2024 Emmy Highlights: Winners and Major Moments

Hacks shocked runaway favorite The Bear for best comedy at the 2024 Emmys Sunday night, injecting a jolt of drama into a humdrum race at the last possible moment.

The Hannah Einbinder-Jean Smart tale of two dysfunctional comics came out of nowhere to beat FX’s Chicago-set dramedy after an awards season, and a night, in which The Bear’s win seemed as inevitable as the next “Yes, chef” salutation.

Meanwhile, FX’s Shogun and Netflix’s Baby Reindeer took the top prizes of drama and limited series, respectively.

While The Bear was regarded as only a borderline comedy, prompting snickers in some inside-television circles about its categorization, the show had sat atop most pundit lists and won pretty much every major prize it was favored to win through three hours of awards beneficence Sunday.

With 23 nominations, it also had scored more nods than any comedy in history.

But Hacks, from Max, had the last laugh in the category, as Paul Downs, Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello’s series about aging, aspirations and showbiz insecurity took the big prize for its third season.

“We really feel like [comedy] can bridge divides,” Aniello said in accepting the top prize. “When you laugh with someone you have something in common with them.” Downs took the moment to argue for more representation for older actors.

Earlier, Smart took supporting actress in a comedy — her sixth Emmy overall — for playing the cutting comic Deborah Vance, offering a warm award speech that stood in contrast to what her character might have said. Hacks also took a best writing for a comedy series, with Downs thanking anyone who has “seen the show or been seen by the show,” noting the weird comedy kid he and Statsky and Aniello (sort of) were.

But few awards observers expected the trio to take the stage again at the end of the night.

The surprise turn, after all, came in the wake of The Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach taking the prize for best supporting actor in a comedy to kick off the 2024 Emmys. A few moments later came two more Bear wins when Jeremy Allen White won best actor in a comedy and Liza Colón-Zayas scored best supporting actress in a comedy, becoming the first Latina to do so in the category. And creator Christopher Storer would later win for directing in a comedy series.

“I’m so grateful for this show and to work with these beautiful people,” said Moss-Bachrach, who plays the voluble Richie on the critically acclimed show, keeping it simple. Taking the stage, White offered a poignant moment that “this show [The Bear] has changed my life; it has instilled a faith that change is possible… you’re never actually alone.”

Pundits will be left trying to dissect the Bear‘s falter at its biggest possible moment, with theories likely to include the fact that FX released the show’s third season in June. The polarizing episodes, which TV Academy members were not deciding on, could have still influenced them to think differently about the well-received second season as they were voting this summer.

The comedy classification may have also hurt. At the start of the 2024 Emmys telecast, co-host Eugene Levy took a poke at the unconventional choice of the leading comedy nomination-getter in Emmys history. “I love the show,” he said. “And some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy. But in the true spirit of The Bear we will not be making any jokes.”

Shogun, meanwhile, stormed through the end of the 2024 Emmys after faltering early, while Baby Reindeer took home four Emmys including best limited series.

“You guys greenlit a very expensive subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax revolves around a poetry competition,” Shogun co-creator Justin Marks said of Disney and FX/Hulu. “I have no idea why you did it.” Shogun won a jaw-dropping 14 creative arts Emmys —  a record — and was nominated for an equally record-breaking 25 Emmys overall.

Reindeer‘s creator took advantage of the opportunity to make a similar point as Marks about corporate risk.

“I know the industry’s in a slump right now,” actor-creator Richard Gadd said upon accepting the top limited-series prize for his Netflix show. “[But] no slump is ever broken without a willingness to take risks,” he said, casting shade at “IP” and other more corporate ways of greenlighting shows. He added that “there’s no set formula to this.” Gadd was a relative unknown before breaking out in a big way with his drama of stalking, striving and abuse.

Shogun won both lead acting in a drama categories after coming away empty-handed through a pair of earlier categories. Hiroyuki Sanada, a legend in his native Japan, won best actor for his role as the shrewd strategist Lord Yoshii Toranaga while Anna Sawai took best actress for her complex performance as Mariko in the FX period epic.

Shogun’s Frederick E.O. Toye also won for best directing of a drama. Toye thanked influences like Kurosawa for “letting me steal from them every day.” Earlier, two actors from Shogun lost to Billy Crudup for supporting actor in a drama for his role as the layered Cory on The Morning Show.

Colón-Zayas said she hadn’t written a speech because she couldn’t imagine doing so in the presence of nominees like Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett. She ended her remarks with a call to arms. “To all the Latinas who are looking at me, keep believing and vote. Vote for your rights.”

John Leguizamo also had a passionate plea about race in Hollywood at the ceremony, noting an ad he took out in the New York Times in June urging Emmys voters to recognize more people of color.

The actor on the Emmys stage Sunday night said that he was “almost happy and certainly less angry because tonight is one of the most diverse groups of nominees in Emmys history.” He noted that was a “DEI” hire: “Diligence, Excellence and imagination.” (Leguizamo did get a quip in about The Bear as “the charming story of white people obsessed with Michelin stars and making kale taste good.”)

Presenter Candice Bergen had an equally political moment when she noted the Dan Quayle-driven furor over her Murphy Brown character’s decision to have a child on the show as a single mom more than three decades ago. “Today a Republican candidate would never attack a woman for having kids. So my work here is done,” she said, giving a jibe to vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance over his disparaging remarks about women who didn’t have children. She added a “meow” for maximum feline effect.

Keeping with the theme of motherhood, an homage to TV mothers featured Connie Britton noting a bygone time “when married couples slept in separate beds, which led to the question of ‘how did she become a mom in the first place?’”

Alan Cumming, accepting the award for reality competition series for his salty human-chess game The Traitors, also took a cheeky approach to the state of social affairs. After saying that there was “something in the water in Holland” where many reality formats begin, he quipped, “So let’s find it, let’s drink it and all America’s problems will be solved.”

On the subject of politics, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver landed the Emmy for scripted variety series. But the host of the HBO series kept it apolitical, focusing on his beloved dog who recently died. He dedicated the show “for all dogs…you all deserve a treat,” outlasting the play-off music to do so. Trenchant comedian Alex Edelman, who landed best writing for a variety special for the broadcast of his live show Just For Us, was equally heartfelt talking about the death of his good friend and director Adam Brace shortly before their show opened on Broadway.

Oliver’s former series The Daily Show took the other late-night top prize, winning best talk series. Longtime leader Jon Stewart — who returned to the Comedy Central airwaves earlier this year to host one night per week — stepped to the 2024 Emmys mic after the win to make some self-deprecating jokes about how hard that one day of work truly was.

In the monologue co-host and Eugene Levy son Dan Levy also offered a cheeky quip about another critically beloved nominee, Reservation Dogs, earning a lot of Emmys love in its final season (like their Emmy-winning Schitt’s Creek). “The Television Academy found a show that was creatively thriving for years and said ‘hey, look what we discovered.’”

Also Sunday, Elizabeth Debicki took supporting actress in a drama for playing Princess Diana in the latest season of The Crown.

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer defied some historical trends that have gone against controversial real-life stories.

Jessica Gunning took the prize for best supporting actress in a limited series for her role as the chilling Martha in the show, while Gadd also won for writing in a limited series and best actor for a limited series “I never ever thought I’d get my life together,” he said after winning the first prize. “And here I am over a decade later picking up one of the biggest writing awards. If you’re struggling, keep going. Keep going.”

In a very 2024 moment, Fargo star and supporting actor in a limited series winner Lamorne Morris, upon realizing he was out of time, said “I’ll do another thing on my podcast and thank the rest of the people I forgot to thank.”

The line of the night halfway through the show came from Slow Horses creator Will Smith, who upon taking the awards podium for winning a writing Emmy, deadpanned “Despite my name, I come in peace.”

When it was all over, however, it was Hacks that came to slay.

See all the red carpet looks.

This story was first published on Sept. 15 at 5:19 p.m. PT