(Los Angeles) Four months after their postponement due to strikes in Hollywood, the Emmy Awards began Monday with strong honors for the series Successionultra-favorite, and comedy The Bear.
The two productions are the big favorites for an evening that so far follows the script established by most industry observers.
With 27 nominations, Succession is a juggernaut and is widely expected to win the award for best drama series.
A dark and grating chronicle of the internal quarrels of a wealthy family at the helm of a vast media empire, this HBO production got the evening off to a good start.
Its actor Matthew Macfadyen won the award for best supporting actor in a drama series.
The series is also aiming for the best actor prize, with three contenders, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox, among the six nominees in this category.
Sarah Snook, the only female heir to the Roy dynasty in the series, is also favorite for the Emmy for best actress.
The final season of Succession was critically acclaimed.
Its triumph announced for its swan song should therefore feed the regrets of two competitors with many merits: the adaptation of the eponymous video game, The Last of UsAnd The White Lotusa chic and scathing satire on the hypocrisy of the rich.
Actress Jennifer Coolidge, who plays a haughty and self-centered heiress, won the award for best supporting actress.
The Bear stack the statuettes
On the comedy side, the other favorite The Bear started the evening by winning most of the prizes, with five statuettes awarded halfway through the ceremony.
This series, which delves into the eventful back of the kitchen of a Chicago restaurant, saw all its stars, Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, rewarded in their respective categories.
Among the competition, Ted Lassowhich follows the adventures of an American football coach parachuted into an English football team, still hopes for some rewards, despite a third and final season which disappointed the public and the critics.
The Emmy Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for American television, usually take place in September, but the strikes of Hollywood actors and screenwriters have completely disrupted their calendar.
The industry was completely paralyzed for six months, with actors banned from promoting during the strike, forcing the ceremony to opt for a postponement to January.
Audience at half mast
A decision which does not suit the organizers, who are trying to counter the decline in audiences for this high point of American television.
The Emmys this year find themselves sandwiched between several major Hollywood awards dates, including the Golden Globes and the announcement of Oscar nominations, and are therefore less attractive to viewers.
The presenter, Anthony Anderson, star of the series Black-ish and in charge of the presentation of this edition, launched the ceremony by entrusting his mother with the role of interrupting the winners who were too long in their thanks.
PHOTO MARIO ANZUONI, REUTERS
Presenter Anthony Anderson
“I’d like to ask you all to keep these speeches succinct,” he joked, as US awards shows struggle to appeal to younger audiences, who are more inclined to watch a recap of the highlights afterward on social networks.
Not to mention that because of the postponement, the Emmy Awards reward series whose competing seasons often began 18 months ago, an eternity in the world of entertainment. Series broadcast from fall 2023 must be rewarded next September, during the next Emmys.
The context is therefore really unfavorable for redressing the bar, after a ceremony followed by only 5.9 million viewers in 2022 – even less than the 2020 edition, nicknamed “PandEmmys”, when the stars stayed at home for good reason. confinement.
The 75e Emmy Awards ceremony continues. Among the upcoming awards, the miniseries category is particularly hotly contested: Netflix productions Beef And Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story are pulling out all the stops with 13 nominations each.