76th Primetime Emmys Recap!

Awards Season officially kicked off last night with the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards! With the competant guidance of comedy royalty Eugene and Dan Levy at the helm, the second Emmys ceremony of 2024 yielded some pleasant surprises mixed with a little deja vu... Let's get into it!

Possibly the biggest story of the night was that an actual comedy won Best Comedy Series! HBO's "Hacks" upset last year's winner, FX's "The Bear", for its first win in this category after being nominated every year of its existence, and star Jean Smart nabbed her 6th Emmy ever for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, beating out last year's winner Ayo Edebiri. "Hacks" also won for Best Writing for a Comedy Series.

Even despite these upsets, "The Bear" continued its streak of forcing some of the biggest comedies on television to take a backseat by racking up a record 11 wins this year (breaking its own record of 10 at the previous Emmys), including the seconds wins in a row for actors Jeremy Allen White and Edon Moss-Bachrach, while Liza Colón-Zayas took home her first Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Comedy, beating out the likes of Carol Burnett, Meryl Streep, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. The win made her the first every Latina actress to win in this category. "The Bear" also took home Best Directing for a Comedy Series.

In the official Drama categories, as expected, FX's epic historical drama "Shogun", which only added to its already-record-breaking haul last night, though it didn't start out that way. After both its actors Takehiro Hira and Tadanobu Asano were shut out of the Supporting Actor category (going instead to "The Morning Show"'s Billy Crudup) tand then also losing out on Writing for a Drama Series to "Slow Horses", they finally got on the board for a Best Directing for a Drama Series nod for Frederick E.O. Toye. It was all uphill from there as both its lead actors, Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, took home Emmys and the show itself won the coveted Best Drama Series award. Sanada is the first Japanese actor to win in his category (only the second Asian, period, after Korean "Squid Game" actor Lee Jung-jae in 2022), and Sawai is the first actress of any Asian descent to win in her category. All told, FX dominated all other networks and platforms this year with 36 total wins.

The other big winner of the night was also not a surprise to anyone -- Netflix's gripping drama "Baby Reindeer" cleaned up in the Limited Series categories, only losing Directing, Lead Actress, and Supporting Actor to avoid the clean sweep. But even still, Richard Gadd made 3 trips to the stage last night for Best Writing, Lead Actor, and Best Limited Series, while his co-star Jessica Gunning nabbed a very well-deserved win for Best Supporting Actress.

Elsewhere, keeping things interesting -- Elizabeth Debicki won her first Emmy and her fourth overall major award for her work as Princess Diana on Netflix's "The Crown", while the Academy threw "Ripley" a bone with its lone win of the night, for Directing. A pleasant surprise came win Lamorne Morris took him his first Emmy (on his first nomination!) for his excellent performance in the most recent season of "Fargo". And of course we can't forget the legendary and already highly-decorated Jodie Foster adding to her hefty awards collection with her first ever Emmy for her performance in "True Detective: Night Country".

Women over 60, PoCs, and first-timers populating the winners' lists? We love to see it!