Jennifer Coolidge didn’t take a lavender bath to see such an embarrassing Emmy broadcast.
The actress, who rightly won an Emmy Award for her work on The white lotusgave a speech that should have happened long ago and manifested as wonderfully as all her fans had, but was rudely played out by the producers of a TV special about how good TV is, who had no idea what kind of television people want or need have, see.
Coolidge made the most of the moment, dancing hilariously as the music drowned out her thanks. So, ironically, one of the more iconic moments of the night will be due to gross negligence on the part of the producers. They played out Jennifer Coolidge, who any smart person knows would give a speech worth an hour of a broadcast’s time. But at least we have that horrible and too long Kia commercial. If you buy a Kia now, you are officially homophobic.
This was one of the worst Emmy broadcasts in recent memory. Not in the “claws out” way that people tend to jump on award shows because they’re out of touch. It’s the opposite.
The awards of this award ceremony were beautiful. They made sense. With every win and with every rousing, exceptional speech, the night proved why TV is a powerful medium and how it is more impactful and inclusive today than ever. Awards ceremonies are fun to watch, and in spite of itself, this year’s ceremony made that clear.
Sheryl Lee Ralph’s ‘Abbott Elementary’ Emmy Speech Made Us Chills
But the resistance to allowing this advancement and the emotion surrounding it — speeches by Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lizzo, and Geena Davis — to thrive and instead assume it has to be packaged with outdated gimmicks and fabricated “showbiz” nonsense, leaves seeing how ill-equipped Hollywood is to embrace the sea change that we (and Emmys voters!) have already accepted and are now celebrating.
Since the Emmy broadcast itself seemed to neglect the significance of this, here were the big winners: Abbott Elementary scored big wins for Ralph and Quinta Brunson. succession took home Outstanding Drama Series. squid game won several awards, a landmark moment for foreign language series, including Best Actor for Lee Jung-jae and Best Direction for Hwang Dong-hyuk, the first Asian men to do so. Zendaya became the first black woman to win the Best Actress in a Drama Series award twice. Amanda Seyfried took home the trophy for her revealing work in the outage. The white lotus cleaned house, as it should be; an important milestone for butts on TV.
Ted Lasso also won a couple of awards for Best Actor, Best Direction and Best Comedy Series. Ted Lasso is a good show, but it shouldn’t have won those awards. When I shamelessly let Jason Sudeikis walk past Martin Short and Steve Martin on his way to the podium to collect his trophy, I had to chuckle. (Again: good show! Bill Hader and Abbott Elementary please say a word!)
The reason for spotlighting these victories is, again, because the broadcast itself seemed to find them unimportant. It was almost as if handing out trophies was a chore – a distraction from the mission to get viewers to roll their eyes as much as possible while looking at insufferable bits.
It is therefore hilarious how moving most of the victories were. (Besides, I can’t remember a time when I saw an awards ceremony and thought almost any winner was the right choice.)
As the broadcast trotted out Pete Davidson, who admitted he didn’t attend rehearsal and then repeated a joke Regina Hall had skillfully crafted 10 minutes earlier, and as such dug his own awards-over-grave, the very point of the show was – rewarding television – showed why it matters.
Pete Davidson speaks onstage at the 74th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
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Pete Davidson speaks onstage at the 74th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Winter/Getty
Watch Ralph’s speech now. Do it. It ranks among the best prize talks of all time. Can’t wait to watch it over and over while I’m drunk at 1am and scream. She took her time. She made it her moment, which was right and then some. After a second standing ovation, she burst into song. (Another standing ovation.)
“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wouldn’t, couldn’t come true, I’m here to tell you this is what faith looks like, this is what striving looks like,” she said. like this actress Jackée Harry tweeted, this is the first time in 35 years that a black woman has won this award. Until now, Harry was the only one to do it — not because there weren’t any deserving contenders, but because Hollywood is. Ralph gets what he deserves after an unparalleled career. Her moment means things may be changing.
Zendaya’s second Best Actress in a Drama Series win means things may be changing. Lee Jung-jae and Squid Games‘Winners mean that too.
Quinta Brunson is only the second black woman to win a comedy writing award. The first, Lena Waithe, won just five years ago. While Brunson was delivering her speech, Jimmy Kimmel lay down at her feet and did something ridiculous that couldn’t be laughed at. But he stayed there anyway, while Brunson delivered her life-changing and, for young people-watching, society-changing speech.
Like many of the broadcasts, it was youthful and rude. The team involved in Abbott Elementary, by the way, donated their Emmys campaign budget to teachers and schools. That’s an example of all the class that this ceremony lacked.
Kenan Thompson hosted the show and, to put it succinctly, was terrible. It’s never good when the parade of presenters who’ve done their thing – the Only murders in the building cast, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak, Vanessa Bayer and Molly Shannon, Regina Hall – did you wish they were the hosts instead.
During the opening, people did interpretive dances to classical theme songs. At one point, the cast of The Brady Bunch was introduced, but none of the other series involved in the set. It made no sense. Between the energy of “Debbie Allen choreographing a contemporary dance to a film score” energy and the “dramas” and “medical TV shows” montages of it all, the ceremony gave off strong 1990s Oscars vibes.
There was an inexplicable decision to announce the nominees for the next award while the previous winner was still on the podium, which seemed completely disrespectful, then have presenters come out and speak from the teleprompter for 45 seconds before the winner was announced. Make all of this logical!
At one point, I thought maybe the producers had an idea about what this year’s Emmys in particular might mean. They gave an honorary award and a lot of time (time for which I am grateful) to the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media. It is a remarkable organization that fights for more representation in TV and film, but also makes clear why it matters.
Davis himself seemed to observe the deep nature of what happened to the victories that night.
Davis took the podium minutes after Lizzo won an Emmy for Best Reality/Competition Series for Lizzo’s watch out for the big girls. “When I was a little girl, I only wanted to see myself in the media. Someone fat like me, black like me, beautiful like me,” said Lizzo. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I’d say, ‘You’re going to see that person, but bitch, it must be you.'”
Television, Davis said, helps people see themselves and also who they can be.
Host Kenan Thompson performs onstage at the 74th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
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