Following a four-month hiatus due to strikes in Hollywood, the final season of “Succession” dominated the Emmy Awards on Monday, taking home six categories, including outstanding drama. The event was a sentimental celebration of television’s history and present.
Stars Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Matthew Macfadyen took home honors for their work on the HBO series about the backstabbing dynastic fights of a prominent media family. Meanwhile, “The Bear” took home the top comedy prize and “Beef” topped the limited series category.
“This is a show about family, but it’s also about when… partisan news coverage gets intertwined with divisive right-wing politics,” said “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong.
“After four seasons of satire, as I understand it, that’s a problem we have now fixed,” he joked, on the night that Donald Trump won the Iowa Republican caucuses.
Accepting their best actress and actor prizes, both Snook — who was pregnant during the show’s final season — and Culkin paid tribute to their babies, with Culkin joking to his wife, “I want more… you said maybe, if I win!”
“Succession,” which had already won best drama series twice previously, had entered the night with a whopping 27 nominations, including a record three of the six nominees for best actor.
It also won for best writing and directing.
Best supporting actress went to Jennifer Coolidge, the only star returning from the satirical series “The White Lotus,” which was set in Sicily in its second season.
In a reference to her iconic character’s narrative, in which she made friends with a colorful, yacht-owning bunch of guys who had malicious motives, Coolidge praised “all the evil gays.”
The September ceremony usually hosts the Emmys, which are the Oscars of the tiny screen.
However, this time around, the organizers wisely chose an uncommon January date, figuring that the entertainment sector strikes would have ended and that performers would be available to attend.
Stars and guests from Harrison Ford to Joan Collins walked the red carpet into the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles for the ceremony.
Vintage comedy
The 75th anniversary of the Emmy Awards included several sketches honoring cherished vintage episodes on lavish settings.
Stars like Ted Danson and Kelsey Grammar made an appearance on a set that mimicked the well-known Boston bar from “Cheers,” and Lorraine Bracco and Michael Imperioli from “The Sopranos” gave an award from the mob drama’s psychiatrist office.
Other television programs receiving sentimental comebacks were “Ally McBeal” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The Emmys’ declining viewership and the organizers’ choice to pay homage to the golden era of television stood in sharp juxtaposition to each other.
Merely 5.9 million people watched the previous year’s show, which was less than the 2020 “pandEmmys” lockdown edition that was aired from an empty theater. This year, it was up against an NFL playoff game and the Iowa vote on Monday.
This time, there was also the added difficulty of remembering seasons of shows that had already broadcast months earlier.
Due to the delay, votes for series that had premiered up to 18 months prior were cast back in the summer.
The most notable winner of six prizes on Monday was “The Bear,” which brought viewers behind the scenes of a dysfunctional Chicago eatery and took home the highest comedy prize.
Best actor, supporting actor, and actor were won by stars Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The show also took home awards for writing and directing prizes.
However, the ceremony paid tribute to the highly anticipated first season of the show, which debuted in June 2022. The much more acclaimed and ambitious second season of the show is eligible for the next Emmy Awards ceremony, which takes place in September.
Quinta Brunson won for best actress in a comedy for “Abbott Elementary.”
Limited series
With five awards, including best limited series, writing, and directing, Netflix’s “Beef” dominated the categories for single-season television shows.
Leading acting awards went to Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who portrayed enraged drivers embroiled in a feud that was intensifying quickly.
“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” co-star Niecy Nash-Betts won best supporting actress, while Paul Walter Hauser won for best supporting actor for “Black Bird,” another dark true crime series.
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” won best scripted variety series, and variety series writing.
Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers paid tribute to the late Norman Lear for “changing American culture,’ from a set modeled on one of his many hit shows, “All In The Family.”
The annual “In Memoriam” section honored TV stars who died in the past year including Angela Lansbury, Richard Roundtree, Harry Belafonte, 25-year-old “Euphoria” actor Angus Cloud and “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
