Week-to-Week: At Primetime Emmys, Hacks Hunt Bear

I'd have done a "Hacks outruns the Bear" headline but the Cancel Bear doesn't deserve the homage, he knows what he did

Screenshot: Television Academy / YouTube

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When FX’s The Bear season three debuted earlier this year, I wrote a newsletter addressing the “controversy” of its categorization as a comedy for award purposes. Amid calls to force The Bear into the drama category, I made the case that the system was set up exactly as it’s supposed to be: categorization is a subjective process, but so is voting, meaning that “if people don’t think The Bear should be competing as a comedy, they can simply choose not to vote for it in the Outstanding Comedy Series category.”

Week-to-Week: Why the Emmys Don't Care If You Think The Bear Isn't a Comedy

It turns out that’s exactly what happened: two months after the Television Critics Association overlooked The Bear in its comedy category in favor of Max’s Hacks, the Television Academy followed suit. It’s not as though the Emmys rejected The Bear outright—the show still won three out of the four acting categories along with directing. However, Hacks was ultimately the winner at the end of the night, earning its first win for Outstanding Comedy Series after losing its first two bids to Ted Lasso, along with a third win in Lead Actress for Jean Smart.

It’s hard not to interpret this as part of the discourse around The Bear competing as a comedy, but there’s another dimension operating here. As a series that has consistently released in June, The Bear is consciously straddling the Emmy deadline, airing a new season during the voting window for the previous season. Last year, this improved the show’s Emmy performance: Ayo Edebiri won Supporting Actress after being elevated to a more prominent role in season two, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach won Supporting Actor based on a season two showcase (“Forks”) despite not really getting similarly strong material in the actually-eligible season one.

This year, though, I’d argue season three airing during the voting window hurt the show as a whole even if it helped one of its performers. Liza Colón-Zayas has a minor showcase in the second season—her submitted episode, “Pop,” has some nice material of her time in culinary school (like the great karaoke scene). But her nomination was 100% because of “Napkins,” her showcase episode in the third season, and her victory in the category was a clear sign that voters were ignoring the boundaries of eligibility. But that same principle likely damaged the show given the third season’s turn toward a more dramatic, abstract narrative style. When presented with strong performances, voters still leaned toward The Bear; when the question of “Best Comedy on TV” was posed, with season three on their brains, they went in a different direction.

And really, there’s something poetic about that. The Bear’s first Emmy win was objectively for both its first and second seasons, which means that even if you felt like season two was the best season of TV eligible this year, you can rest comfortably knowing that Emmy voters thought so too—they just voted for it in the wrong year. And at a time when full-scale sweeps of categories and shows garnering 3+ nominations in single acting categories are growing more common, it’s nice to have a clear split, even if I miss the days when it felt like multiple shows had viable Emmy contenders across different categories. Hacks had a good season, The Bear deserved to get taken down a peg, and now we go into next year with a 1-1 tie to break.

It appeared based on the Creative Arts ceremony that Shogun might be headed toward a sweep of its own, but Slow Horses won a somewhat surprising writing award, and unfortunately the momentum for the FX limited series-turned-drama couldn’t earn Tadanobu Asano an Emmy. It’s a reminder that as tempting as it is to apply logic to award shows, there’s no logic to be found. Does it make sense to me that voters would connect with Shogun enough to award it Outstanding Drama Series and acknowledge its lead actors, and yet allow Asano’s performance as Yabushige to be overlooked in favor of a second Emmy win for Billy Crudup? No, just as it doesn’t make sense that voters would push Hacks over the top for Comedy Series but not manage to acknowledge Hannah Einbender for Supporting Actress. My cynical side wonders if voters put in the effort necessary to distinguish between the less-known performers on Shogun—it was telling that Moeki Hoshi, who played Fuji, was overlooked for four different Morning Show actresses at the nomination stage, and a similar situation may have happened during voting.

But it’s so satisfying to see Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai¹ awarded for their stellar work anchoring the series—the former was front and center as a star-producer, while the latter was the show’s heart. I worried about Sawai’s ability to compete with big-name actresses when the show was heading for the Limited Series category, but the momentum from the move to Drama seemed like it positioned her well even against your Anistons and Witherspoons. And with voters determining that Diana was the only thing they really cared about in The Crown’s final season, it created the space for a most-deserved pair of awards. I’m not going to say that the Television Critics Association made this happen, but I was thrilled to be able to vote for Sawai and the show in this summer’s TCA Awards, and am happy to see the TV Academy felt the same way.

Speaking of big-name actresses, though, it was an interesting year for movie stars at the Emmys. Lamorne Morris’ shocker win in Supporting Actor in the Limited Series saw him defeat Robert Downey Jr., while Meryl Streep showed up to lose an Emmy to Colon-Zayas. Really, True Detective: Night Country’s Jodie Foster was the only acting winner whose starpower felt like it was a meaningful part of their win, with Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd notably heralding his show’s victory as a sign that not every show needs stars—or I.P.—to become a hit. I’d perhaps suggest that Netflix’s marketing muscle and FYC apparatus means that Baby Reindeer was far from an “underdog” in practice, but it’s some interesting data for thinking about how the Emmys are continuing to negotiate the presence of film stars in their midst.

There’s much to negotiate next year, overall: you’ve got the rematch between Hacks and The Bear already set in the comedy race, while the vacuum left by Shogun and The Crown in drama series will be ably filled by umpteen White Lotus nominees (including several, like Walton Goggins and Carrie Coon, who were also nominated this year). Will there be new shows able to force their way in? Can shows like Abbott Elementary and Only Murders in the Building do anything to break into the conversation in a meaningful way, or did their moment pass? And is there really any hope that voters will stop voting for Jon Stewart and John Oliver when given the chance?

My answer to all these questions is “no,” because I think the Emmys exhausted all of their interesting choices with Hacks’ win to close out the night. It was the kind of moment that tricks you into thinking the Emmys are more dynamic than they are, and helps obscure that this was an Emmys broadcast which was pretty poorly produced overall, with lots of technical issues combined with genre tributes that were a retread of last year without anything new to say. Disney is probably still pretty pleased with a three-hour broadcast on ABC where Disney-owned FX content featured on its streaming platforms dominated, but it’s hard to say this was an exhilarating celebration of the best TV has to offer. It was just another annual ritual where mostly deserving winners still leave you wishing that voters had a broader grasp of the best work happening in the industry at the moment.

Episodic Observations

• I was thrilled to see producer Sam Rees-Jones, who I accosted at press tour in February over the broken elements of The Traitors, onstage behind Alan Cumming accepting a deserved award for producing a great reality show even if it’s a terribly designed competition. I hope every person who patiently stands there amiably while I rant at them about things only I seem to passionately care about are rewarded in this way. They deserve it.

• Dan and Eugene Levy were…fine as hosts, with a couple of ably-presented one-liners and generally amiable material. Was it cruel to put Short/Martin/Gomez onstage to present directly after their monologue? Yes. Did I appreciate the Schitt’s Creek reunion? Sure.

• I appreciated the effort toward diversity across the genre pairings, but my favorite inclusion was absolutely Gina Torres. Imagine going back to October 2019 and explaining to Torres, whose Pearson spin-off from Suits was just canceled after a single season, that she would be presenting at the Emmys as one of “TV’s Top Attorneys” with Viola Davis and Christine Baranski. What a time to be alive.

• I know it’s his stage name, but something about “Here to honor those we’ve lost, Jelly Roll” made the vibes of the In Memoriam terrible even before he talk-sang through it and they awkwardly transitioned to an under-produced Kimmel tribute to Bob Newhart. Burn it all down and start over with this segment, folks.

• Ten years ago I tweeted that Winston from New Girl was secretly a serial killer, and it’s a bit I’ve committed to ever since, so I’d like to thank the Academy for giving me a reason to revive it during tonight’s broadcast.

• I’m mad that they presented Drama Actor and Actress back-to-back because I just know Hiroyuki was so thrilled for Anna and we didn’t get to see it.

• While Kaitlin Olson did appear as the star of ABC’s new broadcast drama High Potential (the pilot is generic but fine), Kathy Bates and CBS’ Matlock got the biggest shoutout—I’ve seen more of that and I’ll have a review after the premiere airs because yes, the Matlock reboot can’t really be talked about until y’all have seen the pilot. You’ll see.

• The issues with the microphone may have been the most consistent production issue, but if you recorded it, go back and watch the camera struggles during the SNL segment. Just absolute chaos. Also, they totally ruined O’Hara’s envelope bit by filming her from behind on her way to present. Amateur hour.

• A reminder that we’re running out Yearly Subscription Pledge Drive through the end of September—if you want to discuss the Emmys or any of the shows we’ll be reviewing in the next year (like many which won Emmys, like Hacks and The Bear), no better or cheaper time to become part of the community.

1. Let’s talk about Viola Davis clearly seeing Anna Sawai’s name for the first time, and then Oprah-ing the last name to cover up her stumble.