‘Succession’ gets its belated sendoff at the Emmy Awards, joined by ‘The Bear’ and ‘Beef’

By Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — After a four-month delay prompted by Hollywood’s twin actors and writers strikes, the 75th annual Emmy Awards finally got around to a night teeming with nostalgia and near-sweeps, with “Succession,” “The Bear” and “Beef” dominating their respective categories.

“Succession” and “The Bear” each took home six awards Monday, with “Beef” right behind them at five. The HBO drama received its third Emmy in four seasons for its swan-song year, having been deprived a win only opposite the last season of another HBO heavyweight, “Game of Thrones.”

“Succession” filled out its total with wins for Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook – each of whom stepped up into the lead category this year after previously submitting themselves as supporting players. They delivered teary-eyed acceptance speeches (Culkin’s after a kiss from fellow nominee Brian Cox), and were joined by two-time winner Mathew Macfadyen, with additional nods for writing and directing.

“The Bear,” meanwhile, ranked as this year’s most-honored program with 10 awards in all, including four previous wins at the Creative Arts Emmys, primarily devoted to technical areas, like cinematography and sound.

One of the runners-up by that measure was another first-year series that went home empty-handed on Monday: “The Last of Us,” which amassed eight Creative Arts Emmys, including nods to guest stars Nick Offerman and Storm Reid.

With “Succession” and “The Last of Us” as anchors, HBO easily topped the battle for bragging rights among individual programming services – a feat the network has achieved all but once for more than 20 years, interrupted by Netflix’s record-tying 44 Emmys in 2021. (The two also tied in 2018.)

Overall, HBO Max amassed 31 statuettes this awards cycle, followed by Netflix with 22, and 16 for FX. Streaming services Apple TV+ and Disney+ followed with 10 and nine, respectively. (CNN and HBO are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Yet the evening stood out in several ways, including its diversity, with a number of Black and Asian winners, the latter thanks to the Netflix limited series “Beef,” honored with five awards on Monday, including stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, writing and directing. With its trio of technical wins at earlier Emmy presentations, the show drove away with eight awards in all.

“This is like MLK day and Juneteenth all rolled into one!” host Anthony Anderson quipped a little more than halfway through the night.

The producers also came up with a novel gag in having Anderson’s mom inform recipients that their acceptances speeches needed to wrap up, instead of the customary play-off music. Yet as the show unfolded, briskly racing through categories, the imperative to hurry the festivities along seemed to fade.

Emmy producers sought to tap into nostalgia tied to the 75th anniversary, sprinkling mini-show reunions in the form of presenter pairings and nods to the medium’s history throughout the telecast. The show got off to an emotional start, with standing ovations for Christina Applegate (who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis) and TV legend Carol Burnett, and moving acceptance speeches by Quinta Brunson and Ayo Edebiri for “Abbott Elementary” – a rare broadcast series still able to compete for awards attention – and “The Bear,” respectively.

Brunson became the first Black women recognized as lead comedy actress in more than four decades, since Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons.”

Edebiri was quickly joined by Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach for “The Bear,” the FX show that has steamrolled its way through this month’s awards ceremonies, while both drama supporting nods went to repeat winners: Jennifer Coolidge claimed another Emmy for “The White Lotus,” this time competing as a drama series; and Macfadyen, kicking off the night for “Succession.”

Niecy Nash-Betts also injected a strong political note into the event, accepting her award for “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” on behalf of Black women who had been “unheard and over-policed,” listing several high-profile examples of the latter.

Despite switching categories after seven consecutive wins in the late-night variety competition, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” continued its winning ways in the category opposite “Saturday Night Live,” also collecting an eighth straight writing trophy. The shift did open the door for a new late-night king, “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah,” in Noah’s final season as host of the Comedy Central series, roughly 13 months after his farewell show.

Another repeat winner, “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” strutted away with its fifth Emmy in the reality-competition field.

In a history-making moment, Elton John also joined the elite ranks of EGOTs – those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony – for his Disney+ farewell-concert special.

Because of the postponement, the Emmys somewhat awkwardly followed the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards in rapid succession. Broadcast on Fox this year, the awards also face off against the NFL playoffs – by far the most popular programming on linear television – as opposed to a regular-season football game, which could further depress ratings.

The Emmys were last delayed in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Television Academy still announced the nominees in July and conducted voting prior to the originally scheduled airdate in September.

Several of the introductions made a point of acknowledging the importance of writing, and the team from “Last Week Tonight” thanked others in Hollywood for rallying around the Writers Guild of America during the strike.

The academy presented its Governors Award to GLAAD, the advocacy group on behalf of LGBTQ images in media, with its president Sarah Kate Ellis citing TV’s influence, calling such storytelling “the antidote” to bigotry and villainization of that community.

In his two acceptance speeches, “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong also name-checked News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch as a frequently noted inspiration for the show – on Fox, a network the company owns – and joked about the series having healed America’s partisan divide.

“This is a show about family, but it’s also a show about when partisan politics, when partisan news coverage gets intertwined with divisive right-wing politics, and after four seasons of satire, as I understand it that’s a problem we have now fixed,” he said. “So we can now depart the stage.”

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