‘Hacks’ Beat ‘The Bear,’ ‘Shogun’ Changed the Rules of the Game

The 'Hacks' cast and crew at the 2024 Emmys. — The ‘Hacks’ cast and crew at the 2024 Emmys. Leon Bennett/WireImage

At the 76th Emmys, both last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremonies and Sunday night’s Primetime ceremony — two shows, both from Disney’s resurgent FX division, had record-breaking hauls.

The limited-turned-drama series Shōgun earned 18 prizes, more than any other show in a single cycle; and the second season of The Bear snagged 11, surpassing by one its own record for most wins by a comedy in a single cycle.

The Bear had incredible wins–for directing (Christopher Storer, for the off-the-wall “Fishes” episode) and three for its regulars (actor Jeremy Allen White and supporting actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach for the second consecutive year, plus supporting actress Liza Colón-Zayas), but it still came up short for best comedy.

Shocking Upset

The two shows had never gone head-to-head before: the first two seasons of Hacks lost to the first two seasons of Ted Lasso, whereas Hacks was off the air last year when The Bear was in the running for the first time.)

There’s obviously a lot of love for Hacks, which also beat out The Bear for best comedy actress (Jean Smart, who also won the prize for the show’s two prior seasons, topped Ayo Edebiri, who last cycle won best comedy supporting actress) and best comedy writing.

Hacks, which previously won for its first season, was probably helped this cycle by the fact that The Bear had two nominees in the category.

HBO, the outside agency that it retained to help with this season’s Hacks awards campaign and the talent associated with Hacks emphasized on the campaign trail just how hard it is to make a comedy about comedy.

Shōgun

Shōgun was initially intended to be a limited series, but went over so well with critics and viewers that additional seasons were ordered, turning it into drama series.

It made Emmts history not only in its total wins, but in becoming the first largely non-English-language TV show ever to be crowned best drama.

This Emmys may well be remembered for that more than anything else–as historic turning point, like the 2020 Oscars ceremony at which Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win best picture.

Shōgun also won prizes for drama directing and both lead actor and lead actress. And yet, once again, there is reason to believe that this was not the result of lazy coattail voting, because the show also lost the prizes for drama supporting actor (its two nominees were beaten by Billy Crudup of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show) and writing (Slow Horses prevailed, perhaps in part because Shōgun had multiple nominees that divided its support).

It had no nominees for supporting actress, which The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki won, as she had done at every other major awards show over the past year.

Netflix’s limited series Baby Reindeer, a personal and painful autobiographical rollercoaster written by and starring the unknown Richard Gadd.

Initially, not even the streamer itself considered the show to be a major Emmys priority, but Baby Reindeer accumulated a massive audience, sparked cultural conversations and became an unstoppable force (despite the best efforts of the real woman who helped to inspire the program).

In the end, it topped formidable competition to win best limited/anthology series, writing (Gadd), actor (Gadd) and supporting actress (Jessica Gunning).

Three of Baby Reindeer’s four competitors for best limited/anthology series also won major prizes.

Limited/anthology directing was won by Steven Zaillian, helmer of another stunning Netflix project, Ripley, over Baby Reindeer’s Weronika Tofilska.

Supporting actor was won by Lamorne Morris, star of FX’s Fargo, over Baby Reindeer’s Tom Goodman-Hill. And lead actress was won by Jodie Foster, star of HBO’s True Detective: Night Country.

Comedy Central continues to dominate the talk series category. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won at Sunday’s ceremony, the first since Stewart’s return to the program. While Stewart’s Monday night appearances have been great, the show would not have prevailed over formidable competition — The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Night With Seth Meyers — if the other hosts had not held their own the other nights of the week, and had not doing some of the campaigning that Stewart refuses to do.

The Daily Show also won last year, for Trevor Noah’s last season in the anchor chair, but prior to that it had not been recognized since 2015, the last time Stewart hosted.

Emmy Awards 2024: ‘Hacks’ Beat ‘The Bear,’ ‘Shogun’ Changed the Rules of the Game

‘Hacks’ Beat ‘The Bear,’ ‘Shogun’ Changed the Rules of the Game

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