The 2023 Emmys Were a Night of No Surprises, Mostly for the Better

Here's what may be the most surprising fact about last night's Emmys: It was Jeremy Allen White's first Emmy for The Bear, which only sounds unusual because it seems like Jeremy Allen White has given several acceptance speeches already. He has! He won the Golden Globe and the People's Choice Awards for the first and second seasons of The Bear. However, because of the nearly six-month delay in The Emmys, White accepted the Emmy for the first season of The Bear more than six months after the second season aired. Indeed, Trevor Noah's The Daily Show also won an Emmy, and Trevor Noah hasn't been the host of The Daily Show since 2022.

Otherwise, if you've watched any television awards shows in the last year, the winners were familiar. The Bear won most of the comedy categories; The Beef won most of the limited series categories; and Succession won most of the drama categories (The Bear replaced Ted Lasso, which had dominated the last two seasons). It's not that any of the winners were undeserving, but it did make for a rather predictable ceremony. The most suspense surrounded which actor from Succession would win their category.

There were a few outliers. Quinta Brunson and Niecy Nash-Betts won for Abott Elementary and Dahmer, respectively (though, again, Dahmer hasn't aired since September 2022), and joined Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) as the first three winners of the night, all going to Black women. Paul Walter Hauser (Blackbird) was able to win one of the few limited series awards that didn't go to The Beef, which won Best Limited Series and Best Actor and Actress (Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, respectively).

As for the telecast itself: It was mostly pleasant, especially following last week's Golden Globes disaster. There was a slight musical number celebrating older shows to open the ceremony instead of jokes at the expense of celebrities, and the ceremony itself was peppered with reunions from shows from the past, including Katherine Heigl reuniting with several of the original cast members of Grey's Anatomy (which is both a past and present series, as it enters its 20th season). There were also a few memorable speeches, too, specifically (Ayo Edibri; Niecy Nash-Betts, who thanked herself; Kieran Culkin, who used his to ask his wife for another child; and Jennifer Coolidge, who thanked all the "evil gays.")

The ceremony itself, however, may be best remembered for some of its presenters (Marla Gibbs, Joan Collins, Christina Applegate, the cast of Cheers) and an In Memoriam, which included Norman Lear and a few gut punchers, like Matthew Perry, Andre Braugher, and Angus Cloud. The only real lame moment of the night was when Anthony Anderson's mom -- otherwise beloved -- was used to encourage people to end their acceptance speeches, which created an awkward moment at the end of Jennifer Coolidge's speech and was not attempted again during the ceremony.

Though it went off with few hitches, don't be surprised if the ratings for the Emmy ceremony fall well beneath that of the Golden Globes, which had the NFL as a lead-in on a Sunday night and aired on CBS (and streamed on Paramount+), while the Emmys played opposite an NFL playoff game on a Monday night on Fox, which has no streaming option.

Here were the night's big winners:

Best Comedy
"Abbott Elementary" (ABC)
"Barry" (HBO)
"The Bear" (FX)
"Jury Duty" (Freevee)
"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Prime Video)
"Only Murders in the Building" (Hulu)
"Ted Lasso" (Apple TV+)
"Wednesday" (Netflix)

Best Drama
"Andor" (Disney+)
"Better Call Saul" (AMC)
"The Crown" (Netflix)
"House of the Dragon" (HBO)
"The Last of Us" (HBO)
"Succession" (HBO)
"The White Lotus" (HBO)
"Yellowjackets" (Showtime)

Best Limited Series
"Beef" (Netflix)
"Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" (Netflix)
"Daisy Jones & the Six" (Prime Video)
"Fleishman Is In Trouble" (Hulu)
"Obi-Wan Kenobi" (Disney+)

Best Actress, Comedy
Christina Applegate, "Dead to Me"
Rachel Brosnahan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
Quinta Brunson, "Abbott Elementary"
Natasha Lyonne, "Poker Face"
Jenna Ortega, "Wednesday"

Best Actor, Comedy
Bill Hader, "Barry"
Jason Segel, "Shrinking"
Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso"
Jeremy Allen White, "The Bear"
Martin Short, "Only Murders in the Building"

Best Actress, Drama
Melanie Lynskey, "Yellowjackets"
Sharon Horgan, "Bad Sisters"
Elisabeth Moss, "The Handmaid's Tale"
Bella Ramsey, "The Last of Us"
Keri Russell, "The Diplomat"
Sarah Snook, "Succession"

Best Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, "The Old Man"
Brian Cox, "Succession"
Kieran Culkin, "Succession"
Jeremy Strong, "Succession"
Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"
Pedro Pascal, "The Last of Us"

Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie
Dominique Fishback, "Swarm"
Jessica Chastain, "George & Tammy"
Lizzy Caplan, "Fleishman Is in Trouble"
Kathryn Hahn, "Tiny Beautiful Things"
Riley Keough, "Daisy Jones & the Six"
Ali Wong, "Beef"

Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie
Taron Egerton, "Black Bird"
Kumail Nanjiani, "Welcome to Chippendales"
Evan Peters, "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story"
Daniel Radcliffe, "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"
Michael Shannon, "George & Tammy"
Steven Yeun, "Beef"

Supporting Actress, Comedy
Alex Borstein, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
Ayo Edebiri, "The Bear"
Janelle James, "Abbott Elementary"
Sheryl Lee Ralph, "Abbott Elementary"
Juno Temple, "Ted Lasso"
Hannah Waddingham, "Ted Lasso"
Jessica Williams, "Shrinking"

Supporting Actor, Comedy
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, "The Bear"
Anthony Carrigan, "Barry"
Phil Dunster, "Ted Lasso"
Brett Goldstein, "Ted Lasso"
James Marsden, "Jury Duty"
Tyler James Williams, "Abbott Elementary"
Henry Winkler, "Barry"

Supporting Actress, Drama
Jennifer Coolidge, "The White Lotus"
Elizabeth Debicki, "The Crown"
Meghann Fahy, "The White Lotus"
Sabrina Impacciatore, "The White Lotus"
Aubrey Plaza, "The White Lotus"
Rhea Seehorn, "Better Call Saul"
J. Smith-Cameron, "Succession"
Simona Tabasco, "The White Lotus"

Supporting Actor, Drama
F. Murray Abraham, "The White Lotus"
Nicholas Braun, "Succession"
Michael Imperioli, "The White Lotus"
Matthew Macfadyen, "Succession"
Alan Ruck, "Succession"
Will Sharpe, "The White Lotus"
Alexander Skarsgård, "Succession"

Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a Movie
Annaleigh Ashford, "Welcome to Chippendales"
Maria Bello, "Beef"
Claire Danes, "Fleishman Is in Trouble"
Juliette Lewis, "Welcome to Chippendales"
Camila Morrone, "Daisy Jones & The Six"
Niecy Nash-Betts, "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story"
Merritt Wever, "Tiny Beautiful Things"

Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie
Murray Bartlett, "Welcome to Chippendales"
Paul Walter Hauser, "Black Bird"
Richard Jenkins, "Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story"
Ray Liotta, "Black Bird"
Young Mazino, "Beef"
Jesse Plemons, "Love & Death"

Variety Talk Series
"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" (Comedy Central)
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (ABC)
"Late Night with Seth Meyers" (NBC)
"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" (CBS)
"The Problem With Jon Stewart" (Apple TV+)

Outstanding scripted variety series
"A Black Lady Sketch Show"
"Saturday Night Live"
"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver"

Reality Competition Program
"The Amazing Race" (CBS)
"RuPaul's Drag Race" (VH1)
"Survivor" (CBS)
"Top Chef" (Bravo)
"The Voice" (NBC)

Writing for a Comedy Series
Bill Hader, "Barry"
Christopher Storer, "The Bear"
Mekki Leeper, "Jury Duty"
John Hoffman, Matteo Borghese, Rob Turbovsky, "Only Murders in the Building"
Chris Kelly, Sarah Schneider, "The Other Two"
Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso"

Writing for a Drama Series
Beau Willimon, "Andor"
Sharon Horgan, Dave Finkel, Brett Baer, "Bad Sisters"
Gordon Smith, "Better Call Saul"
Peter Gould, "Better Call Saul"
Craig Mazin, "The Last of Us"
Jesse Armstrong, "Succession"
Mike White, "The White Lotus"

Writing for a Limited Series
Lee Sung Jin, "Beef"
Joel Kim Booster, "Fire Island"
Taffy Brodesser-Akner, "Fleishman is in Trouble"
Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg, "Prey"
Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, "Swarm"
Al Yankovic and Eric Appel, "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"