TOP 10: Takeaways from the 2024 Emmy Awards
BY Kevin Dillon
The 76th Annual Emmy Awards are in the books, having taken place Sunday, September 15, 2024. I think it’s important to have some distance from the ceremony for an awards-show write-up. There are ways in which a person can be both hypercritical and wax poetic so close to the culmination of the ceremony. I am here to tell you that, overall, I am glad I found a way to watch this ceremony, especially for the ending.
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As the morning began, I did my typical award-show ritual: bought snacks, planned for a fun dinner, all to get ready for a fine night of live television. There was just one snag: I no longer have cable, and award shows are keeping those of us who cut the cord with cable at an arm's distance.
Paramount+ does livestream the Tony Awards, and they partner with a free streaming service to show the winners for their technical awards. I have also watched the Grammy Awards there, and been able to stream the Super Bowl. It should not be this hard to have access to basic cable and these shows, but it was a climb. I think leveraging archaic methodologies will continue to keep younger viewers at distance. I would like to challenge ABC to stream any live event like this on Disney+. They did that for the Presidential debate, it can be done for the Emmy Awards!
As the ceremony started, hosts Dan and Eugene Levy took the stage. While I was not nervous, I did not know what to expect. I think both of these men are incredibly funny, but you always wonder with a first-time host. Their blend of endearing and dry humor landed perfectly. Numerous group chats applauded their ability to comfort, which was one of the strongest parts of their hosting, because you felt at ease whenever a jab landed. I watched their monologue again as I got ready for work this morning and it set the tone for a better day.
The joke about the first Emmys host, Walter O’Keefe, was nice, and highlighted how these two continued to elevate the power of television all night. There were also great bits, like the very simple one where they were divided by the audience because of a stage-direction comment. The father and son nailed it so much that their disappearance in the back half of the show was a glaring flaw. I get that the host (or hosts) are meant to do this, but their disappearance was one critique I had for the production of the show.
I had two other critiques on the ceremony:
1) whoever was working the microphone, making the winners squat to give their speech, created a weird dynamic. This is absolutely nitpick and minor critique.
2) The biggest critique I will levy (pun not intended) at the Emmys is the order the awards were presented. The Television Academy has always done a poor job of pacing out its awards. I hate when they frontload all the Comedy categories; you have to balance out the genres and categories throughout the night. That allows for great tension, and suspense. It also is just a much smarter way to present these awards, and it would prevent the show from losing steam. I love the segments about DEI in the media and the Governor's Award for Greg Berlant, but they should have been spaced out better. This overall just needed a better project manager, and it would have made an incredibly fun show even better.
The show's greatest strength involved honoring television history, and bringing on truly funny presenters. I loved the tribute to TV dads, featuring George Loez, Damon Wayans, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson; or bringing out three badass actresses, all of whom played iconic lawyers (Viola Davis, Christine Baranski, and Gina Torres). These segments were so fun and showed how much the Television Academy loves to honor its history. The presenter pairings were also fun, with the best being one of the most obvious: Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steven Martin.
Speaking of the presenters, let’s get to the winners and speeches. Here are some of the highlights for me:
“Shogun” set the record for most wins of any series in a single year, with 18 wins including Drama Series, Actor, and Actress. I think this show is excellent and is such a well-deserved winner.
“Hacks” surprising in Comedy Series at the end of the night was a truly perfect win.
“True Detective,” “Fargo,” and Ripley each winning prizes, giving different limited series a shot at trophies, was great. I would argue the Limited contenders from this past season were the strongest, and I am glad one show did not sweep these wins.
“The Traitors” winning Reality Competition program, a category that can get stale with winners, was a great moment.
Greg Berlanti and Liza Colon Zayas had my favorite speeches of the night, with the “Hacks” Comedy Series win coming a close third.
Berlanti’s speech was so heartwarming and he truly is one of the great voices in modern popular speech
Liza is a true character actress, and the power and heart in her her words moved me to tears
The creative team in charge of “Hacks” loves comedy, and them winning here along with their words was so moving.
Overall it was a fun show, and if you do not have cable, I encourage you to watch some of these great moments on Hulu!
What did you think of the 2024 Emmy Awards? Leave a comment below!