Emmys 2024: Best and Worst Moments

The Bear star has been a mainstay in the New York theater scene for decades, mixing off-Broadway work with spot parts in various TV shows and films. But her role as Tina, the truculent cook at the Beef who’s hiding a softer side, launched her to a different stratosphere. Clutching her Emmy in a breathless speech, the Bronx native, who is of Puerto Rican descent, closed with a firm and inspired call to action: “To all the Latinas, who are looking at me: Keep believing. And vote. Vote for your rights. Thank you. Gracias.”

Sure, it was her third win for Hacks, and her sixth Emmy overall, but Jean Smart is so beloved in Hollywood the full Peacock Theater stood for her as she walked to the stage anyway. And, of course, she didn’t disappoint, riffing, “I’m so humbled, and I appreciate this, because I just don’t get enough attention” to laughter from the crowd. After mixing up HBO and Max, she muttered, “Just what we need, another network.” One of the best lines of the night from one of the best of all time.

In an election season that has seen house pets take on bizarre significance, the 2024 Emmys had its share of them too. Early on, Selena Gomez joked that her Only Murders in the Building co-stars Martin Short and Steve Martin were practically “childless cat ladies,” nodding to GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance’s generalizations about the Democratic party’s base. Later, accepting the award for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series for Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver hilariously botched his son Hudson’s name as “Husband” (“That’s going to come back to haunt me,” he noted) before choking up while thanking his “silly” and recently deceased family dog as orchestral music swelled to play him and his team off the stage. “Perfect choice of music,” Oliver quipped, adding, “I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now.” He then shouted “Fuck you! There you go,” and soldiered on regardless of the cue: “She was an amazing dog, and this isn’t just for her. It’s for all dogs! All dogs. You’re very good girls, very good boys. You all deserve a treat.” Finally, he told the producers, “Play me off now!” The room audibly appreciated his passion for the pooch.

In one of the most delightful upsets of the night, Lamorne Morris won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his turn as State Trooper Whitley “Witt” Farr in the latest season of Fargo. This was Morris’ first Emmy win (and nomination) and to get it, he had to beat out Jonathan Bailey (Fellow Travelers), Tom Goodman-Hill (Baby Reindeer), the late Treat Williams (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans), and recent Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. (The Sympathizer). If you didn’t catch Morris in Fargo, you might’ve recognized him from New Girl, where he spent seven seasons playing the charming, cat-obsessed oddball Winston Bishop. A role like that can often be a blessing and a curse for a working actor: You get a bit of career stability and an amazing launchpad for whatever comes next — though whatever comes next often involves fighting against being typecast and separating yourself from that character. With his Fargo win (not to mention his upcoming turn as Garrett Morris — no relation — in the SNL film, Saturday Night), Morris seems to be navigating that difficult terrain with aplomb. He’s definitely not just Winston Bishop, but also: Hell, yeah, Winston Bishop just won an Emmy!

Awards shows love to salute things. At best, this means the typical three-hour trudge of speeches and bits is interspersed with some over-the-top montages celebrating the various aspects of the craft required to make a great movie or TV show, or just a whole bunch of memorable lines and scenes smashed together. The 2024 Emmys, however, gave us the dumbest version of this: a whole bunch of “Tribute to [Insert Character Archetype Here].” That meant, scattered throughout the show, were hat-tips to dads, villains, moms, doctors, lawyers, coaches, and cops. During these tributes, a handful of actors who had portrayed one of these aforementioned archetypes (see “villains” Antony Starr, Kathy Bates, and Giancarlo Esposito above) would get up on stage and toss off some mid banter about, uhh, playing that archetype. Then there’d be a hard pivot to these actors handing out an award that had nothing to do with the archetype they’d just paid tribute to. Waste of time, waste of talent. The tribute to lawyers was definitely the dumbest of them all. Bring back the clip montages!

No, not that one. It’s fitting that the writer of the slyly funny spy series Slow Horses kicked off his speech with a spontaneous (or so it seemed) joke: “Relax,” said Will Smith — very white and very English — as he reached the stage and grabbed his award for best drama writing (beating out several nominees from the heavily favored Shōgun). “Despite my name, I come in peace.” Things might’ve gone differently if Chris Rock had been tossing out cheap one-liners from the stage, but in any case, the Oscars slap is the awards show gift that keeps on giving.

If Larry David didn’t attend this year’s ceremony, it was for a couple of good reasons: 1) way too many people were there; and 2) Curb Your Enthusiasm has been routinely, criminally overlooked by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences during its nearly quarter-century run, receiving 55 Primetime Emmy nominations and winning just twice, for directing and editing. This despite David, an icon of TV, playing “himself” — a misanthrope who has every reason to be happy with his fame and fortune — to hilarious perfection that whole time, cementing the series as a comedic touchstone of its era. Following Curb’s final season, David lost Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series to Jeremy Allen White of The Bear (who won the same award earlier this year, come on), while Curb lost Outstanding Comedy Series to Hacks. A fine upset winner (turns out The Bear is maybe not a comedy after all), but not giving Curb its due sometime before now? Pretty, pretty, pretty bad.  

It probably didn’t bode well for the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards that this was, technically, our second Emmy Awards in a calendar year. You may (or may not) remember that the 75th Emmys took place back in January after being pushed from the usual September slot because of the then-ongoing Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes. As such, maybe there was a little bit of Emmy fatigue in the air. The telecast certainly felt like a slog, in a way that went beyond the usual awards show drudgery. There were a few pleasant surprises (awards for Hacks, Traitors, Lamorne Morris), but pretty much everyone expected to win, won (The Bear stars, Shōgun, Baby Reindeer). Hosts Dan and Eugene Levy presided over the proceedings with an anodyne charm. Probably the “craziest” moments were John Oliver’s Freudian slip and the great Catherine O’Hara pretending to rip up the ballot for Outstanding Comedy Series — a fitting penultimate act for the whole show, in a way. And don’t even get us started (again) on those stupid tributes. At least this time, there’s a full 12 months until the next Emmys.