HBO’s “Succession,” which depicts a dysfunctional media dynasty, won Best Drama at the 74th annual Emmy Awards on Monday night, the second win for the series.
The show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, also won an Emmy Award for Best Original Screenplay, his third win in this category. And Matthew Macfadyen won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for the first time for his performance on the show.
It was another night of triumphs for the cable network, as it was the sixth time in eight years that HBO won the television industry’s biggest award for a regular series. HBO and its streaming service, HBO Max, have won more Emmy Awards than any other outlet, beating out their biggest rival Netflix.
The cable network’s beloved upstairs-to-downstairs drama “The White Lotus,” set in a resort in Hawaii, won Best Limited Series, tearing apart several other categories. The show’s creator and director, Mike White, won Emmy Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Also, the show’s performers Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge both won Emmy Awards.
“Mike White, my God, thank you for giving me one of the best experiences of my life,” Bartlett, who played the off-the-wagon hotel manager, said from the Emmys stage.
But HBO’s Chronicles of the Rich wasn’t the only Monday night winner.
Apple TV+ sports series Ted Lasso wins best comedy for the second year in a row. The tech giant continues to tear apart award shows. His Apple TV+, which debuted in November 2019, won Best Picture at the Oscars (“CODA”) earlier this year. And Jason Sudeikis was repeated as best actor in comedy, as the fish-out-of-water soccer coach in “Ted Lasso.”
There were other big moments at the Comedy Awards. Quinta Brunson, creator of the lighthearted ABC’s Workplace her sitcom “Abbott Elementary,” which portrays a group of elementary school teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia public school, won Best Original Screenplay for a Comedy. This was her second time a black woman won the award (the first was Lena Waithe in 2017 for “Master of None”).
In one of the night’s most inspiring moments, Sheryl Lee Ralph won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her role in “Abbott Elementary” as a veteran school teacher. Ralph opened his Emmy speech by singing “Endangered Species” by Diane Reeves, and she received a standing ovation from a room full of nominees. Her victory was also historic. It was the second time a black woman had won the award, the last time she was in 1987 when Jackie Harry won for the NBC sitcom 227.
It was the most competitive Emmy Awards season ever. Submissions across all categories have skyrocketed, and 2022 will very likely break the record for most scripted TV series yet again.
But there was also concern among executives, producers and agents attending Monday night’s Emmy Awards that 2022 represented the apex of the so-called peak TV era. years, ten years or more.
Netflix, which lost subscribers for the first time in a decade this year, is laying off hundreds of staff and curbing spending. HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is shelving the project and laying off a significant number of employees. NBC executives are considering ending primetime lineups at 10 p.m. and handing over that time to local stations.
Business challenges aside, the evening was mostly a pleasant celebration. Zendaya won Best Actress in a Drama for her troubled teenage role in HBO’s “Euphoria,” and won her second Emmy Award. Jean Smart is a repeat winner of Best Actress in a Comedy for playing a Joan Rivers-like comedian in HBO Max’s “Hack.”
‘Squid Game’, a bloody Korean Netflix series, won two awards. Lee Jung Jae won Best Actor in a Drama and Hwang Dong Hyuk won Best Director. These victories represent a major breakthrough for foreign language programming as television becomes more global and American audiences are increasingly receptive to subtitled series.
Michael Keaton won Best Actor in a Limited Series for playing the small-town doctor in “Dopesick.” Amanda Seyfried also won Best Actress for her series of well-received Limited as Elizabeth Holmes in ‘Dropout’.
Emmy voters often have a habit of finding a winner and sticking with it, and this year was no exception. won Best Variety Sketch Series for the sixth year in a row.
This year’s ceremony returned to the Microsoft Theater for the first time since the pandemic. Emmy producers incorporated elements they experimented with during last year’s ceremony, which took place inside a tent. Instead of theater-style seating, candidates were gathered around a table with bottles of champagne and wine around.
This year’s host, “Saturday Night Live” veteran Kenan Thompson, donned a top hat to open the ceremony and perform “Law & Order,” “The Brady Bunch” and “Game of Thrones.”
In the monologue, Thompson delved into Netflix’s recent troubles.
The host said, “If you don’t know what a ‘squid game’ is, it’s a contest you enter when you’re in a huge debt and need money.”Would you like to join the cast next season? Flix.”