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The 75th Emmys had plenty to Bear in mind.
After the Hollywood strikes delayed it for months, the 75th Emmys finally aired on Monday night on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In addition to big nights for HBO’s Succession, FX’s The Bear and Netflix’s Beef, the Anthony Anderson-hosted event had plenty of surprises in store.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought back SNL’s Weekend Update to announce a category that would eventually give Elton John an EGOT, there were a number of heartfelt speeches like RuPaul urging everyone to “listen to a drag queen” and countless TV reunions from the casts such as Grey’s Anatomy, Cheers, Martin and more filled the evening.
Here are Adweek’s takeaways from the 75th Emmys:
The Bear, the winner for Best Comedy, is not a comedy
The Bear had a big night at the Emmys, winning six awards, including the accolade for Best Comedy Series. Even more impressively, it won its comedy awards despite not being a comedy.
Just because a series has comedic moments, it doesn’t make it funny. The Bear is demonstrably full of tragedy and trauma, with a dark story of family loss at the heart of it.
It’s chaotic. It’s tense. And it Bear-ly has any laughs.
Of course, The Bear deserves to win awards, with strong performances from Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who all won individual Emmys on the night. And being classified as a comedy inherently made the show more competitive for accolades, saving the series from going up against juggernauts such as Succession’s final season.
However, there’s no real explicit reason The Bear is in the comedy category. After all, Jeremy Allen White is winning awards for his dramatic turns in the series, not cracking jokes.
The Emmys used to have time constraints when it came to classifying comedies and dramas, with longer fare going in the drama category and 30 minutes or less coming in at comedies. However, those rules were thrown out a few years ago, making The Bear’s comedy classification a head-scratcher for viewers. Thankfully for The Bear, it seems jokes aren’t a requirement either.
The Emmys showed The Golden Globes the power of a solid opening
Unlike the recent Golden Globes, which kicked off the show with a poorly received, oft-mocked monologue—and didn’t give social media much else to talk about the rest of the night—the Emmys took a different approach.
The show opened with Anderson making jokes while singing a medley of classic TV themes, and even bringing out Blink 182’s Travis Barker to perform the drum solo from “In the Air Tonight.” Plus, rather than music playing off winners whose speeches went long, Anderson announced that his mom, Doris Hancox, would take on those duties.
The opening set the tone for the night and provided a classic TV theme that Anderson and Fox, which broadcasted the event, kept going throughout the evening in the form of skits and reunions.
Though the Globes was fodder for social media, the Emmys controlled the narrative
The Golden Globes was so lacking in standout moments that the night devolved into social media lip readers trying to discern if there was a problem between Timothee Chalamet, Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez. In contrast, the Emmys provided several highlights within the show, including TV reunions, that dominated the online conversation.
Among the reunion highlights, Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer and the Cheers crew gathered around the bar again; the Martin cast, including Martin Lawrence, complained about not ever receiving Emmys; and the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast also made an appearance to complain about their lack of Emmys and the fact that they were just repeating what the Martin cast said.
Plus, a Grey’s Anatomy reunion included Katherine Heigl, who made a sly nod to the drama that occurred with her leaving the show years ago.
“There have been some changes over the years, but the one thing that has remained a constant is the incredible fanbase,” Heigl said.
Of course, there were several lowlights and snubs that could’ve taken attention away from the awards during the ceremony.
For instance, Ted Lasso was shut out of any awards, and Better Call Saul was snubbed once again, ending its six-year run with zero wins from 53 nominations. However, the show provided enough heartfelt winners’ speeches, a Beary good kiss from The Bear cast and pre-planned reunions to distract from anything other than what was happening on screen.
It might be time to cut the time constraints and move to streaming
Early in the show, Pedro Pascal joked that his arm was in a sling because Kieran Culkin “beat the shit” out of him. However, if you were a viewer on Fox, you didn’t hear any of that.
Instead, Pascal’s joke was cut due to a swear word, leaving viewers scrambling to find unaltered clips of a potty-mouthed Pascal online.
Meanwhile, though Anderson’s mom was a breath of fresh air when compared to award-show playoff music, she still cut speeches short, ending possibly stand-out moments before they even began in the name of broadcasting time constraints.
In the age of streaming, the FCC and time limitations of broadcast TV might not need to apply anymore.
The Emmy rotation among networks is in place until 2026. But with streamers like Peacock scoring record-breaking audiences for live events, there’s always a possibility the Emmys could make the jump off linear and leave constraints (and the need for Anderson’s mom to usher winners offstage) behind in the future.
Succession’s success
The 75th Emmys featured a diverse array of winners, and several shows—other than Ted Lasso and Better Call Saul—had big nights.
In addition to The Bear’s six awards, Beef brought in five wins on the night, including Best Limited Series. However, in its final season—and with 75 noms over its run—the most successful night belonged to Succession.
The series took home six Emmys, including the biggest prize of the night, the award for Best Drama.
Creator Jesse Armstrong summed up the emotions while accepting his fourth award for writing in a series, saying, “It was a great sadness to end the show, but it was a great pleasure to do it.”
This finally brings us to our last and most important point from our own Mollie Cahillane.
Once again, for those who need to hear it…
