Sunday’s Emmy Awards had the usual mix of light-hearted moments and powerful speeches, along with some surprise wins in the acting categories. So if there’s one thing we should always remember about television’s biggest night, it’s this: What might seem predictable sometimes isn’t and that’s what makes this awards show worth watching.
Hear,Times writers share their favorite moments of the night,and one that perhaps shouldn’t be repeated.
Best standing ovation: Stephen Colbert
Table of Contents
- Best standing ovation: Stephen Colbert
- ‘Abbott Elementary’ Creator Quinta Brunson Urges TV Industry to Fight for ‘Radical Inclusion’
- The 2025 Emmy Awards: Moments of Triumph, Reflection,
- The 2025 Emmy
- The 2025 Emmy Awards:
- Worst countdown: That money clock
- The 2025 Emmy Awards: Highlights of a Night Filled with Emotion and Unexpected Moments
Television has the power to “broaden horizons, challenge the status quo and bend that arc of history, towards justice,” according to Lena Abrego, a Disney Television Studios executive. Her words resonated deeply at The Hollywood Reporter’s and the Los Angeles Times’ Emmy Nominees Party on Thursday night,as creatives grappled with balancing commercial pressures and increasing attacks on diversity initiatives.
Abrego implored those in the room to “champion that power and wield it responsibly,” emphasizing that “neutrality is not enough” in the current climate. She urged them to be “voices for connection, inclusion, empathy.”
Quinta Brunson, creator of the hit series “Abbott Elementary,” echoed this sentiment in her speech, calling for “radical inclusion” in the television industry.She argued that culture “doesn’t come from the top down. It rises from the bottom up.Culture belongs to the people. So if our industry is to thrive, we need to make room for more voices, not fewer.”
Best squeal of the night: Katherine LaNasa
## Katherine LaNasa’s Radiant Emmy Win
Katherine LaNasa’s radiant smile is contagious enough, but when she let out that girlish squeal after a clearly unexpected victory, I felt her excitement in my bones. Clearly so did LaNasa’s partner-in-care Noah Wyle, who looked just as proud to see the frist-time nominee up on the stage as he would end up scaling it an hour later.
Beating out “the White Lotus” actors was no small feat – especially considering the season-saving monologue from Carrie Coon – and that LaNasa delivered a fan-favorite performance while dancing her way through it between takes is all the more heartening.Hopefully the same nurses that LaNasa toasted to in her speech,those whose grit and gentleness are manifest in Dana Evans,will feel that thay are sharing in this win.
This one is also for the “Imposters” groupies, who know LaNasa should have gotten her flowers for embodying a tough maternal figure long ago. – Malia Mendez
## Best shout out to their mom: Tramell Tillman
The 2025 Emmy Awards: Moments of Triumph, Reflection,
## Britt Lower Finds a “Soulmate” in Her Emmy-Winning Role
Britt Lower of “Severance” after winning the Emmy for lead actress in a drama series: “It feels like getting to play this role within all of her layers has been a real kind of meeting of a soulmate.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles times)
First-time Emmy winner Britt Lower, star of “Severance,” thanked (one) of her characters in the drama series in her acceptance speech for “choosing” her. When she headed backstage to speak with reporters, she said she wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that.
“It feels like getting to play this role within all of her layers has been a real kind of meeting of a soulmate. Getting to walk through the world the way she does and see the world from her point of view has given me a lot of strength,” Lower told The Times of her dual role as Helly R./Helena Eagan.”I don’t k
The 2025 Emmy
The 2025 Emmy Awards:
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Michael Urie as he was preparing to attend the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
With a ceremony that spent time paying tribute to “Golden Girls” and “Gilmore Girls,” maybe it was fitting that in spending my afternoon with first-time nominee Michael Urienominated for his supporting role in Apple TV+’s “Shrinking,” I mentioned my love (and recent rewatch) of ABC’s mid-aughts primetime soap “Ugly Betty,” wich celebrates the 20th anniversary of its premiere next year. So you can imagine my excitement when Urie, who starred in the show, as he was getting into his plum-hued ensemble for the night, stopped to point out the “Ugly Betty” Season 4 wrap gift he had in tow: A medium-sized sling bag with a patch reading “UBS4” adhered to its side, commemorating the season.
“I just realized that I’ve had it all these years,” he says, stopping to give me a tour of the weathered black bag. “It’s the greatest bag I’ve ever had and over the years I’ve tried to phase it out, and I’ve gotten other bags, but they don’t make it like this one — and this one survives.”
It gets us on the topic of reboots — and my hesitation with Hollywood’s proclivity to try to recapture lightning in a bottle.
“The further we get from it, the less I would be interested,” he says. “I mean, we all would, of course, do it if they want us to do a revival. And we talk about it every year, but the further we get, the more I don’t know. I just don’t see how you could get those characters back in the same dynamics.”
Could Marc St.James, the loyal and snarky assistant to top high-fashion magazine creative director Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), who Urie perfectly portrayed, be a big shot editor these days? When the series ended in 2010, Wilhelmina becomes editor-in-chief, with marc remaining by her side.
“You’d have to figure out some way to get him back under Wilhelmina,” he says. “And I’m too old to be running around to as an assistant.” — Yvonne Villarreal
Worst countdown: That money clock
The 2025 Emmy Awards: Highlights of a Night Filled with Emotion and Unexpected Moments
The 77th Primetime Emmy awards, held on Sunday, delivered a compelling blend of heartfelt moments, powerful speeches, and surprising victories, reaffirming its status as television’s moast prestigious celebration. as always, the evening proved that predictions can be overturned, making for a truly captivating broadcast