Here we go again. The 2024 Emmys are back, this time in their usual September slot. Following a red carpet, Dan and Eugene Levy hosted the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on ABC. Obsessively follow along with updates from throughout the night: the red carpet to The Bear dig in the opening monologue to the last-minute Hacks win.
I stand by it. Instead of winning Outstanding Comedy Series, it should actually be losing to Shōgun tonight:
Hacks’s comedy has become a crutch that undermines its ability to follow through on its best dramatic possibilities. So much about the show warrants acclaim, from the Ava-Deborah relationship to its character study of an older female stand-up overcoming decades of disadvantage while reckoning with her sins on the way up. Now that Max has ordered a fourth season, maybe Hacks will stop circling in place and finally see its emotional potential through to the end.
(The show picked up 18 wins, including for Outstanding Drama Series. No wonder Anna Sawai said she teared up before they even called her name.)
The real-life father-son duo between fake-father-son duo Johnny and David Rose have done exactly what we expected them to do as Emmys hosts. They’ve been funny without being mean, and kept things moving without overstaying their welcome. During the opening monologue, they ribbed each other (nicely, because they’re Canadian) about Hollywood norms (politely, because they’re Canadian) with the same brisk timing they brought to Schitt’s Creek. Perhaps their funniest gag so far: a moment when they went to different aisles for a bit that (deliberately) broke down and forced them to yell at each other across the Peacock Theater. Energy-wise they were outshined a little early on by the Only Murders presenters Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, but they’ve managed this awards show far, far better than they managed their affairs on Schitt’s Creek.
Usually singers tasked with bringing pathos and solemnity to awards show in memoriams sing standards. Your “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” your “Hallelujah,” your “My Way.” Jelly Roll sang a song that came out two months ago. Congrats, “I Am Not Okay.” You’re a standard now. Move over, “I Will Remember You.” I will remember you.
When it comes to the upsets, we’ve kind of called all of them, even if we didn’t nail the actual winner. In our predictions column, for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, we wrote that “If The Bear is the heavy favorite to win Directing, this is probably the category to look for a counterprogramming award.” Knowing that The Bear was up for poaching in this category was half the battle; knowing it would be Hacks and not something fun like What We Do in the Shadows was where we fell short.
We got too timid to predict that Slow Horses could beat Shōgun in the Writing for a Drama Award, but we’ve kind of been all over the possibility that Robert Downey Jr. could lose the award he’d been penciled in for since the spring — Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for The Sympathizer — but Lamorne Morris for Fargo was definitely not on our radar.
We have one more upset we predicted remaining on the ballot: Will Jon Hamm get a second Fargo acting win and make prophets of us yet?
The first time I’ve been on the same page as Iger since he built Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure.
6. Moms
5. Cops
4. Dads
3. Doctors
2. Villains
1. Coaches (because they clearly couldn’t come up with that many coaches who agreed to appear, which is funny, and because they were just a cover for the Olympians)
The 2024 Emmy Awards are a night for hope, artistry, celebration, success, but also … outreach. From my recap of the moment:
Before presenting the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special to Alex Edelman (okay!), Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers, Kristen Wiig, and Bowen Yang took to the stage to address a glaring oversight in Television Academy history, which is that their “dear friend and mentor, Lorne Michaels, has been nominated for and lost the Emmys 85 times. He has never won.”
“Lorne, look at me,” said Wiig. “You do have value. You are worthy. You are not and have never been a loser, even though you lost a lot.”
Most of tonight’s television character archetypes have had three presenters, but for some reason, coaches could only snag Brendan Hunt and Jane Lynch. But you have to remember: Sue Sylvester married herself.
Time for a mid-show check-in!
The Emmys were widely expected to be a coronation for three shows: The Bear, Baby Reindeer, and Shōgun. Halfway through the ceremony, The Bear started out dominant, with a ring of wins for Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and a surprise win for Liza Colón-Zayas over the widely predicted Hannah Einbinder.
Since that moment, though, Hacks has picked up a pair of awards, one expected (Jean Smart always held a bit of an edge over Ayo Edebiri with her veteran actress status) and one less so (I predicted The Bear would lose the writing award, just not to Hacks). The writers in general have been going their own way this year, opting for Hacks for the second time in four years and giving Slow Horses their first major Emmy for “Negotiating with Tigers.” More predictably, the writers went for Alex Edelman in the Writing for a Variety Special category, as our comedy gurus predicted on Gold Rush weeks ago. The late-night awards were as rote as ever, with The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver continuing the outright dominance of the Daily Show Cinematic Universe over the last 20 years.
Yes, this happened earlier in the show, but we needed some time to process. Will Smith the Emmy-winning writer for Slow Horses — not to be confused with Will Smith the Spies in Disguise actor — began his speech by addressing his name-twin, saying, “First of all, relax. Despite my name, I come in peace.” Slow Horses? Baby more like quick wit! Ay!
… From #sponcon. It’s got to be quite the whiplash going from winning your second consecutive Emmy award to peddling subpar whiskey in just over an hour, but them’s the shakes for Ebon Moss-Bachrach. His trophy isn’t even cold yet, and they got him awkwardly ordering a Johnnie Walker Blue with Red, White & Royal Blue’s Taylor Zakhar Perez. What is going on here??? Don’t get me wrong: I get that these are tough times for media companies. For Disney! But at least let the man peddle something fun. Like a car, or a fork.
An actor prepares, a Fonzie just is. Seeing Henry Winkler immediately put himself in full Arthur Fonzarelli physicality is kind of a gag? For those of us raised by Nick@Nite, who know the Happy Days cast better than some extended relatives, it was downright wistful. Then he and Ron Howard got distracted by Steve Martin and Martin Short and forgot to announce the winner for Best Comedy Directing. Dudes rock.
Beautiful Emmy-winning Lamorne Morris! The ceremony recognized him (for the first time!) for his supporting performance in Fargo. Let’s get him a late-night show now. NOW!
Looking like an incredibly hot werewolf and his (also hot) daytime alter ego, Gael García Bernal along with Diego Luna presented the Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nearly entirely in Spanish. They said it was to boost up lagging Emmy viewership (and, of course, to honor the Spanish-speaking nominees in the room); for whatever reason, we’ll take it. You can hear the longtime friends and recurring costars gab in the upcoming La Máquina, Hulu’s first Spanish-language original, on October 9.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won the Emmy for Outstanding Scripted Variety series. Oliver was thanking his dead dog when the show began playing him off. “Perfect choice of music. We had to say goodbye to her,” he quipped. “I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now … ouch.” The audience was just as horrified as our group chat:
Staffer 1: NOT THE DO G
Staffer 2: OH NO
Staffer 3: stop, this is evil
Staffer 4: not the dog!!
Staffer 5: sarah mchlachlan is def gonna respond
Stars, they’re just like us. Annoyed at the amount of times streamers are combining and changing names — especially for their accountants during tax season. During her acceptance speech, she tried to get her home streamer straight as she thanked her colleagues: “And Casey and Sara and everybody at HBO. At Max — I’m sorry. Just what we needed, another network. But, sorry, anyway …”
Congrats to Elizabeth Debicki for winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, beating out approximately 19 women on The Morning Show but also for winning Most Tallest. She’s been the Tallest girlie running since at least Tenet, and it’s high time the TV Academy recognized it. Will the Emmys make her and Jeremy Allen White stand together for some sort of winners’ shot?
Hannah Einbinder’s real mom, Laraine Newman, is in her corner as the woman brave enough to tweet what all of the nominees are thinking. After Einbinder lost to Liza Colón-Zayas for the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series award, she posted her thoughts as only a TV fan and mother would.
The stars of FX’s The Bear clocked into the Emmys and immediately began sweeping up the comedy categories. Ebon Moss-Bachrach wins for best supporting actor, Jeremy Allen White wins for lead actor, and Liza Colón-Zayas for supporting actress. That just leaves Ayo Edebiri for lead actress, in a stacked category against Kristen Wiig, Jean Smart, Maya Rudolph, Selena Gomez, and Quinta Brunson. Somehow more anxiety-inducing than the show itself.
The first award of the night was presented by Only Murders in the Building stars Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin — coasting on the chemistry that has given them four seasons and a movie-within-a-movie. TBH the highlight was when Short’s mic caught him whispering “I got you, baby” to Gomez after she expressed concern she’d fall in her heels. Martin and Short are nominated in the same category, and had some fun with professional jealousy. Did you know if you make jokes about negative feelings you never have to actually acknowledge or address them? It’s true!
Dan and Eugene Levy were asked to host competently and cleanly, and delivered that with aplomb. A built in father-son relationship was always going to make the night easier, and they delivered an acceptable performance, which everybody knew they would.
The Levys also politely asked attendees to not force them to go against their Canadian culture and interrupt people. “I don’t want to be alarmist here, but having to cut you off could kill this man,” Dan said of his 77-year-old dad.
Regardless of how many trophies The Bear takes home tonight, she’s already won in our hearts. That’s a non-negotiable.
It’s me. While several of my colleagues are not fans of his red-carpet look and want to take scissors to the floopy neckline on his custom Loewe, it’s actually very kind of the co-host to offer a shoulder for the losers to cry on. As a Cancer, I would love to pat my tears away on his designer, and you can quote me on that.
Drag queens aren’t bound to human looks. (Remember the green goblin at last year’s Emmys?) Nymphia Wind, the reigning winner of Drag Race, showed up as her signature fruit alongside her season-16 castmates.
We’ve already placed our final bets on who should and will win. FX’s Shōgun led the nominations this year with 25 nods, and we think it’ll just keep racking up awards as the shō goes un.
Last weekend’s record-breaking 14-win tally by Shōgun at the Creative Arts Emmys could not be a better indication that hand-wringing about whether the FX series could get clipped at the finish line is not necessary. There is no shortage of enthusiasm for this show across the Academy’s various branches.
This is a developing story.