Like a high-speed rail service in a nation that actually invests in infrastructure, the 2023 Emmys in 2024 were accelerated, predictable, and smoothly unremarkable. The three big shows that entered the night as expected winners — Succession for drama, The Bear for comedy, and Beef for limited series — steamrolled their categories, which meant we saw a lot of the same faces onstage and often the same faces smiling back from the audience. The show was making up for lost time during the dual WGA and SAG strikes and awkwardly fitting itself into the rest of the film-dominated winter awards season, with many of the winners making return appearances from the Golden Globes last week (and even last night’s Critics Choice Awards, if anyone happened to watch those). Still, the Emmys did their best to emphasize the TV-ness of it all, reuniting casts from various classic programs in honor of its own 75th anniversary — though that incidentally became a reminder of how few “classic” series actually got their due at this awards show. The presiding spirit of the night seemed to be the insistence that everyone not pay too much attention to whatever might feel a little out of joint, whether in terms of divine TV justice or wider current events. Instead, everyone took the note to keep it short and keep it moving, or else Anthony Anderson’s mother would call you out.
LOW: Anthony Anderson praising TV and ignoring one specific thing about 2023. It’s funny for host Anthony Anderson to reference Norman Lear’s shows, so often about workers’ struggles for fair compensation and recognition for their contributions, and specifically sing the “temporary layoffs” line from the Good Times theme — but fail to segue into some kind of commentary on the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which were, in fact, “temporary layoffs.” That would’ve been subversive and unexpected. Alas. (The writing team from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver finally mentioned the strike 70 minutes into the show, good for them!)
HIGH: Christina Applegate presenting Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. Applegate, who was diagnosed with MS in 2021, has said she will likely never perform in front of the camera again, so it was especially meaningful to see her present an Emmy and be so moved by the standing ovation she received. Applegate being Applegate, she cut through the poignance with sarcasm, joking, “You’re totally shaming my disability by standing up.” Applegate didn’t win in her category — Quinta Brunson did — but she conducted herself like a winner.
HIGH: Using award presentations to deliver historical TV tributes. This tactic is particularly fitting for the big 75th-anniversary Emmys, but it’s really just an excellent excuse to celebrate TV’s past along with the shows winning this year. A Martin reunion! A Cheers reunion! Arsenio Hall recalling the heights of his talk-show era. Jon Cryer presenting alongside his Two and a Half Men mom Holland Taylor. Grey’s Anatomy, which, yes, has been on TV long enough that it counts as both current and historical. Carol Burnett, Marla Gibbs, Joan Collins, Rob Reiner, and Sally Struthers: As it turns out, bringing all these TV legends back to TV can be very good TV!
LOW: Anthony Anderson constantly being in those tributes. The opening was framed as “TV Anthony Anderson loves.” The threat of being played off is “Anthony Anderson’s mom will yell at you.” Did the beautiful tributes also have to include Anderson sitting in The Sopranos’ therapy office, or Anderson interrupting the Martin cast?
WHOA: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver winning Outstanding Scripted Variety Series. Oliver’s HBO series dominated the Talk Show category for the past seven years, but a rule change this year meant it wound up in the category formerly known as Outstanding Sketch Comedy Series, which has long been owned by Saturday Night Live. I thought for sure SNL would win — Last Week Tonight feels more aligned with the talk category — but that bespectacled British man cannot be stopped!
HIGH: Jennifer Coolidge thanking “evil gays.” She was told to keep it short and sweet, and she knows her audience!
HIGH: The fabulous trifecta of wins for Black actresses Ayo Edebiri, Quinta Brunson, and Niecy Nash-Betts. What a delightful way for the first hour of this ceremony to get going, with a trio of emotional, funny, and thoughtful speeches from Edebiri, Brunson, and Nash-Betts for performances on The Bear, Abbott Elementary, and … yeah, fine, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Edebiri followed up thanking assistants at the Golden Globes with a wonderful nod to her parents. (“It’s probably not a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like, ‘I wanna do improv!’ But you’re real ones.”) Brunson — the first Black woman to pick up the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy award in more than 40 years, since Isabel Sanford for The Jeffersons in 1981 — submitted a list of people she wanted shouted out in a chyron so her actual speech could be teary and genuine. And Nash-Betts, in a Greta Constantine mermaid gown that was a feat of architecture, thanked herself for believing in her dream, earning whooping cheers from the audience. It was all very nice, and also a pointed reminder of how much diversity has been lacking at the Emmys for so long.
WHOA: The Bear comedy sweep. Ayo Edebiri for Supporting Actress, Ebon Moss-Bachrach for Supporting Actor, Jeremy Allen White for Lead Actor, Christopher Storer for directing and writing … The Bear is a fantastic series, but it’s very odd to remember that all of this is for its first season, not season two! It’s hard to imagine how much more intense this will be when the Academy can nominate season two’s many guest stars. Congrats to Cousin. Ted Lasso found dead in a ditch.
WHOA: The industry really loves Beef. Hey, two shows about beef dominating the Emmys! Lee Sung Jin’s Netflix miniseries about two strangers who become embroiled in a road-rage incident that eventually takes over their lives won five of the six Emmys it was nominated for: Best Limited Series, Writing and Directing, and Lead Actor and Actress for Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. (It lost Outstanding Supporting Actor to Hauser in Black Bird.) Beef was refreshingly unpleasant to watch because of the ferocity with which Yeun and Wong’s characters despised one another, and its last couple episodes were fascinating in how they switched perspectives and played with what constitutes reality. But it also felt a bit like Beef benefited from the way its creative team and cast mostly ignored the scandal involving castmate David Choe that broke after the series aired — because they didn’t talk about it, people seemingly forgot about it. Much in the way the sexual abuse and misconduct allegations around Anthony Anderson, the Emmys’ own host, have seemingly been forgotten. Coincidence? Hm.
LOW: The X-Files are out there (outside of the building, not present at the Emmys, rudely teased and then not actually in attendance). As part of the 75th-anniversary celebration, the Emmys played snippets of famed TV theme songs when members of their casts appeared onstage — like the “Yeahhhh!” from Ted Lasso. But when Mark Snow’s spooky intro for the most prescient show of the ’90s played, there was no Fox Mulder, no Dana Scully, no David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson re-creating the chemistry that made us all scream at Chris Carter for not letting them kiss as much as we wanted (which was all the time). A missed opportunity for AO3 inspiration.
WHOA: America’s Most Wanted is back, 12 years after its cancellation? [Drags on cigarette Rust Cohle–style] Time is a flat circle, man!
LOW: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia really has been ignored by the Emmys this whole time. When will Glenn Howerton get his due?
HIGH: Roy Wood Jr. mouthing “hire a host” during the Daily Show win. “Hire. A. Host,” the former Daily Show correspondent mouthed quietly. “Please. We don’t care which host. Just hire. A. Host.”
LOW: A rhyming acceptance speech. If you are a poet or rapper … maybe. If you are an actual child and you wrote rhyming couplets, okay maybe. Thin ice. But if you’re, say, Paul Walter Hauser, and you were clearly eating food before winning your award for Black Bird, your job is to get onstage, laugh about the fact that you were eating, tell us what you were eating, and then thank people without rhyming. Or rapping. Or whatever that was. All anyone will be able to think about is that you thanked God for letting you devour life at the marrow and why you needed to rhyme something with “marrow.”
WHOA: Elton John misses his own EGOT. To be fair, EGOTing is a fake thing popularized by 30 Rock. But it’s funny that Elton John capped off his career with a farewell tour, turned that tour into a TV special, then won an Outstanding Variety Special Emmy — but wasn’t there to accept it. (For those curious, he’s received five Grammys, first for “That’s What Friends Are For” in 1987, then an Oscar for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” in 1994, and a Tony for the Aida score in 2000 — turns out movies, music, theater, and TV were all his strongest suit.)
LOW: Anthony Anderson wearing the black latex bodysuit from American Horror Story. “I thought my butt was bigger than this until I put on this suit,” is a perfectly fine thing to say to your friends and is probably not necessary to say at the Emmys.
HIGH: Unexpected appreciation for Anthony Anderson’s mother. For a moment, this bit looked wobbly: Her interaction with Jennifer Coolidge was just on the far side of “this feels very bad, actually.” But either people wanted to be brief, or they were legitimately alarmed by having to deal with her shouting them off the stage, so most speeches stayed short and snappy. And she yelled at Anderson for talking too much about his sweaty butt crack, which was apparently an improv. Thank you, Anthony Anderson’s mother. We salute you.
HIGH: Joan Collins. I said: JOAN COLLINS. The actress formerly known as Alexis Carrington co-presented with Taraji P. Henson and looked like old-school glamour personified, right down to her silky baby-blue gloves. That woman is 90 years old, she looks amazing, and she can probably still whoop your ass in a catfight.
LOW: Ted Lasso thanked for its brave work representing LGBTQ+ characters. Ah yes, that historic and courageous story about whatshisname, which played such a major role in the larger story of that show’s final season. But congrats to GLAAD for the Governors Award!
HIGH: Kieran Culkin telling his wife he wants more children. Apparently they made a deal that she would agree to have more kids if he won the Emmy and so he announced “I want more” on national television during his acceptance speech. Such a Roman Roy move, if Roman Roy actually liked children.
LOW: Better Call Saul ended its run with zero major Emmys. One of the finest dramas of the past decade, and possibly all time, earned 53 nominations over the course of its run and won … nothing. (Technically it has two Creative Arts Emmys for Outstanding Short Form Drama or Comedy for a pair of web-only “training videos.”) Add this to the list of All-Time Most Egregious Emmy Mistakes right next to not giving a single Emmy to The Wire.
LOW: The possibility that Anthony Anderson’s TV tribute bits were taking time away from acceptance speeches. The cast of Ally McBeal dancing was fun! The I Love Lucy chocolate conveyor belt is a solid, classic pull. Surely the point of this ceremony is for people to accept their awards, though? Did we need a full Game of Thrones set just to introduce Best Drama?
HIGH: Ebon Moss-Bachrach kisses co-star and producer Matty Matheson as The Bear wins Best Comedy. “FX IS TIGHT! SOLBERG! LET’S GO!”
WHOA: Playing Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech over the closing credits. Congrats to Dr. King for being voted as one of TV’s 75 most memorable moments, along with the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Walt stumbling out of the trailer in Breaking Bad, and [checks notes] 9/11.
A previous version of this story incorrectly named Jon Cryer’s co-presenter.
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