Jennifer Coolidge did not take a lavender bath just to sit through such an embarrassing Emmys telecast.
The actress, who deservedly won an Emmy Award for her work on The White Lotus, gave a speech that was long overdue and as delightful as all of her fans had manifested, but was rudely played off by the producers of a TV special about how good TV is who had no idea what kind of television people want, or need, to see.
Coolidge made the most of the moment, hilariously dancing as the music drowned out her thank-yous. So, ironically, one of the more iconic moments of the night will be owed to the producers’ gross negligence. They played off Jennifer Coolidge, who any savvy person knows would give a speech worthy of an hour of a telecast’s time. But at least we got that horrendous and overlong Kia commercial. If you buy a Kia now, you’re officially homophobic.
This was one of the worst Emmys telecasts in recent memory. Not in the “claws are out” way that people tend to pounce on award shows for being out of touch. It’s the opposite.
The awards of this awards show were beautiful. They were meaningful. With each win and with each rousing, exceptional speech, the night proved why TV is a powerful medium and how, at this moment, it is more impactful and inclusive than ever. Award shows are fun to watch, and, in spite of itself, this year’s ceremony made that case.
Sheryl Lee Ralph’s ‘Abbott Elementary’ Emmy Speech Gave Us All Chills
But the resistance to let this progress and the emotion surrounding it—cue up speeches from Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lizzo, and Geena Davis—thrive and instead assume that it has to be packaged with antiquated gimmicks and manufactured “showbiz” nonsense goes to show how ill-equipped Hollywood is to embrace the sea change that we (and Emmys voters!) have already accepted and, now, celebrated.
Because the Emmys telecast itself seemed to neglect the meaningfulness 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 took home several awards, a monumental moment for foreign-language series, including a Best Actor win for Lee Jung-jae and Best Directing for Hwang Dong-hyuk, the first Asian men to do so. Zendaya became the first Black woman to win Best Actress in a Drama Series twice. Amanda Seyfried took home the trophy for her revelatory work in The Dropout. The White Lotus cleaned house, as it should; a significant milestone for ass-eating on TV.
Ted Lasso won a few awards, too, for Best Actor, Best Directing, and Best Comedy Series. Ted Lasso is a good show, but it should not have won those awards. Making Jason Sudeikis shamefully walk past Martin Short and Steve Martin on the way to the stage to pick up his trophy made me chuckle. (Again: Good show! Bill Hader and Abbott Elementary would like a word!)
The reason to spotlight these wins is, again, because the telecast itself seemed to find them unimportant. It was almost as if handing out trophies was a chore—a distraction from the mission to make viewers eye-roll as much as possible while watching insufferable bits.
It’s hilarious, then, how moving most of the wins were. (Beyond that, I can’t remember a time I’ve seen an award show and thought almost every winner was the right choice.)
While the telecast trotted out Pete Davidson, who admitted that he did not attend rehearsal and then repeated a joke that Regina Hall had delivered expertly 10 minutes prior, and as such dug its own award-shows-are-over grave, the actual point of the show—rewarding television—was showing why it matters.
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