Surprises, snubs and ‘silver’ carpet from TV’s biggest ceremony, the Emmy Awards
Hannah Waddingham, presenting with Colman Domingo, and fellow cast from Ted Lasso failed to take home a single award. Photo: AAP
The Australian star of Succession, Sarah Snook, is having the time of her life at this year’s awards season in Hollywood.
Not only did she bag a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award (CCA) for best actress in a drama series over the past week, she’s now got a third trophy for the mantelpiece, winning her first Emmy on Monday.
Gracing the shiny silver carpet at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre in a red Vivienne Westwood gown, Snook closed out the ceremony with her fellow cast winning best drama series, beating The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, popular favourite The White Lotus and, most surprisingly, The Crown.
In accepting her award at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, an emotional Snook got personal after accepting the award from Jodie Foster.
Snook, 36, married Australian comedian Dave Lawson in 2021, a great-grandson of the Australian poet and author Henry Lawson, and had their first daughter in May.
Snook, who played Shiv Roy in the HBO hit series, said: “This is where it gets you!
” … the biggest thank you is to someone who won’t understand anything I’m saying at the moment, but I carried her with me in this last season.
“It was the proximity of her life growing inside me that gave me the strength to do this and this performance.”
Jennifer Coolidge starred in the second series of The White Lotus, but met an unfortunate end. Photo: Getty
Elizabeth Debicki loses to Jennifer Coolidge
Fellow Aussie and nominee in the best supporting actress category for her role playing the late Princess Diana in The Crown, Elizabeth Debicki, went home empty-handed.
After winning best supporting actress at the Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, Debicki was a hot favourite.
It was not her night and nor was the series of The Crown, which broadcast its final sixth series in December.
Coolidge, on the other hand, has been an instant breakout and fan favourite for her role as Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus’s debut seasons.
She’s previously walked away with a Golden Globe, two Critics’ Choice awards and two Screen Actors Guild awards, and an Emmy in 2022.
Her rambling, eccentric acceptance speeches have become a joy to watch, and this year was no different as she was awkwardly wound up by audience member and real-life mother of host Anthony Anderson.
After thanking The White Lotus creator Mike White for giving her “the opportunity to play this incredible character … he says I’m definitely dead, so I’m going along with it”.
She then began listing all the producers she wanted to thank but quickly noticed her time was running out.
“I want to thank all the evil gays,” she added while clapping for the cast of characters who were responsible for her on-screen death in season two.
“Really, really.”
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler present the award for outstanding live variety special during the 75th Emmy Awards. Photo: AAP
Four-month delay
Hosted by former Blackish star Anderson, organisers were using this year’s milestone of the 75th Emmys to honour classic television shows with cast reunions and other moments.
Anderson opened the show with a choir singing theme songs from shows such as Good Times and The Facts of Life.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker joined to play the drum solo from In The Air Tonight, a song that aired during a pivotal moment in 1980s hit Miami Vice.
Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman and other stars of Cheers gathered around a recreation of the iconic bar set, and Grey’s Anatomy actors Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo spoke from a hospital room set up on stage.
Recognising the best in TV, the awards were postponed from a scheduled broadcast date in September because of the writers and SAF-AFTRA labour disputes.
That meant some shows in the running aired as far back as June 2022.
Nearly two-thirds of the Emmy-nominated shows came from streaming platforms, their highest share ever, according to data from Nielsen’s Gracenote.
The ceremony was moved to Monday (local time), which coincides with the Martin Luther King Jr holiday in the US as well as the Iowa caucuses, the kickoff to the presidential election.
“Anderson kept it short, sweet, and totally alienating to Gen Z, a cohort I’m sure advertisers were hoping to court, but who were probably never going to tune in anyway,” Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson wrote.
He reckoned the ceremony was “heartfelt but efficient”, the broadcast had appealing gimmicks and there was a nod to women of colour.
Importantly, after a “bruising six months in the business”, the awards show had “heart and soul”.
Jeremy Allen White won outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, winner of the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series award for The Bear. Photo: Getty
Winners and losers
Awards watchers were divided between Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ show about a spirited English football club, and restaurant dramedy The Bear from Walt Disney’s FX as to which would take home the big prizes.
In the end, The Bear and Succession led with six awards each in their respective comedy and drama categories. Beef won five and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won two.
Succession earned the prestigious best drama trophy and The Bear dominated comedy honours.
During the three-hour show, 21-time nominee Ted Lasso (a past Emmy favourite winning in multiple categories including comedy series for its first two seasons) failed to win a single award.
The Last of Us, the second most Emmy-nominated series in 2023, also didn’t win any awards.
Snook’s co-stars Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen also won acting trophies for their roles as part of the wealthy but miserable Roy family, who are in a cu-throat battle for control of a global business empire.
Elton John became an EGOT [an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards], Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium won outstanding variety special (live).
The Bear is the story of a fine-dining chef trying to turn around his family’s Chicago sandwich shop.
It stars Jeremy Allen White, who was named best actor in a comedy, and his co-stars Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach each won supporting actress and actor, for the first season of the FX network show.
The series also won directing, writing honours and best comedy series.
Canadian actor Emily Hampshire, Sarah Snook, English model Suki Waterhouse and The Bear actor Abby Elliott. Photo: Getty
Red dominates on the silver carpet
Stars including Succession‘s Brian Cox and Matthew Macfadyen and Hannah Waddingham from Ted Lasso arrived in tuxedos and floor-length gowns.
The carpet was silver instead of the traditional red, as there were a lot of red gowns in the mix with classic black and white.
The White Lotus’s Meghann Fahy, Grey’s Anatomy alum Katherine Heigl, Daisy Jones & the Six’s Camila Morrone, and Welcome to Chippendales’ Juliette Lewis also opted for the classic red take.
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