On Jan. 15, the 75th annual Primetime Emmy awards were held in the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to commemorate achievements in television in the past year, with “Blackish” star Anthony Anderson hosting the awards ceremony for the first time. The show was originally set to air back in September, but was pushed to January due to the ongoing Hollywood writer and actor strikes at the time.
Leading the award show with a staggering 27 nominations for its fourth and final season, the hit show “Succession” took home six awards, including Outstanding Drama Series for the third time. Actors Matthew Macfayden, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin also took home awards for their performances, with Snook and Culkin taking home their first Emmy wins.
The second season of FX’s critically acclaimed series “The Bear” won six Emmys at the award show, including Outstanding Comedy Series for the second time. Actors Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri earned acting awards for their roles in the show, with each taking home their first Emmy. The show also won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.
The hit Netflix miniseries “Beef” dominated awards for limited series, taking home five Emmys and winning Outstanding Limited Series. Although the show had to share some of the glory with fellow limited series winners, such as Paul Walter Houser for his supporting role on “Black Bird” and Niecy Nash-Betts for her supporting role in “Dahmer: Monster – The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” the series won for writing, directing, and best actor and actress from the performances of lead stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.
Legendary singer Sir Elton John also won his first ever Emmy for his concert documentary “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium,” for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). After winning his Emmy, Elton John achieved the EGOT status, which is someone who has won a Grammy, Tony, Oscar and an Emmy award throughout their performance career. For John, he is the second oldest person at 76 years old to make this achievement, behind English actor and theater director Sir John Gielgud, who was 87 when he earned the EGOT status.
The show also featured various reunions of actors from popular shows from over the years, including cast members from “Grey’s Anatomy,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Cheers” and the critically acclaimed mob drama “The Sopranos.” While the Academy Awards have facilitated reunions of popular movies back in 2022, the Emmys has never previously featured reunions of TV shows, with 2024 marking the first year that the award show has done so.
While multiple shows won awards at this year’s Emmys, the widely successful series “Better Call Saul,” the spinoff of the massively popular show “Breaking Bad,” broke the record for most award nominations without any wins during the show’s run. This year, the series was nominated for five Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a drama series and two nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. In total, “Better Call Saul” was nominated 53 times during its initial run, with all five of their losses this year making the series break the record for the most ever Emmy losses.
Charlie Puth and The War and Treaty performed Puth’s 2015 Wiz Khalifa collab “See You Again,” the song featured in “Furious 7,” over the In Memoriam segment. They ended the performance with a rendition of “I’ll Be There for You,” the Friends theme song, to honor the legacy of actor Matthew Perry, who closed out the roster of TV actors, directors, writers and producers that passed away in 2023.
