Thankfully, a bunch of people just started throwing Nate Bargatze’s dumb bit back in his face over the course of this Emmys telecast, which saw actors like Tramell Tillman, Britt Lower, Katherine LaNasa, Stephen Graham, and Owen Cooper rise to the top of the pack and beat out major stars (like, for example, the entire cast of season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which came up empty). While Bargatze muttered, between speeches, the same joke over and over again (some variation of “wow, that speech cost a lot of money,” which again, just isn’t even funny), winners took to the stage to express important messages — like Hannah Einbinder did — or simply experience the joy of achieving such an enormous honor in their field.
Besides Einbinder’s, my favorite speeches of the night were courtesy of Cristin Milioti and Noah Wyle, both of whom took home their first-ever Emmys for “The Penguin” and “The Pitt,” respectively. (Special shout-out to Lower, whose speech bore the words “LET ME OUT” scribbled on the back of her piece of paper as a little reference to the push-and-pull between her two “Severance” characters, Helena Eagan and Helly R., and LaNasa, whose husband Grant Show was crying tears of gratitude along with her in the audience.) Milioti, who has been working in this industry for decades and whose performance as Sofia Falcone in the HBO crime drama is absolutely explosive, was overwhelmed with utter joy, noting that she wrote her speech on the back of therapy notes and proclaimed that she loves movies, TV, and being an actor, screaming at the top of her lungs in an infectious and spontaneous moment. Wyle was decidedly emotional but more reserved, thanking healthcare workers who were either working or leaving work as he spoke, but the obvious gratitude he felt for winning an award of this magnitude after nearly three decades of playing a doctor on television was palpable and lovely to see. Neither of them seemed to care about Bargatze’s stupid bit, and it let audiences feel Milioti and Wyle’s victories along with them.
Ultimately, Bargatze said he was going to donate $250,000 to the Boys and Girls Club, and CBS donated $100,000 on top of that, so the bit wasn’t quite as cruel as it initially appeared. Still, it distracted from and put unneeded pressure on people who were having maybe the biggest night of their lives. If you don’t like awards shows, don’t watch them, but consider not hosting them either (that last one’s for you, Mr. Bargatze, with all due respect). If you’re a person who, like me, enjoys seeing great performers achieve something meaningful, I hope that next year’s Emmys host lets the winners win in peace.
