The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards took place on Sept. 14 and it was a night to remember in the world of Hollywood with celebrated reunions, acceptance speech countdowns and distinguished awards.
Nate Bargatze, a stand-up comedian, hosted the show and led with an interesting opening monologue. Bargatze shared that he and the Columbia Broadcasting System would be donating $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America, a club that helps provide fun opportunities for kids, but there was a catch. Each winner got 45 seconds for a speech; every second they went over, they would decrease $1,000 from the donation. And the same worked if they went under in time, they would add $1,000 for every spare second from the speeches. While the good intention was there, the night ended at a $60,000 deficit. However, it ended up being a stunt to speed up the speeches, which was only revealed at the end of the show. CBS still gave a $100,000 donation and Bargatze donated $250,000 on his own, leading to a $350,000 total donation to the Boys and Girls Club.
Fans of the memorable shows “Gilmore Girls” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” got to witness a sweet reunion between cast members. Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel presented the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series together on a “Gilmore Girls” replicated set of their house. The two had comedic commentary on how the show took over the season of fall entirely, also joking about their small budget for the first few seasons. Going with the theme of reunions during the show, Ray Romano and Brad Garrett presented the award for Outstanding Comedy Series together to commemorate 20 years since “Everybody Loves Raymond” won the same Emmy. The former cast members joked about their age and how the next time they are seen on the Emmys stage might be the “in memoriam” segment. Both awards went to “The Studio,” which had a phenomenal sweep with 13 total wins out of 23 nominations.
In light of recent announcements of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” ending entirely on the CBS Network, Colbert received lots of recognition throughout the night. To present the first award of the night, Colbert arrived on stage and was given a deafening standing ovation. In his monologue, he made some jokes asking if anyone is hiring starting in June, which is when his show will come to an end. Near the end of the night, the award for Outstanding Talk Series went to Colbert and his late show. In his speech, he said, “Stay strong. Be brave. And if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor!”
Quite a bit of history was made with two specific awards in the night. Tramell Tiillman won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in the show “Severance.” Tillman became the first Black man to ever receive this award. Owen Cooper made history as well being the youngest male actor to receive an Emmy at just 15 years old. Cooper received an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the Netflix show, “Adolescence.”
A notable acceptance speech came from “Hacks” star, Hannah Einbinder, who received the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. A certain part of her speech began to spark debate online. After doing routine remarks to makers of the show and her fellow castmates, Einbinder ended with a political statement, “I just want to say, finally, go Birds, F— ICE, and free Palestine. Thank you.” Jean Smart from “Hacks” won Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series as well.
Overall, the night was a success in more ways than one. Actors used much of their time to bring light to passed colleagues and shows as well as highlighting injustices happening throughout the world.
