On September 17th, TV’s biggest night took place in LA. Unfortunately for Hollywood stars and us lovers of entertainment, the Primetime Emmys averaged 11.4 million viewers, only a hare above last year which had an average of 11.3 million viewers and was the least watched on record. If you’re one of the millions who didn’t watch, don’t feel too bad about it, you’re in good company! Here are 5 of the biggest takeaways from that night.
1. LOTS of Trump administration jokes.
With liberal Stephen Colbert hosting an awards show for a liberal crowd of TVs biggest stars and mostly liberal viewers, it was pretty safe to assume that Trump wouldn’t get off easy. But perhaps the jokes went a little too far when disgraced ex White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer wheeled out on stage…which didn’t go over well to say the least in the days that followed. Yikes.
Proud member of the #resistance here- but listen, if I wanted to hear Trump jokes all night long I’d go directly to CNNs twitter page. I watch award shows to see pretty people in pretty dresses and suits, and hopefully see my favorite actors, actresses, and TV shows win something. And fortunately, most of them did. Which leads me to….
2. Big Little Lies. Big Little Lies everywhere.
Without a doubt one of the biggest (ha) series’ of the year, HBO’s Big Little Lies featured a star studded cast of leading ladies: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Laura Dern. Based on the novel by Liane Moriarty, the miniseries focuses around a group of women living in Monterey, California, as we see a series of events that lead up to an eventual murder.
Earning 16 nominations and winning 8 of them, BLL was one of the biggest winners of the night and one of my new favorite shows. Nicole Kidman in particular garnered praise from fans and critics alike for her role as Celeste, a woman trapped in an abusive marriage. A highlight of the night was watching Kidman use her Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie to bring awareness to the harsh reality of domestic violence. She along with Reese Witherspoon also won Emmys for producing, and Laura Dern for outstanding supporting actress. Wohoo, girl power!! Big Little Lies is Real Housewives mixed with True Crime and I’m obsessed. With extraordinary acting by everyone involved, an addicting storyline, and the characteristic high production value that has come to be associated with HBO, it’s hard to find fault in the series at all. Fingers crossed they give into popular demand and make a second season!
3. Donald Glover makes history!
While many know Donald Glover by his stage name “Childish Gambino”, in addition to being a musician he is also an actor, writer, and director. He’s been on a roll lately, already having won two Golden Globes for creating and starring in the show Atlanta earlier this year. Now he’s become the first black director to win an Emmy in a comedy. He also earned Emmy nominations for being a lead actor and writing on the series.
While it has been a long time coming, it’s always nice and refreshing to see diversity take the center stage for once. Congrats Donald! (no, not you 45. The talented and awesome one.)
4. As always… there were lots of snubs
While Big Little Lies was HBOs well-deserved champion series of the year, that left it’s other outstanding show in the dust: Westworld. A show about androids in a Western-style theme park that slowly become sentient isn’t exactly Academy material, yet it managed to get a huge 22 nominations- then get shut out of almost every single chance at an award. WHY?!Like Big Little Lies, Westworld also quickly became one of my favorite shows. After quickly gaining a cult following and critical acclaim for big names like Anthony Hopkins and Ed Helms, Westworld took off like a rocket. It was received fairly well, but because of it being science fiction and the nature of the show-which was relatively slow paced in the first season and pretty complicated- I think it will take a few seasons for it to start getting the awards it deserves. Other shows that got snubbed majorly this year were Stranger Things, The Americans, and Feud.
5. A good time! Tune in next year and lets get those ratings back up!