“The 77th Emmy Awards turned out to be one of the most surprising in years,” said Missy Schwartz in The Wrap. In “an evening of upsets,” HBO’s new throwback hospital drama The Pitt scored the biggest coup by topping the surreal workplace thriller Severance as best drama series. Meanwhile, stars Colin Farrell, Kathy Bates, and Harrison Ford lost acting races to less celebrated rivals, and Seth Rogen’s new Hollywood spoof The Studio, while favored to win best comedy series, shut out previous awards darling The Bear and set a record with a total one-year haul of 13 statuettes. Sure, Adolescence’s victory for best limited series was also no surprise. But the Netflix show about a 13-year-old charged with murder added a “jaw-dropper” when its adult lead, Stephen Graham, denied Farrell a trophy for his title turn in HBO’s The Penguin.
As usual, the evening’s best moments were unscripted, said Alan Sepinwall in Rolling Stone. Veteran actor Jeff Hiller was “stunned and visibly shaking” after winning a supporting actor honor for HBO’s “lovely and underseen” Somebody Somewhere. And Severance supporting actor Tramell Tillman movingly thanked his mother for being his first acting coach. Still, it was Stephen Colbert who “stole the show,” said Rob Sheffield, also in Rolling Stone. Colbert garnered two standing ovations, one when he presented the first award and one when his The Late Show won its category’s Emmy for the first time, and did so on the very network that has announced it is canceling the show. “While I have your attention,” Colbert quipped, “is anyone hiring?”
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