and final season last year, continued its dream run at the Emmy Awards. Nominated in a record 27 categories, the HBO series converted it into six wins, including the top three of Outstanding Drama Series, Lead Actor — Drama Series for Kieran Culkin, Lead Actress — Drama Series for Sarah Snook and Supporting Actor — Drama Series for Matthew MacFadyen.

The Bear, an equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of grief and grit, also took home six golden trophies. That included Comedy Series, Best Supporting Actress — Comedy (Ayo Edibri), Supporting Actor — Comedy (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Lead Actor — Comedy (Jeremy Allen White), Best Writing and Best Directing — Comedy (both Christopher Storer). The FX series was nominated in 13 categories.

Jeremy Allen White with his Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for The Bear

Beef, the Netflix road rage dark comedy, also made good on its promise, winning in five categories, including the coveted prizes of Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Steven Yeun and Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Ali Wong.

Ali Wong with her trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Beef

YAY FOR DIVERSITY

Niecy Nash-Betts, Ayo Edebiri, Quinta Brunson and more gave powerful speeches at the 2024 Emmys as the night witnessed historical wins for people of colour. Nash, who was awarded Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for her role as Glenda Cleveland in Netflix’s Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, indisputably delivered one of the best speeches in Emmy history, accepting her trophy “on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard yet overpoliced”. She also went on to thank herself, saying: “I want to thank me — for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do. And I want to say to myself in front of all these beautiful people, ‘Go on girl with your bad self. You did that’.”

Niecy Nash-Betts

Nash wasn’t the only one. Quinta Brunson became the second Black woman in over 30 years to win an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy. Her win came for ABC’s Abbott Elementary and was presented to her by television legend Carol Burnett. Brunson wiped away tears, saying that she was “so happy” to “live my dream and act out comedy”. She added: “I say that every time, but I just love comedy so much that I am so happy to be able to get this.”

Quinta Brunson

Ayo Edebiri joined the list of Black women scoring big at the 75th Emmys, winning Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in The Bear. “Thank you so much for loving me and letting me feel beautiful and Black and proud of all of that,” said the young actor while thanking her parents. Her win, along with that of Brunson, went down in history books: never in the history of the Emmys have Black women won for Best Lead Actress and Supporting Actress in Comedy in the same year.

That the feat took place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day made it all the more special. A nice touch was the evening ending with Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

RuPaul is no stranger to Emmy wins in the category of Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. He took home his fifth award for RuPaul’s Drag Race and crowned it with a telling speech: “We are so honoured to have this award. Listen, you guys are just pure lovely for honouring our show and recognising all these queens,” he said. “We have released into the wild, hundreds of drag queens and they’re beautiful. On behalf of all of them, we thank you.” RuPaul added: “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 are trying to scare you so listen to a drag queen.” The judge and executive producer previously won the category for four consecutive years between 2018 and 2021.

ELTON’s EGOT

Elton John in Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium

Elton John became the newest entrant into the elite EGOT club, winning an Emmy on Monday night for his Disney+ special Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium. With this, the 76-year-old legend has the unique distinction of an EGOT — the acronym reserved for those who win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — and finds his place among names like Jennifer Hudson, Mel Brooks, John Legend, Whoopi Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn, and more.

RECREATING NOSTALGIA

The Ally McBeal cast gets grooving at their Emmys reunion

Delayed from its usual September date because of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the landmark year of the Emmys paid tribute by whipping up some nostalgic TV show reunions. This included re-created sets of many of the celebrated shows at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, the venue of this year’s Emmy Awards.

There was a reunion for Ally McBeal stars Calista Flockhart, Greg Germann, Peter MacNicol, and Gil Bellows. The performers emerged from the show’s bathroom set to dance to You’re the First, the Last, My Everything by Barry White. Old and new cast members of Grey’s Anatomy — Ellen Pompeo, James Pickens Jr. and Chandra Wilson with Katherine Heigl and Justin Chambers — gathered at a makeshift hospital room, with Heigl saying: “Yes, there have been some changes over the years, but the one thing that has remained a constant is the fanbase.”

Eliciting some of the biggest claps and cheers was the Martin cast that came together on the show’s re-created set, where Carl Anthony Payne II seemed confused about the reason for their ‘visit’. “We’re getting our Emmy tonight,” said an enthusiastic Payne, leading his fellow series alums — Tisha Campbell, Tichina Arnold and Martin Lawrence — to acknowledge that the Fox sitcom was never nominated for an Emmy during its five-season run.

Old and new cast members of Grey’s Anatomy upped the nostalgia quotient

To present the Emmy for Best Live Variety Special, the quick-witted comic pair of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were seated at a set based on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update desk, where the two once co-hosted the NBC sketch show’s parody news segment. While announcing the nominees, Fey quipped about singer Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show and said: “The concert was so good, it got us all pregnant!”

PLAYOFF MOMMA!

Fresh from the disastrous showing of host Jo Koy at the Golden Globes last week, Emmys host Anthony Anderson kept things more or less on track. His opening monologue kicked off with a medley of classic TV theme songs, playing in his “living room”, paying tribute to shows like Good Times, The Facts of Life and Miami Vice, which featured a special appearance by Blink-182’s Travis Barker on the drums.

A choice made by Anderson (and the Emmy crew) which proved to be polarising: having his mother Doris Bowman as “the Emmy’s playoff momma”. In other words, Bowman stood out and shouted from her seat in the audience every time a winner’s speech went above the designated time limit. While it did elicit some laughs — when talk show host John Oliver accepted his award, he announced that he would not leave until he got played off by Bowman. After making his thank yous, he started listing every member of Liverpool’s soccer team and their positions. He got through three players when Bowman stood up and cut him off with one disappointed word: “Baby”. He quickly thanked Jesus and his family, as instructed, and took off. However, many fans on social media found the gimmick disrespectful to the winners.

FAREWELL...

There was hardly a dry eye in the auditorium with the ‘In Memoriam’ segment playing out the names of those who had passed in the last year. Singer Charlie Puth paid a moving tribute with his song See You Again, switching over to a reprised version of the Friends theme song I’ll Be There for You when the AV switched to Matthew Perry, who died in October.

Charlie Puth

TOP HONOURS

Outstanding Comedy Series: The Bear (FX)

Outstanding Drama Series: Succession (HBO)

Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series: Beef (Netflix)

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program: RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV)

Outstanding Talk Series: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)

Outstanding Scripted Variety Series: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Outstanding Variety Special (live): Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium (Disney+)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Jeremy Allen White — The Bear (FX)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Quinta Brunson — Abbott Elementary (ABC)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Kieran Culkin — Succession (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Sarah Snook — Succession (HBO)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Steven Yeun — Beef (Netflix)

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Ali Wong — Beef (Netflix)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Ebon Moss-Bachrach — The Bear (FX)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Ayo Edebiri — The Bear (FX)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Matthew Macfadyen — Succession (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Jennifer Coolidge — The White Lotus (HBO)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Paul Walter Hauser — Black Bird (Apple TV+)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Niecy Nash-Betts — Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series: The Bear: “Review” — Christopher Storer (FX)

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: Succession: “Connor’s Wedding” — Mark Mylod (HBO)

Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Beef: “Figures of Light” — Lee Sung Jin (Netflix)

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: The Bear: “System” — Christopher Storer (FX)

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: Succession: “Connor’s Wedding” — Jesse Armstrong (HBO)

Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Beef: “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain” — Lee Sung Jin (Netflix)

Governors Awards: GLAAD

The 75th Emmy Awards is streaming on Lionsgate Play