LOS ANGELES—”Ted Lasso,” a feel-good comedy, and “Succession,” a drama about a media dynasty, won the top Emmy awards on Monday. A “Squid Game” actor also won a major acting award as Hollywood gave out the highest honours in television.
The HBO show “Succession” had already won this award in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic messed up its production schedule. The show, which won a total of four awards, is about the rich and sneaky Roy family, whose members are always trying to get ahead.
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The Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV+ show “Ted LaSso,” which is about an American football coach who leads a British soccer team, won best comedy for the second year in a row. Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein, who played the leads, both won Best Comedy Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the second time [L1N30G2HP].
Voters also chose Zendaya from “Euphoria” as the best actress in a drama and Jean Smart from “Hacks” as the best actress in a comedy. It was the second win in those categories for each of them.
Lee Jung-jae, a newcomer, was named best drama actor for his role in the South Korean thriller “Squid Game.” The story of cash-strapped contestants who risk their lives for money became a global hit when it came out on Netflix a year ago.
The actor thanked the people who worked on “Squid Game” for “bringing real problems we all face to the screen in such a creative way.”
HBO’s “The White Lotus” was the most praised show of the night. It won 10 awards, including best limited series and acting awards for Jennifer Coolidge and Murray Bartlett. With 38 awards, HBO and its streaming service HBO Max have more than any other network [L1N30J2CD].
Kenan Thompson, the host and a star of “Saturday Night Live,” said that the show was a time to celebrate one of the world’s favourite things to do.
“What would we do without TV, read books?” he joked before dancing to the theme songs of shows like “Friends” and “Stranger Things,” both of which are popular right now.
Most winners didn’t talk much about politics or world events. One person who didn’t think it was a big week for “Successions” was show creator Jesse Armstrong. He joked that it was a big week for “successions” because King Charles took over the British throne after his mother, Queen Elizabeth, died.
Armstrong said, “I’m not saying that we have more right to be where we are than he does. We’ll let other people decide that.”
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Goldstein, who plays foul-mouthed but kind-hearted soccer legend Roy Kent in the British show “Lasso,” said he was going to try not to swear after his swear-filled comments were cut off in Britain when he won last year, so his family couldn’t hear them.
Then he said, “Mum, Dad, I fucking love you.”
Lizzo won an Emmy for “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” a competition series. The singer said that as a child, she always wanted to see on TV “someone fat like me, black like me, and beautiful like me.”
She told little Lizzo, “I’m going to go back and tell you something. You’re going to be that person.”
Michael Keaton won the award for lead actor in a limited series for his role in “Dopesick” as a small-town doctor who gets hooked on painkillers.
