Rants and Raves From the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards

On Sunday, September 20th, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced their picks for the best television and streaming had to offer this past year in a ceremony on ABC. Here, I recap the winners and review the show.

Reflections on the Winners

The Record-Breaking Schitt’s Creek Sweep. The CBC/PopTV cult sensation Schitt’s Creek (which broke out in America late in its run thanks to being discovered by millions on Netflix) did something absolutely unprecedented and went 7-for-7 in the comedy categories. It won Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing and Directing for its series finale, and all four acting categories for the geniuses that portray the Rose family (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy, and Annie Murphy). No Comedy or Drama series has ever won more than 5 of the 7 (a fete held by The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Handmaids Tale, Breaking Bad, and The West Wing). The only other project that has swept all 7 categories is HBO’s Angels in America, which went 7-for-7 in the Limited Series categories at the 2004 Emmys. Schitt’s Creek managed to achieve this fete despite never having won a single Emmy for its first five seasons. (In fact, it didn’t score a single nomination until it’s fifth season last year.) It also hails from another country and airs on an obscure cable network in America that has never won a major Emmy before. It is all wildly unprecedented. [Note: The show won two awards at the Creative Arts Emmys last week — for casting and costumes — bringing its total to 9, which is the most Emmys ever won by a comedy series in a single season.]

The Beauty of the Schitt’s Creek Sweep. There will undoubtedly be a flood of criticisms of Schitt’s Creek as being unworthy of its unprecedented sweep. This is always the case when something steamrolls an awards show. But I couldn’t find the sweep more welcome or more deserved. As I have written about in the past (for example, here), Schitt’s Creek is a brilliant and heartwarming show that took a while to find both its creative groove and commercial success but eventually blossomed into television’s finest comedy. Not only is it wildly clever, genuinely hilarious, and filled with iconic moments and characters, but it also is an emotionally resonant and progressive tale of inclusivity, love, and human growth. I am so, so happy that the show finally had the big night it has long-deserved.

Succession and Watchmen Win Big, But Don’t Sweep. Many expected that the Drama and Limited Series categories would be swept by HBO’s Succession and Watchmen. Both shows won big, but fell short of a sweep. HBO’s dark family drama picked up four major Emmys for its second season, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor (Jeremy Strong), Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Directing. However, it lost the supporting trophies to Billy Crudup (for AppleTV’s The Morning Show, the brand new streaming service’s first major win) and Julia Garner (who repeated for Netflix’s Ozark and prevented the show from a potentially humiliating loss of all 18 Emmys it was nominated for). HBO’s wildly ambitious and powerfully topical superhero saga Watchmen also picked up four trophies in the Limited Series categories. It picked up Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Actress for Regina King (the recent Oscar winner’s fourth win at the Emmys made her the most awarded black actor in Emmy history), Outstanding Supporting Actor for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Outstanding Writing. However, it lost Outstanding Lead Actor to Mark Ruffalo for playing twins in HBO’s I Know This Much is True, Outstanding Supporting Actress to Uzo Aduba for her role as black feminist pioneer Shirley Chisholm in Fx’s Mrs. America, and Outstanding Directing to Netflix’s Unorthodox.

That Zendaya Upset! By far the biggest upset of the night was 24-year-old Zendaya winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role on HBO’s exceedingly dark and controversial teen drama Euphoria. The win was notable for a number of reasons. She’s the youngest woman to win the category and only the second woman of color to do so. Her show had no other major nominations (but did have a pair of wins at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier this week that suggested it had a fair amount of support). And she won over an astonishing array of veterans, including 12-time-nominee Sandra Oh (BBCAmerica’s Killing Eve), recent Oscar winner Olivia Colman (Netflix’s The Crown), and previous Emmy winners Jennifer Aniston (AppleTV’s The Morning Show), Laura Linney (Netflix’s Ozark), and Jodie Comer (also for Killing Eve). And that’s also on top of the astounding women who couldn’t break into the category this year, including past winners Claire Danes (Showtime’s Homeland), Nicole Kidman (HBO’s Big Little Lies), Viola Davis (ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder), and Elisabeth Moss (Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale). So how did she win? Well I think there were several factors. First, HBO clearly knows how to run a campaign (between Watchmen and Succession it remained a huge player this year). Second, Zendaya is a star in the rise with passionate supporters. The fact that all of her competitors were seasoned veterans probably helped her stand out. Third, the competition may have inadvertently help her. In such a strong lineup with no clear frontrunner, the votes were probably split fairly evenly allowing the one person who pulled down a few extra votes to pull in the lead. Fourth, she’s apparently really, really good. (I have yet to see the show, but it’s certainly on my list now!)

The Reigning Losers. Although most prognosticators (including me) were fairly certain they didn’t have much of a chance to win this year, it is still a bit heartbreaking that Sandra Oh is now 0-for-12. Steve Carell is now 0-for-11, and Don Cheadle is now 0-for-10. I hope these three brilliant actors finally get their due before it is time for them to be feted with lifetime achievement awards.

Streaming Services Surprisingly Don’t Dominate. Streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and AppleTV are all industry behemoths that were all nominated in the top categories this year. But the rise of the streaming services has been kept at bay, at least at the Emmys. Of the 23 awards handed out on tonight’s telecast, only three went to streaming services (the wins for The Morning Show, Ozark, and Unorthodox). The rest went to cable networks HBO (11), PopTV (7), Fx (1), and VH1 (1). So as far as the Emmys are concerned, cable still rules, streaming is a close second, and the big four networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox) are all but dead. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues or streaming services start to dominate in the next few years.

Repeat Winners Abound in the Variety and Reality Categories. In the non-fiction categories, HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won its fifth consecutive Emmy for Variety Talk Series, NBC’s Saturday Night Live won its fourth consecutive Emmy for Variety Sketch Series, VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race won its third consecutive Emmy for Competition Program, and Netflix’s Queer Eye won its third consecutive Emmy for Structured Reality Program. Only Netflix’s Cheer, which unseated CNN’s United Shades of America for Unstructured Reality Program after three consecutive wins, is not a repeat winner. As good as the winners are (most of the time), categories could certainly use some refreshing.

My Prediction Accuracy. On Friday, I published my predictions in all 24 major categories (click here to check them out). I correctly predicted 14/24, which isn’t amazing but it’s better than my last two years and frankly is impressive when you consider how unpredictable the Emmys are (especially in recent years as the number of eligible series seems to grow exponentially). Perhaps more impressively, I had seven of the ten I got wrong in second place. Only Zendaya, Uzo Aduba, and Succession’s Directing win came out of left field for me (although, admittedly, I had Succession in second place for Directing for a different episode). My predictions would have been more accurate if I had gone with my heart and predicted a Schitt’s Creek sweep. I only predicted it to win four because I just couldn’t quite believe that the Emmys would give it an unprecedented sweep. I can’t think of many times in my life I was happier to be wrong.

Thoughts on the Telecast

The Virtual Telecast Wasn’t a Disaster. The Emmy Awards are the first major awards show to carry on with their telecast under the COVID-19 restrictions. (Yes, I know the MTV Video Music Awards did it a few weeks ago and, no, I do not consider that a major awards show.) The result was weird but not terrible. With several celebrities appearing on the Emmys stage (socially distanced of course) and over 200 live feeds taking us to the living rooms, offices, or yards of nominees and presenters it is actually astounding that more didn’t go wrong technically. Other than some audio issues (which are to be expected for anyone who has spent the last 6 months on endless Zoom calls) it was surprisingly seamless.

Jimmy Kimmel Was a Middling Host (as Usual). Host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue was inter-cut with audience reactions from another high profile award show until he (rather amusingly) saw himself in the audience and revealed that he was on a relatively empty soundstage. A few of his jokes landed, particularly two about Watchmen — “It’s a very realistic show except for the idea that anyone in Oklahoma is wearing a mask” and “Watchmen, isn’t that what Jerry Fallwell Jr. was into?” But several of his bits fell flat, particularly him and the Russian mailman and his shtick with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston. I have never been an overwhelmingly big Kimmel fan and his uninspired shtick made me realize that awards shows may have been moving in the right direction by going host-less in recent years.

A Joyous Celebration of Black Voices. It is perfectly fitting that in a year when the equality and dignity of black Americans dominated the news and an unprecedented number of black actors were nominated by the Emmys, black voices would dominate this year’s telecast. There was Oprah Winfrey and Chris Rock giving the Governor’s Award to mogul Tyler Perry. There were impassioned speeches on black equality by Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Lena Waithe. And the vast majority of the presenters were black (others include Cynthia Erivo, Zendaya, Laverne Cox, and Sterling K. Brown). But I remain a bit disheartened that “diverse” still means “we include Black people” at the major awards shows (Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys). Sure Randall Park presented, Mindy Kaling had a cameo, and there was a segment with America Ferrera, but otherwise the show did little to embrace other groups that are woefully underrepresented in Hollywood, including Asians, Latinos, Indigenous People, sexual and gender minorities, and women writers, directors, and producers. I certainly don’t think they should be featured instead of Black creatives, but rather in addition to. It would be nice for them to have a seat at the table as well.

A Merciful Lack of Clips and Musical Numbers. There was nary a clip package or gratuitous musical number insight, which is perhaps how the show came in virtually on time (it ran a few minutes over three hours, with seemingly excessive commercial breaks). One of my favorite moments was the cutaway to Jennifer Aniston’s house where she hosted an impromptu Friends reunion with Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow. It didn’t really go anywhere, but I certainly let out a squeal of delight. The satirical bit showing how stars like Bob Odenkirk, Mindy Kaling, Margo Martindale, and Bryan Cranston have been spending quarantine was amusing enough, but felt oddly shoehorned in. The bit with random celebrities talking about each of the Outstanding Comedy Series nominees was amusing but it was strange that it did not recur for the other major categories. The “essential workers” bit was quite sweet and was integrated nicely into the show by having them present awards. In contrast, the bit about the trophy deliverers in their HazMat tuxedo suits dragged on too long and was filled with embarrassing product placement. Perhaps the best moment was HER’s performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U” during a staggering In Memoriam that reminded me of all the luminaries we lost this year. There was a bit of audio difficulty, but it was actually quite lovely. And, damn, I can’t believe we lost Regis Philbin, Naya Rivera, James Lipton, Jim Lehrer, Shirley Knight, Robert Conrad, Robert Forster, Fred Willard, Brian Dennehy, Rene Auberjonois, Rip Taylor, Hugh Downs, Wilford Brimley, Jerry Stiller, Ian Holm, Buck Henry, Lyle Waggoner, Bill Macy, John Witherspoon, Diana Rigg, Diahann Carroll, Sumner Redstone, Max Von Sydow, Carl Reiner, Ja’net Dubois, Kirk Douglas, and Chadwick Boseman in one year.

Great Speeches were Few and Far Between. For me the best acceptance speeches of the night were Tyler Perry’s gorgeous tribute to his grandmother (and Black history in general), Mark Ruffalo’s passionate call for social progress, Catherine O’Hara’s ambitious and complex speech, and Damon Lindeloff’s wonderfully humble and progressive speech (“stop worrying about being canceled and focus on what you’re doing to get renewed”). I also loved seeing the sheer, exuberant joy of all of the Schitt’s Creek winners and Zendaya, all of whom genuinely seemed to be having the time of their lives. I found most of the rest to be fairly lackluster.

A Lack of Respect for History. My major quibble with the Emmys this year is the lack of respect for history. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a show that made Emmy records that have yet to be broken, premiered 50 years ago yesterday but went unmentioned. The Golden Girls and Seinfeld, two shows that won big at the Emmys and have made an undeniable impact on popular culture, are celebrating their 35th an 30th anniversaries, respectively. Additionally, long-running, Emmy-feted series like Modern Family, Will & Grace, Homeland, and How to Get Away with Murder ended this year after a combined total of 42 seasons and 762 episodes. Not a single one of these milestones was mentioned. The closest we got to an acknowledgement of television history was a joke about Norman Lear and a brief appearance by Bob Newhart. I would so much rather they paid homage to television history then gave me more and more bits with current celebrities.

In Conclusion

The Emmys had a supremely unenviable task before it, given COVID-19 restrictions that prevented a traditional awards show, its timing at arguably the most miserable and contentious period in modern American history, and a staggering number of eligible series that it could not possibly give due credit to. Nevertheless, it pulled things off quite well. It was far from a home run, but it also wasn’t a disaster. And it is hard to argue with the majority of the inspired and deserving wins, which — at the end of the day — is really what the Emmys are all about.

Winners of the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Comedy Series: Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Daniel Levy, Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: “Happy Ending,” Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series: “Happy Ending,” Schitt’s Creek (PopTV)
• Outstanding Drama Series: Succession (HBO)
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Zendaya, Euphoria (HBO)
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Jeremy Strong, Succession (HBO)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Julia Garner, Ozark (Netflix)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Billy Crudup, The Morning Show (AppleTV)
• Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series: “This is Not For Tears,” Succession (HBO)
• Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series: “Hunting,” Succession (HBO)
• Outstanding Limited Series: Watchmen (HBO)
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: Regina King, Watchmen (HBO)
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much is True (HBO)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America (Fx)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen (HBO)
• Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: “This Extraordinary Being,” Watchmen (HBO)
• Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or Made for Television Movie: Unorthodox (Netflix)
• Outstanding Competition Series: RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1)
• Outstanding Variety Talk Series: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
• Governor’s Award: Tyler Perry

For Your Consideration: Follow the author on Medium and Twitter.

Check out other articles by this author about television and streaming:

• I’m Not Ready to Leave “Schitt’s Creek”
• Celebrating 35 Years of “The Golden Girls”
• Saying “Goodbye” to “The Good Place”
• How “Homeland” Raised the Bar for Television Drama
• The Legacy of “How to Get Away with Murder”
• My Final Night with “Will & Grace”
• The Legacy of “Modern Family”
• The 25 Best Episodes of “Friends”
• “Love, Victor”: A Precious Pride Month Gift