Emmys 2024: The best, worst, and weirdest moments

It was a mostly smooth night at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with a record-breaking haul of trophies for Shōgun, Eugene and Dan Levy’s solid jobs as hosts, some funny bits (shoutout to Maya Rudolph’s delivery of “not to be rude, but grow up”), moving speeches, and a few legit surprises. (We did not predict Will “despite my name, I come in peace” Smith nabbing Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Slow Horses or Hacks besting The Bear for Outstanding Comedy Series, but we are into both of them.) There were also some refreshing historical firsts in the performance categories thanks to much-deserved wins by The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas and Shōgun’s Anna Sawai. (Check out all of this evening’s nominees and winners.) Here are the great, not-so-hot, and WTF-inducing moments from TV’s big night.   

Best: Shōgun’s record-breaking evening 

It looks like FX knew exactly what it was doing by moving Shōgun from Limited Series to Drama. The show broke records with its 18 wins, beating out previous title holder Game Of Thrones. They include the big one for Outstanding Drama Series, as well as Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai rightfully bagging acting trophies. (Sanada is the second actor of Asian descent and Sawai is the first to win in their respective categories.) It’s not a huge surprise to see the acclaimed series come out on top, but it’s still a relief that the Television Academy has honored this wonderful, Japan-set saga. [Saloni Gajjar] 

Best: Funny presenters being funny

Can we just have all of the awards presented by people with comic timing? There were thankfully a good amount of them on-stage tonight, including It’s Always Sunny’s Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson (“Are you calling Meryl Streep a jockstrap?”), the ever reliable Only Murders In The Building main trio, a bullying Jane Lynch, Catherine O’Hara (who ripped up her envelope), and, against all odds, Billy Crystal. But the best of the bunch was clearly the SNL crew—Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Bowen Yang, and Seth Meyers—who centered their entire bit on Lorne Michaels. To quote Wiig, talking to her old boss: “You do have value. You are worthy. And you are not and have never been a loser even though you have lost a lot.” [Tim Lowery]  

Worst: That dumb booze ad 

Everyone watching the Emmys collectively sighed when the Johnnie Walker Blue Label ad aired, right? Brand placements of this nature are inherently cringeworthy, but this one felt extra embarrassing with the glossy dim lights, that bar, and the “acting.” Apologies to worthy Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Taylor Zakhar Perez, who were clearly feeling awkward about the bit too. Now let’s all pour a drink, try to forget it, and move on. [Saloni Gajjar]

Best: The takeaways of Baby Reindeer’s wins 

The A.V. Club staff is a bit split on Baby Reindeer (as opposed to, say, the masterful Ripley, which the phenom beat for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series). But we can all get behind creator/star/writer Richard Gadd’s words in his speech for that win: “I do believe no slump is ever broken without a willingness to take risks,” he said. “There’s no set formula to this: You don’t need big stars, proven IP, long-running series, catch-all storytelling to have a hit.” He continued, “So push boundaries, explore the uncomfortable, dare to fail in order to achieve.” Hear fucking hear. [Tim Lowery] 

Weirdest: Those character archetypes 

Okay, so not all of these groupings of classic (or, dare we say, tired) character types were bad. In fact, Jane Lynch and Brendan Hunt’s one for TV coaches was quite enjoyable. However, the others—television dads, moms, villains, doctors, cops (complete with flashing lights that felt…off), and lawyers—were pretty mixed. But the most annoying and eye-rolling thing about some of these segments was how insanely far they stretched to segue into the presentation of the next category. [Tim Lowery] 

Best: Hacks’ upset 

The funniest thing to happen at the 2024 Emmys, specifically in the comedy category, is that The Bear broke its own record with 11 wins—except none were for Outstanding Comedy Series. Look, we demonstrably adore that FX show despite the hot debates about whether it’s committing category fraud. But it was nice to break things up and see Hacks take the big win for a hilarious third season. (That said, Reservation Dogs was robbed tonight.) It shouldn’t really be called an upset considering Jean Smart and the writing team won already, but congrats to the Max comedy anyway. [Saloni Gajjar] 

Worst: Sound issues 

Imagine trying to riff as a presenter or give a heartfelt speech at the Emmys, but your microphone simply won’t let you. Yikes. There were a few sound problems during the ceremony. (Either the mic was not properly adjusted to a person’s height or there was some other glitchy technical error.) On the plus side, a bunch of tall actors were hunched over live on national television, so there’s that. [Saloni Gajjar]

Best: Celebrating diverse storytelling

A near sweep for Shōgun indicates Emmy voters are taking baby steps to appreciate diverse projects. The FX series is, as Sanada put in his acceptance speech, “an East meets West” TV show after all. The visibly emotional actor—who is also a producer on the show—briefly spoke in his mother tongue, expressing that “passion and dreams […] have crossed oceans and borders.” This sentiment was echoed at various times during the Emmys, including by Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. The duo, who gave Steven Zaillian the trophy for Ripley, spoke primarily in Spanish to “push the limits” of what the Emmys can (and should) achieve. “Greetings to…the more than 50 million Spanish speakers in this country,” the Andor star said.  Meanwhile, former Emmy winner John Leguizamo also took the stage for an impassioned monologue about Latino representation, shouting out nominees and winners like Liza Colon-Zayas, Selena Gomez, and Sofia Vergara. [Saloni Gajjar] 

Best: Some great (and short) speeches 

It’s all about the speeches at any awards show. With the Emmys this year, instead of any overtly emotional or even political declarations (although there was a bit of both), the winners gave plenty of short, sweet, simple yet memorable ones. Look at The Traitors’ Alan Cumming, who thanked the voters for spreading the wings instead of letting only the same few TV shows win. John Oliver, meanwhile, stuck to his guns and eulogized his dog while being played off. And first-time winners like The Bear’s Liza Colon-Zayas, Fargo’s Lamorne Morris, Shōgun’s Anna Sawai, and Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning all kept it real while also helping move the pace of the show along. [Saloni Gajjar]

Weirdest: ABC show promos 

There is something a inherently funny about ABC hosting a ceremony that celebrates the best in television while also advertising its coming shows during commercial breaks—or at least it’s funny when those ads are for 9-1-1, which promises that a “bee-nado is coming” (yes, a tornado made of bees in Los Angeles), Doctor Odyssey (about a sexy MD saving sexy lives on a sexy cruise ship), and The Golden Bachelorette. [Tim Lowery] 

Best: Candice Bergen 

Childless cat ladies, it’s truly your time. After Taylor Swift’s retort to J.D. Vance, Candice Bergen joined the chorus. She had a truly cheeky mic drop moment at the Emmys before she even handed Jean Smart the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy trophy. She glided on-stage and spoke about how, on Murphy Brown, her character was attacked IRL by VP Dan Quayle for being a single mother. “Oh, how far we’ve come,” she joked. “Today, a Republican candidate would never attack a woman for having kids,” she went on, before signing off with a classic “meow.” [Saloni Gajjar] 

Worst: Music playing off winners

Listen, it’s a good thing Anthony Anderson’s mother wasn’t used as a pawn again to cut the winners’ speeches off this year. Instead, hosts Dan and Eugene Levy said at the start of the ceremony that, as Canadians, they find it hard to interrupt anyone. So, per usual, the DJ did it for them by playing music to let those on the stage know it’s time to wrap up and walk away. But for most of them, they barely had time to get their thank you’s out. At least folks like John Oliver kept going anyway, and the music stopped in time to allow Hiroyuki Sanada to talk in Japanese. The rest should’ve done what Lamorne Morris did and drop a polite “shut up.” (Oliver’s “Fuck you, I feel like Sarah MacLachlan right now” also works.) [Saloni Gajjar] 

Best: The hosts 

Speaking of those hosts, to one’s surprise, the father-son duo of Eugene and Dan Levy worked nicely. The bantering pair’s intro had jokes that landed (the younger Levy dubbed the evening “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services”) and didn’t overstay its welcome before moving to the well-chosen first presenters, OMITB’s Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. And the two ended with a Schitt’s Creek reunion of sorts with a funny Annie Murphy. Between that, though, was their best bit, the “where’s my dad?” one that had Eugene situated in the wrong aisle of the theater. [Tim Lowery]  

Weirdest: Stacked segments 

As cool as it was that Greg Berlanti’s Governors Award allowed the Emmys to air clips from the CW’s dramas (who would’ve thought?), the timing of his award slowed down the pace of an otherwise smooth show. And that’s primarily due to the order of how things went down: John Leguizamo arrived to talk about championing diversity and introduce Television Academy chair, Chris Abrego. Immediately after, Matt Bomer and Joshua Jackson walked in to introduce Berlanti before a weirdly upbeat montage featured footage from Riverdale, Political Animals, and the Arrowverse. That’s a lot of dudes introducing each other back-to-back. The Emmys should’ve broken these segments up, and then maybe Berlanti would’ve had a little time to decide if he really wanted to name-drop David Zaslav in his otherwise great and heartfelt speech. [Saloni Gajjar]