The most frustrating part of this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards was the wasted potential. Multiple records were broken, there were many history-making wins, plus upsets galore, and yet all anyone is talking about is a bit that wore out its welcome the second the Boys & Girls Club charity pot went from six figures to five.
Walking into the lobby of the Peacock Theater on a particularly muggy Sunday afternoon, there was actually a lot of enthusiasm for comedian Nate Bargatze’s first stint as host. Not only was he already an Emmy nominee this year for his most recent Netflix comedy special “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze,” but he had also been one of the hosts during the landmark 50th season of “Saturday Night Live.”
His opening sketch, a play on “SNL” highlight “Washington’s Dream,” co-starring cast members Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day, worked super-well in the room, with jokes like “What is streaming, sir?” “A new way for people to lose money,” eliciting laughs from the audience full of Television Academy members who work in the industry.
Maybe chalk that up to beginner’s luck, or playing the hits, but forgoing a traditional monologue to announce an ongoing bit about taking money away from charity in the name of shorter speeches was dead on arrival. And following it shortly with actress Jennifer Coolidge taking triple the amount of time anyone took to give a speech just to present the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series to “Hacks” star Jean Smart didn’t help.
Immediately, it was clear that Bargatze and Emmys producers Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay did not realize the extent to which they were prioritizing a bunch of presenter bits that did not work (as often is the case) over the main thing fans of awards shows generally tune in for: heartfelt acceptance speeches.
Thankfully, the charity pot countdown did not seem to get in the way of speeches from actors who gave breakthrough performances this season, like “The Pitt” star Katherine LaNasa and “Severance” star Tramell Tillman, the latter of whom became the first ever Black winner for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
But even when there weren’t those imposing numbers on the board, Bargatze’s only commentary on those emotional TV moments was always just some play on how the winner damaged the charity pot.
It was emblematic of a problem with awards shows in general, one that Bargatze and company are just another example of: These are live events, and live events feed off of the energy in the crowds.
If you lose the crowd, you lose the show. The past two Golden Globes also suffered from this, as part of the reason comedian Jo Koy tanked was that no one in the Beverly Hilton ballroom could actually hear him. The next year, they made sure host Nikki Glaser’s mic was on, yet none of the presenter bits worked because the staging had them perform jokes to the camera, with their backs to the majority of the audience in the room.
If “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” winning its first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series on the precipice of the show coming to an end continues to be seen as the highlight of the telecast, it is because the audience inside the Peacock Theater was clapping and cheering for host Colbert before they even read off the nominees. That win? It was the most hype the crowd ever got.
Despite the production’s shortcomings, at least there was an overall sense of contentment with the actual awards results, especially given the amount of surprise wins. (For instance, virtually everyone was happy to see “Somebody Somewhere” star Jeff Hiller unexpectedly triumph in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series over big stars like Harrison Ford and Colman Domingo and perennial nominees like Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Bowen Yang.)
The after-parties were all jubilant, and refreshingly free of the kind of bad, distracting bits that so hurt the show itself. As one awards specialist sagely put it, “We all love a surprise, you just hope it goes in your favor.” On the telecast, it didn’t.