Emmys 2022: The best, worst, and weirdest moments from TV’s big night
That bizarre opening dance, Sheryl Lee Ralph's deserved victory, Bill Hader's shutout, and other key happenings from the 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards
TV Features Emmys
Kenan Thompson; Sheryl Lee Ralph; Jennifer Coolidge at the 2022 Emmy Awards Photo: Kevin Winter
There wasn’t a dull moment at The 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. From host Kenan Thompson leading a bizarre choreographed tribute to old TV shows to an Oprah Winfrey appearance to icky branded Kia content, it wasn’t all good or bad, but it was never boring. In fact, this was a relatively seamless ceremony overall, with mercifully no slaps anywhere. It helps that favorites like Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph, The White Lotus’ Jennifer Coolidge and Murray Bartlett, and Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis nabbed awards. (Check out the full list of the winners.) Here are The A.V. Club’s best, worst, and weirdest moments from the 2022 Emmy Awards.
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Succession is already running out of steam going into season 4, there’s no way Squid Game makes a season 2 even half as impactful as season 1, Severance will live or die in how it resolves its mysteries like all other mystery box shows… none of these hold a candle to Better Call Saul. It’s a perfect series of television, not a bad episode over six seasons with some of the deepest, most compelling performances in television history, and one of the all time great series finales.
But I gave up on the Emmys recognizing that fact when Michael McKean left the show without a single acknowledgement. It seems the Television Academy is made up of frat bro Breaking Bad fanboys who gave up after the first episode because “it was too slow.”
Better Call Saul was amazing television and while not a bad episode, season 4 did drag in a few places. But to say that Succession is running out of steam after that ending seems wrong to me.
I’ve seen people say this and I don’t really get why. S4 had Kim’s epic rant vs Howard. It had that excellent scholarship sequence. It had the superlab stuff which was even further strengthened by S6. It had Lalo. It had one of the darkest resolutions of the entire show with Werner’s death, as well as that 1-2 punch of Jimmy lobbying to get his license back. Maybe it was more of a transitional season but that’s not a particularly hefty critique.
Yep, I agree with all that. I think it was the Varga storline that seemed to be going very slow and while goof things were happening in other storylines, the momentum didn’t feel so strong
But the scene with Nacho’s father and Mike was epic
The fact he didn’t win for Chicanery is still abhorrent.
How is Succession running out of steam? The last season was fantastic so unless you have some insight into the production of season four, I don’t see how that claim has any merit.
Succession is absolutely not running out of steam. It is running out of story, so I hope the rumors that season 4 will be the last are true.
I feel to say Succession is running out of steam is to miss the shows theme of toxic codependent relationships and how impossible they are to get out of. These Roy kids are doomed to repeat the same patterns and again, unaware they keep doing the same things. They are living in a fantasy that things are ever going to change with Logan, and we’re just watching.
They’re also living in a fantasy that a barbarian like Logan Roy would ever hand control of his company over to any of those kids. None of them has remotely the maturity, experience or general firepower to run it. I think that’s what’s most fun – he was able to extricate himself from the entire concept of succession thanks to their idiotic palace coup.
But that’s his point exactly: after three seasons of the kids “repeat[ing] the same patterns”, we *do* indeed get it – these aren’t exactly complicated dynamics – and that’s precisely why it’s perceived as “running out of steam”.
no, they aren’t complicated, they are as dysfunctional as lots of other families but with immense power. the belief the audience has, or the fantasy, that somehow things will change kind of goes against the shows themes. Maybe one more season would be enough but I enjoy the characters and audience frustration.
“none of these hold a candle to Better Call Saul.”
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, ok.
It’s a shame that they couldn’t at east give an Emmy to Rhea Seehorn. I thought for sure the show would get a sendoff Emmy for all the times it didn’t win before. Oh well.
BoJack Horseman offers it’s shoulder to cry on.
Strangely, the new SPR3 video (it came out yesterday) didn’t win a single Emmy!
This is unbelievably off-putting, dude.
Is this the new “stan Loona”
Number 9, Number 9, Number 9…
Everybody ignore this guy. He does this on nearly every thread. He’s very lonely.
Sheryl Lee Ralph win is excellent. She is like many long standing character actors – a face you recognize even if don’t know the name because has shown up in so many things. Hollywood doesn’t appreciate these character actors enough that are the bread and butter of practically every TV and movie out there. They show up, fire off a few homers, and leave to do it again elsewhere. Some eventually get enough attention to join the main cast of something like here.
She deserved to win and is great on “Abbot”. But I did find it a bit odd that AVC referred to her as being “a bonafide Hollywood star for years now”. She’s been a consistently-working actress who won a Tony on broadway early in her career, but does that make her a “bonafide Hollywood star”?
If Better Call Saul never wins a fucking Emmy I swear to god….
“And the winner of Best Use of Leftover Story Scraps from Breaking Bad is…”
BoJack Horseman offers its shoulder to cry on.
After seeing the natural, funny, unforced banter between Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short, I couldn’t help but think, “Wait, why aren’t they hosting?”
Steve Martin starting to pitch reverse mortgages was gold.
I don’t know if my hearing sucks, I had the TV volume too low, or the speech was mumbled, but I thought Jennifer Coolidge said something like, “I took all your fat tonight”, as a joke about all the skinny Hollywood types. I guess lavender bath makes slightly more sense.
everyone dresses fairly boring! more drama in the outfits plz (although I loved Elle Fanning’s look)Juliette Lewis looking so proud of Jennifer Coolidge was v cute.
I thought Jean Smart was stunning
you’re right, and I’m sorry to jean smart who is truly always a beauty.
Julia Garner looked like a Care Bear.
here’s an appreciation of Andrew Garfield, Seth Rogen, John Legend, and Nicholas Braun, and how good they look in whiteIt’s like the slideshow’s redacted them!
And they say cancel culture isn’t real!
I’m genuinely curious:Do the Emmy producers really not understand that everyone at home is looking at their phones during the comedy bits and banter between presenters? Do the actors who participate in the bits actually think they’re funny and entertaining? Maybe they play better in the room, I guess, but at home, they usually feel so overacted. I don’t think enough can be said about how quickly award winners were pushed off stage. It was so weird how quickly people were trying to get through their speeches. Jimmy Kimmel’s body on the floor getting more screen time than Quinta Brunson’s acceptance speech pretty much sums up the whole show. And to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even funny.
“Do the Emmy producers really not understand that everyone at home is looking at their phones during the comedy bits and banter between presenters?”
Do AVClub commenters really not understand that they don’t represent everyone?
And the In Memoriam was the worst ever
My god, Fallon is *such* a complete ass.
Awards shows have a formula. Big opening number, host monologue heckling the actors present, presenters delivering prewritten “off the cuff” one liners, a couple of bits involving the audience, a tribute to the dead and giving out awards in between till the “big one” then roll credits. They think outside the box is doing multiple hosts. Although that corporate sponsored sketch was a new one and unfortunately will probably become a standard. They are locked in. Completely redoing the format is just not something they can comprehend. If you asked them why they do it this way their answer will be “We’ve just always done it this way”
there was that one year at the Oscars when David Fincher thought Chadwick Boseman was going to win Best Actor so they shunted Best Picture to the 2nd to last category, then Anthony Hopkins won and he wasn’t in the country so the show just ended. Maybe redoing the format ends up with crummy endings like that.
“I don’t think enough can be said about how quickly award winners were pushed off stage. It was so weird how quickly people were trying to get through their speeches.”
It struck me as odd as well considering Micheal Keaton seemed to have all the time in the world to make his speech and then suddenly everyone was being forced to a minute including the time it seemingly took for them just to get on stage.
But then I remembered last year’s Emmys. Since it was a year ago, most have probably forgotten but it had one of the worst acceptance speeches of all time. I think it was the director for The Queen’s Gambit who won and he droned on and on, kept shutting down the “please leave” music and wouldn’t get off the stage until he finished reading his long list of names. In a couple minutes, he completely changed everyone’s mood from being happy The Queen’s Gambit won an award to wishing no one had ever voted for him. I was just a viewer at home and I was getting really annoyed by him and wanting him to just shut up already. I think it was that disaster of a speech that led to the way acceptance speeches were being handled with this year’s ceremony as a sort of reaction to prevent that from happening again. Thanks for spoiling the night two years in a row, you hack director.
Yes, this.
They need to create an Emmy for Selena Gomez–best easing of oneself into the chemistry of a 50 year friendship.
Whenever Chevy Chase looks at Selena Gomez, he always thinks, “That should have been me!”
Shame she was mostly unbearable on the show though.
“I’d like to imagine getting only 30-45 seconds or so would be a huge goddamn bummer.”
Yeah, no doubt when you win an award and only get 30-45 seconds to make a speech you’re probably bummed out thinking “I’ve only got 30 seconds, how will I ever talk about how much this means to me? It’s not like I’m heading backstage right now to answer ENDLESS FUCKING QUESTIONS about this. When will I *EVER* get the chance to speak again?
Fu-huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you.
If you MUST slideshow, AV Club, could you not, at the very least, anchor the frame so the page doesn’t reload to the top of the screen each time? It would make the (much abused) use of the slideshow marginally better.
Also, the video kept playing when I advanced the slide. So dumb.
I’ve never seen a camera more nervous than trying to figure out what to do with Alexandra Daddario’s dress during The White Lotus best anthology show win.
I’m sorry, but Gillian Anderson was so bad in the Crown. I can’t believe she won anything for that.
Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson, and (presumably) Fred Armisen were all in the room together on a show airing on NBC, and somehow we didn’t get a What Up With That? number?!? What a gigantic missed opportunity!
You know Sudeikis woulda done it, nobody looks happier than he does when he does that dance.
Seeing Sudeikis do the dances but in a suit would’ve been amazing.
Hader and Sudeikis were were both up for an award for their own shows and probably didn’t want to do an SNL blast from the past. Keenan was the host and could have made an appearance and riffed as Diondre Cole if he wanted to. I suspect nobody wanted to go there.
Bob Odenkirk never winning for Saul feels almost worse than Steve Carell never winning for The Office
They have one more shot next year, as this year was for the previous season. I hope they do the right thing and give him AND Rhea an award!
Oprah’s stat about chances of winning was so ridiculous, all we could do was howl and laugh! That figure she spouted only made sense if EVERY PERSON on the planet was eligible for the award. HAHAHA!
Thompson fell into the groove of hosting, with a quick string of jokes that mostly landed, including one on Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating historyThe “Leo fucks young women” joke is so lazy. We’ve been hearing this at every awards show for at least the last 15 years.
Playing people off the stage like that better be backed up by some crack bit writing and elegant presentations. Which, there wasn’t. I’m all for letting people go on when they get the award if it means less BS banter that almost never works and fewer dance numbers.
I generally agree, but the lists of names can really go on. I liked that they let people put some of their chosen names on the screen. I wish they would stick with that for the endless lists of people who work for their agent or the network that their show is on. If there is at least a little commentary with the names, it’s more interesting, so maybe stick with the thank yous to their fellow actors and family members that might include something beyond a name.
I can dig it. I also like the screen crawl of names they can use instead of listing them verbally, too. They need to be disciplined enough to NOT repeat the names once they get up there, though.
I saw clip on Twitter that Kenan reunited with Kel for a Good Burger reference so that’s pretty dope. Would have bumped it up to “The Best Moment” if he broke into the “Who Loves Orange Soda” jingle.
Nothing will ever come close to Gervais´ roasted celebs and the looks on their dumb faces when told the truth.
Kenan should have just done an extended What’s Up With That? with a bunch of the nominees. I mean Jason Sudeikis was there anyway! Have Sheryl Lee Ralph do a bit of singing. Have everyone ignore Nicholas Braun. It could have been glorious.
Saw that key frame and was wondering why they were doing a callout to Thulsa Doom from Conan.
All due respect, Barry is and has always been wildly uneven in its tone and rooting interest. It is overrated. Hader seems like a competent director but I haven’t seen anything from him that shouts “New Talent!”. (But then I also thought this about Novak & Vengeance. So maybe I just am cynical about newbie directors.)
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