Seth Rogen and The Studio turned the Emmys into a wrap party, winning best comedy series on Sunday (Monday AEST) and breaking a comedy record for victories in a season with 13, while Noah Wyle and The Pitt took the top drama prize.
The evening also brought meaningful wins for Jean Smart, Stephen Colbert and 15-year-old Owen Cooper, whose Netflix series Adolescence dominated the limited series categories.
“I’m legitimately embarrassed by how happy this makes me,” The Studio co-creator Seth Rogen said with his signature giggle, surrounded by cast and crew from the Apple TV+ movie-business romp after it won best comedy at the Peacock Theatre in a show hosted by Nate Bargatze and aired on CBS.
Rogen personally won four, including best actor.
The Pitt from HBO Max completed a sentimental journey with its win for best drama series.
The character-driven medical drama won over viewers and gained emotional momentum during a season whose drama prizes once seemed destined to go to Severance.
Wyle won best actor in a drama for playing a worn-down, grizzled supervising doctor, getting his first Emmy after five nominations with no victories in the 1990s for playing a scrubbed young cub doctor on ER.
“What a dream this has been,” Wyle said.
Katherine LaNasa, whose nurse is perhaps the show’s most beloved character, was a surprise winner of best supporting actress in a drama, over three women of The White Lotus on a night when every acting Emmy but one went to a first-time victor.
The first-timers included Britt Lower, who won best actress in a drama, and Tramell Tillman, who won best supporting actor, in the night’s two biggest moments for Severance, the Apple TV+ Orwellian workplace satire.
Along with its creative arts wins, it ended up with eight for its acclaimed second season.
Lower’s win was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favourite, for Matlock.
Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for The Penguin.
Jean Smart bucked the rookie trend, winning her fourth Emmy for best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” and her seventh Emmy overall.
At 73, she extended her record for the oldest winner in the category.
‘Adolescence’ triumphs
The six wins for Netflix’s acclaimed Adolescence, the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, included best limited series, best actor and best writing for its co-creator Stephen Graham, and best supporting actor for Cooper, who became the youngest Emmy winner in over 40 years.
Cooper said in his acceptance that he was “nothing three years ago”.
“It’s just so surreal,” Cooper said.
“Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here.”
Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four Adolescence episodes was filmed in a single shot.
A blockbuster night for ‘The Studio’
The Studio came into the evening having won nine Emmys already during last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony.
On Sunday night, it added four more, which all went to Rogen.
Along with the comedy series award, he won best directing with The Studio co-creator and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg, and best writing with Goldberg and others.
The show brought blockbuster buzz, and the Emmys ate it up from the start, whether because of Hollywood’s love for stories about itself (with A-list guest stars) or the television industry’s love for stories that mock the self-importance of movie people.
Backstage, Rogen clumsily tried to hold up all four Emmys at once.
Asked whether the night will be fodder for season two, he said no.
“This is like far too good a thing to have happen on our show,” he said.
“Our show is generally based on stress and disappointment and right now, we’re all very happy.”
A night of surprise winners
Smart’s castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.
She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose”.
“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”
Political sentiments from the stage were otherwise rare.
In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for Somebody Somewhere, over Ike Barinholtz of The Studio and others.
Colbert gets a rousing send-off
Colbert may have been the night’s most popular winner, taking best talk series for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert for the first time.
He got huge ovations both when he took the stage to present the first award and when he won.
The win may have been something of protest vote and tribute to its host, weeks after its cancellation by the network.
Jimmy Kimmel, who was among his competitors, campaigned for Colbert to win.
“Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” Colbert said in his acceptance.
Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media.
Executives called the decision strictly financial.
He showed no bitterness to CBS, thanking the network, which telecast the Emmys and aired a commercial celebrating his win, for letting him be part of the late-night tradition.
Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.
The show opened with a sketch where Saturday Night Live stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.
Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
