Hosted by Anthony Anderson (with his mother on clock duty), the several-months delayed 75th Primetime Emmy Awards was superbly efficient and a breath of fresh air after the mostly unfunny and predictable Golden Globes.
Right now, the television Academy is lapping its film-focused contemporaries.
The Emmys may have been honoring shows from last year, but it still managed to seem remarkably ahead of its peers — at least in terms of diversity. Right now, the television Academy is lapping its film-focused contemporaries.
This progressive bent is notable precisely because the Emmys is so resistant to change in other ways. Broadcast TV has barely won a major award outside of “Saturday Night Live” since 2016, for example, yet the Emmys continue to air on network TV only. And its eligibility calendar results in some streaming shows winning for their first seasons after their second seasons have fully aired. But on diversity, the Emmys chose to get ahead of the curve, reconfiguring its process voluntarily in 2015 after the “Oscars So White” campaign, which has resulted in much more diverse slates.
The Emmy egalitarian attempts were on full display Monday night, punctuated by the Television Academy’s decision to bestow its governor’s award on GLAAD. GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis promptly used the platform to make a plea for more transgender representation on screen.
It could have been much worse. Forcing the industry to work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday that some states didn’t recognize properly until this century, was already not great optics. Coming a week after the return of the Golden Globes, and the same weekend as the newly invigorated Critics Choice Awards (not to mention an NFL playoff game and the Iowa caucuses) also wasn’t ideal. And it remains strange that the Emmys schedule is so behind; while all other awards shows are honoring “The Bear’s” sophomore outing, the Emmys is still acting as if Season 2 hasn’t happened yet.
But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter which season of “The Bear” was taking home the trophy (or which season of “The Crown” was being shut out). What mattered was who took home the statues.
“The Bear’s” Ayo Edebiri and “Abbott Elementary’s” Quinta Brunson won best supporting actress and best actress almost back-to-back, the second of which is the first leading role in a broadcast show to land recognition in years. (Sheryl Lee Ralph took home a trophy for “Abbott Elementary” last year, but it was for supporting actress.) This alone felt like a refreshing corrective after the nearly all white winners of the last two weeks.
At one point, host Anderson gleefully referred to the evening as “The Chocolate Emmys,” after both Niecy Nash-Betts and RuPaul used their wins to make succinctly stated (and viral TikTok-worthy) political calls to action on behalf of the Black and queer communities. Meanwhile, Korean director Lee Sung Jin’s “Beef” practically swept the Limited Series category, landing Asian artists multiple awards. Lee’s speech might not have had the same fire as Nash-Betts, but his impassioned plea to those experiencing suicidal ideation resonated with a rare note of raw public honesty. This being the 75th Emmys, and awards shows loving any number that can be called an anniversary, the Television Academy wheeled out more stars from the past than usual for some wholesome if far less diverse nostalgia. Carol Burnett, who at 90 is about to co-star in the Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale,” got the biggest laughs of the night, noting how great it was to see young men like Steve Martin and Martin Short finding success in comedy. The last of Norman Lear’s “All In the Family” also took the stage to honor the prolific TV producer, who died last month at 101. The ceremony also managed to make a little history of its own, by handing Elton John an Emmy for his Disney+ concert special, completing the EGOT he so richly deserves. The Golden Globes spent a lot of time playing up its “new and improved” look and feel. It moved to a different network (to CBS, from NBC), and was voted on by a different group. The ratings weren’t bad, either. But in the end, it awarded the same old white people and managed to maintain a notable apolitical stance throughout the ceremony. The Emmys were competing against football, basketball, the start of the 2024 election season and whatever else might be on streaming on a snowy Monday night. However, by airing when it did, on this MLK Day, the Emmys perhaps inadvertently reinforced just how far they have come in recent years. And how far everyone else still has to go.
Ani Bundel
Ani Bundel is a cultural critic who has been writing regularly since 2010. Her work can also be found at Elite Daily and WETA's Telly Visions, where she also co-hosts "Telly Visions: The Podcast." 
