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There was a lot to digest during Sunday night’s Emmys telecast, namely that telling twist of Hacks snagging best comedy over The Bear, but what happened off camera proved much more illuminating. We were there to chronicle all of the confusion, ring-kissing and sloppy standing ovations — as well as that mass exodus for the lobby bar.
The Schadenfreude Is Real
There was nothing wrong with Eugene and Dan Levy’s hosting job or monologue. That said, the room was noticeably hungry for some snark — as evidenced by the big laugh Eugene got when he said, “in the spirit of The Bear, we will not be making a joke about it being a comedy.” It truly hit better than any other punchline of the night — and proved quite prophetic when TV Academy voters were revealed to have picked joke-joke-joke comedy Hacks over the reigning restaurant dramedy for the night’s final award. Some were pissed, many were thrilled and the coup found its way into every afterparty conversation.
Um, Where Was Everybody?
Notice any empty seats on TV? It wasn’t for a lack of attendees. The orchestra level was booked solid, but more and more guests kept drifting off to the lobby bar — where they were left to spend nearly $20 for tepid cans of beer and wonder what was happening onstage since there weren’t any TVs playing the simulcast. One attendee who abandoned their choice seat up front detailed being scolded for getting up halfway through the show. Apparently, producers were running low on seat fillers as the exodus gained momentum.
A High-Profile Power Date
Seeing who’s actually spending time together before and after the cameras roll is 98 percent of the fun of attending these things. So, for the industry’s many tea leaf readers, it’s worth noting that Disney CEO Bob Iger arrived on the carpet with potential successor Dana Walden and her partner/film counterpart Alan Bergman. (Jimmy Kimmel, who declined both the Emmy and Oscar hosting gig this year, arrived in the same wave.) Iger and Walden were together again at the Disney afterparty, receiving talent including winner Jeremy Allen White and nominee Lily Gladstone, who both came to kiss the respective rings.
Nostalgia, Like Any Drug, Can Be Abused
If cast reunions and a parade of legends made the first 2024 Emmys a success, nostalgia was an overplayed hand this second go around. Guests were subjected to a marathon of TV theme songs during commercial breaks and, onstage, gatherings of The West Wing and Happy Days castmembers got little enthusiasm from the crowd. (The SNL foursome proved the exception, likely on the merits of their very sharp mockery of boss Lorne Michaels.) But the pseudo reunions from character types like “TV dads,” “TV lawyers” and “TV cops” prompted actual confusion. “It’s not like they even booked the actors most synonymous with those roles,” snarked one nominee just after the ceremony. “And, oh yeah, let’s celebrate something we all can agree on: our love of cops.”
Nobody Ever Said Drag Was Easy
Speaking of committing to the bit … If you were wondering who was wearing that full-body, face-covering neon yellow bodysuit, it was RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 winner Nymphia Wind. (She was dressed as a banana, which made more sense before she dropped the peels.) Well, if you were also wondering if she could breathe well under that mask, the answer is “no.” Wind was seen constantly pulling off the face mask to gasp for air, eventually retreating to the lobby bar with the rest of the queens. The Drag Race delegation is usually a rowdy bunch, but the end of the show’s winning streak clearly deflated that this year.
Ramy Youssef, Friend to Everyone
Youssef was out in the lobby shortly before his category, directing in a comedy, was called — only to be let back in just in time. While he didn’t win for helming his episode of The Bear, he was back in his seat, directly behind winner Chris Storer, to dole out a hug after Storer’s name was called. Youssef got his own hug from SNL’s Bowen Yang moments later and was seen enthusiastically glad-handing more guests in the aisles than arguably any other talent in the room.
Consider His Enthusiasm Curbed
Technically, nobody saw Larry David off of TV, either. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star was the lone comedy actor nominee not present in the audience when his category was called and ultimately won by Jeremy Allen White. But what makes David’s placeholder so odd is that the famously awards show-averse creator was actually on the circuit this weekend. He and his wife were hanging out at the WME pre-Emmy party not 48 hours before. That must have been enough for the social butterfly.
Standing O Syndrome
Comedy actress winner Jean Smart received the night’s first standing ovation, due to both her impressive, decades-long career and her recent trauma (including a heart procedure that delayed her third Emmy win for Hacks). But the audience was otherwise stingy with the seat-rising until that last hour when sitting down for the announcement of a name became the least common occurrence. First, it was Jodie Foster. Shogun winners Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai would get ones later in the evening. By the time Hacks took home best comedy, it was hard to tell if people were standing for the show, their need for circulation or the desire to get the hell out of the Peacock Theater.
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