For the 75th Emmys ceremony, which honored TV work from 2022 to 2023 but was postponed until January 2024 because of industry strikes, TV Academy members lined up almost entirely behind a single drama (HBO’s departing Succession ), a single comedy (FX’s rookie The Bear ) and a single limited/anthology series (Netflix’s Beef ).
'Emily in Paris' Renewed for Season 5 at Netflix
Eight months later, at the 76th Emmys — meaning both last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremonies and Sunday night’s Primetime ceremony — two shows, both from Disney’s resurgent FX division , had record-breaking hauls: the limited-turned-drama series Shōgun took home 18 prizes, more than any other show in a single cycle; and the second season of The Bear snagged 11, surpassing by one its own record for most wins by a comedy in a single cycle.
And yet , oddly enough, there was less of a dominant sweep of the genres at the 76th Emmys than there had been at the 75th. Hear me out…
The Bear , even with its incredible accumulation of wins — which included prizes for directing ( Christopher Storer , for the off-the-wall “Fishes” episode) and three for its regulars (actor Jeremy Allen White and supporting actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach for the second consecutive year, plus supporting actress Liza Colón-Zayas ) — still came up short for best comedy.
For that prize, in a shocking upset predicted by no one , the second season of The Bear was beaten by the third season of HBO/Max’s Hacks . (The two shows had never gone head-to-head before: the first two seasons of Hacks lost to the first two seasons of Ted Lasso , whereas Hacks was off the air last year when The Bear was in the running for the first time.)
How did this happen? Well, for one thing, there’s obviously a lot of love for Hacks , which also beat out The Bear for best comedy actress ( Jean Smart , who also won the prize for the show’s two prior seasons, topped Ayo Edebiri , who last cycle won best comedy supporting actress) and best comedy writing ( Hacks , which previously won for its first season, was probably helped this cycle by the fact that The Bear had two nominees in the category — but it also submitted a hell of an episode in its season three finale).
More than that, though, I think that chatter about The Bear being great but not funny , which had started during its first season, reached a crescendo during the final round of Emmy voting when voters were considering the show’s second season but also watching its decidedly unfunny third season, which had just begun rolling out. (Another reason that I think season three was on voters’ minds as they voted for season two: Colón-Zayas’ win for season two, even though she was much stronger in season three.)
As voters contemplated whether The Bear is really a comedy, I suspect that many arrived at the conclusion that they should not punish the talent from The Bear for being promoted as such — but had pause about giving the show once again a prize called best comedy, which has historically gone to laugh-out-loud programs like Modern Family , Veep , Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso .
Additionally, HBO, the outside agency that it retained to help with this season’s Hacks awards campaign and the talent associated with Hacks convincingly emphasized on the campaign trail just how hard it is to make a comedy about comedy. It’s a zero-sum game: people either laugh or they don’t. And when it comes to Hacks , people laugh.
To me, it’s a nice thing that both of these great shows have now won top prizes. And I think that moving forward, FX and the talent behind The Bear should call people’s bluff and promote season three as a drama. It’s too early to know what the competitive landscape will look like, but I suspect that the show would more than hold its own under that designation. (Other shows that changed tone mid-run have also have switched Emmy categories mid-run, including Orange Is the New Black and Shameless , but they were forced to by the TV Academy.)
Disgraced Ex-BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Handed 6-Month Suspended Prison Sentence Over Child Sex Abuse Images
Speaking of category reclassifications, Shōgun was initially intended to be a limited series, but went over so well with critics and viewers that additional seasons were ordered, turning it into a drama series. And it made Emmys history not only in the totality of its wins, but in becoming the first largely non-English-language TV show ever to be crowned best drama. (Netflix’s Squid Game came close two years ago, but wound losing to Succession .) This Emmys may well be remembered for that more than anything else — as an historic turning point, like the 2020 Oscars ceremony at which Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win best picture. Perhaps in a few years the idea of a separate International Emmys ceremony will be seen as obsolete.
Shōgun also won prizes for drama directing and both lead actor and lead actress. And yet, once again, there is reason to believe that this was not the result of lazy coattail voting, because the show also lost the prizes for drama supporting actor (its two nominees were beaten by Billy Crudup of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show ) and writing ( Slow Horses prevailed, perhaps in part because Shōgun had multiple nominees that divided its support). It had no nominees for supporting actress, which The Crown ’s Elizabeth Debicki won, as she had done at every other major awards show over the past year.
That brings us to Netflix’s limited series Baby Reindeer , a deeply personal and painful autobiographical rollercoaster written by and starring the heretofore unknown Richard Gadd . As recently as early June, not even the streamer itself considered the show to be a major Emmys priority, but Baby Reindeer organically accumulated a massive audience, sparked passionate cultural conversations and ultimately became an unstoppable force (despite the best efforts of the real woman who helped to inspire the program). In the end, it topped formidable competition to win best limited/anthology series, writing (Gadd), actor (Gadd) and supporting actress ( Jessica Gunning ).
At the same time, three of Baby Reindeer ’s four formidable competitors for best limited/anthology series also took home major prizes. Limited/anthology directing was won by Steven Zaillian , helmer of another stunning Netflix project, Ripley , over Baby Reindeer ’s Weronika Tofilska . Supporting actor was won by Lamorne Morris , star of FX’s Fargo , over Baby Reindeer ’s Tom Goodman-Hill . And lead actress was won by Jodie Foster , star of HBO’s True Detective: Night Country . (In hindsight, Netflix probably wishes that it had pushed Gunning as a lead, thereby clearing a path for costar Nava Mau in supporting and potentially resulting in two actress wins.)
In other news, I’m happy for the folks behind the Peacock streaming service, who have been busting their asses for years trying to land Emmy recognition for their shows, but never really broke through until this cycle. It’s really hard to get people to change their TV viewing habits in any way, and especially to convince them to check out another new show on another new-ish streamer. But with The Traitors , they managed to do so: the show won best reality competition program, vanquishing MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race , which had won the award in five of the last six years. The host of The Traitors , Alan Cumming , also won best reality or competition series host at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, snapping RuPaul ’s eight-year winning streak. And now more people are likely to check out Peacock.
Meanwhile, Comedy Central continues to dominate the talk series category. The Daily Show — with Jon Stewart , but no longer with Jon Stewart — won at Sunday’s ceremony, the first since Stewart’s return to the program. While Stewart’s Monday night appearances have been great, the show would not have prevailed over formidable competition — The Late Show With Stephen Colbert , Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Night With Seth Meyers — if the other hosts had not held their own the other nights of the week, and had not doing some of the campaigning that Stewart refuses to do, so particular congratulations to Ronny Chieng , Jordan Klepper , Michael Kosta and Desi Lydic . ( The Daily Show also won last year, for Trevor Noah ’s last season in the anchor chair, but prior to that had not been recognized since 2015, the last time Stewart hosted.)
Lastly, HBO/Max, while accumulating fewer wins than in any recent year , still had cause to celebrate — not just the success of Hacks , but also that of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver , which won best scripted variety series over NBC’s Saturday Night Live (although, as I recently wrote , the shows are virtually nothing alike and do not belong in the same category); and Alex Edelman: Just for Us , a televised adaptation of Alex Edelman ’s one-man show, which won best writing for a variety special.
While it will be more than eight months before the 77th Emmys, I think we have already begun to see some of the titles that will factor in to that race, including Apple TV+’s drama series Presumed Innocent , which was a giant hit on the service in June and July, and limited series Disclaimer , which began rolling out at some of the fall film festivals.
But it’s both too late and too early to think about that!
Emmys: Shelley Duvall Omitted From In Memoriam Segment
Local News
