The Emmy Awards were held on Sept. 13 in Los Angeles, and hosted by Kenan Thompson (SNL alum). Many celebrities were in attendance to hand out television’s biggest awards, including stars from the casts of “Squid Game”, “Euphoria”, and “Succession”.
For comedy categories, Apple’s “Ted Lasso” won four awards for its first season, and this year was no different. The series continued to be a powerhouse, winning the award for Comedy Series as well as three other awards. Also winning multiple awards in the comedy category was ABC’s “Abbott Elementary”, including Sheryl Lee Ralph’s win for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, which made her the second black woman to win in this category and marked her first Emmy win in a career that spans back to the 1970s.
The winningest show in the drama category was HBO’s “Succession”, winning three awards out of their twelve nominees. Netflix’s “Squid Game” snagged two awards, including Lee Jung-jae’s award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Seong Gi-hun, or 456. According to CBS News, he is the first Asian actor to win in the category as well as the first actor from a non-English show to win any Emmy. Perhaps the biggest snub of the night was AMC’s “Better Call Saul”, failing to win any Emmys during its entire tenure on television despite receiving outstanding critical acclaim for all six of its seasons.
Despite “Succession” having twelve total nominations, it was HBO’s “The White Lotus” who was the overall biggest winner of the night, taking home five total awards, all in the Limited or Anthology Series category. Other notable winners include Zendaya winning Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Rue in “Euphoria” and Lizzo winning the award for Competition Program with her “Watch Out For The Big Grrrls” series on Amazon Prime.
As award shows continue to fall out of prominence, the ratings for the Emmys went down further this year to a record-low. Publications such as The New York Times and Variety described the show as “boring” and “dreadful”, despite praising the show for having more diversity in the winners.
While it is true that the format of major award shows such as the Emmys, Oscars, and Grammys are becoming more dated as the years go by, the Emmys this year didn’t do anything so terrible that it stood out. It may have been boring for many, but all of the winners were respectable and deserving, which is enough to ask for with modern award show ceremonies.
