On the night of September 14, 2025, Hollywood gathered to celebrate the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. That night, we saw records broken, new shows getting the acclaim they deserved and most importantly, lackluster comedy. This season of shows had some big names, from returning heavy hitter “Severance,” to new hit show “The Pitt” in drama. The stacked comedy category featured previous Emmy winners: “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear” (if you count it as a comedy), Hacks and buzzy new shows like The Studio. In the end, no matter which way you put it, it was shaping up to be a good awards show, with almost all nominees deserving of a win.
THE WRITING
Before we get into the awards, let’s start off with the negatives of the night. Mainly, the writing. When going around Fieldston, asking people for their thoughts, some said they thought the comedy was good, some mediocre.But one thing stood out: the charity bit in which the host, Nate Bargatze, purported to offer (or not offer) money to a charity based on whether acceptance speeches were held to a 45-second time limit. When my family saw the announcement of this gimmick, we knew where it was going. Unsurprisingly, people didn’t want to condense their thank yous to 45 seconds and when the broadcast had ended, the charity count was well into the negatives; luckily, the host and CBS would end up donating much more than the original $100,000.Aside from a gag that got stale really fast, the writing for most presenters and the host themselves was lackluster to say the least. Presenter monologues were bland, not funny, sometimes just plain weird (especially with Jennifer Coolidge) and almost always failed to even crack a smile. Nate Bargatze very often didn’t quite reach the energy of a good host of an awards show like Conan, and as mentioned before, his bits tended to flop. To end on a positive note though, tributes and variety ideas throughout the night were nice, such as the “Golden Girls” tribute and the nod to the shows “Survivor” and “Gilmore Girls.” But without further ado, it is time to move on to the highlights and main focus of the event, the awards.
DRAMA
In the television industry, the highest honor and award is without a doubt outstanding drama series. And in this regard, The Pitt came out of the night as one of the most acclaimed shows of the year. The Pitt, while not sweeping the drama categories, emerged with wins in best drama series, with Noah Wyles winning best actor in a drama as well as Katherine LaNasa winning best supporting actress in a drama. Other high points for Drama include the best supporting actor speech for Tramell Tillman, which was direct, to the point and a touching and wonderful thank you to his Mom, or “his first acting coach.” More notable awards for drama went to Slow Horses for best directing and Andor for best writing, respectively. Even though I wanted Severance to win, as I thought it was more innovative with its directing and concept, after surveying Fieldston, it seems like The Pitt was a hit.
Anthology/Limited Series
This year, the Anthology/Limited Series categories were marked by history and dominance. To start off, the show Adolescence completely swept the entire night, winning almost every single award, one of which was best actor. The reason I mention this award specifically is because the winner, Owen Cooper, is the youngest male actor to ever win an Emmy in its almost 77-year history. I wish there were more to talk about, but for almost every category for Limited Series, Adolescence was there to win it.
COMEDY
The only thing I love more than TV shows is movies. And the now Emmy award-winning Seth Rogen seems to agree with the show he co-created, The Studio, dominating the Comedy category throughout the night. Seth Rogen went home with best leading actor, and the show itself came out with best writing, directing and best series. After watching the show, I see why as well. Although originally wanting Hacks to win, when I saw The Studio, I witnessed such a refreshing blend of innovation, hilarious writing, with a touch of top-tier directing and a cast of seasoned comedy actors, that it led me to believe this show deserved every Emmy it won. In addition to The Studio sweeping, Hannah Einbinder finally winning as best supporting actress was nice to see. For context, Einbinders co-star Jean Smart won an Emmy almost every season, without Einbinder coming out on top for any of her nominations. So it was very refreshing to see Einbinder finally win an Emmy, with her speech being very genuine, and her ending it with causes she felt very deeply toward
.Other Categories
To end my review of the awards, I would like to talk about a few miscellaneous awards that struck me. First off, the SNL 50th anniversary special deservedly won best live variety special for honoring the 50th birthday of the New York institution of Saturday Night Live. However, SNL failed to beat out John Oliver for best scripted variety series. Additionally, The Late Show With Steven Colbert won best talk show, which served as a bittersweet send-off for the talk series, which is currently airing its last season. In conclusion, the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards had some high highs, and some very mediocre lows (I’m looking at you, Nate Bargatze), but in the end, I would say that this year of Emmys was a strong one. With no awards feeling unearned, I think that this year will be remembered fondly, aside from what will probably be the last appearance of the charity gag. But anyways, this has been your awards correspondent and critic, Robert Plasse, and I hope to see you next year for the 78th ceremony that continues this time-honored tradition.
