Yahoo News Emmys: The Ovations, Flubs and Everything Else the Cameras Missed
On Monday evening, the biggest names in television — and Anthony Anderson’s mom, Doris — congregated at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater for the 2023 Emmy Awards. But with so many A-listers on hand, the cameras could only catch so much for viewers at home. Here’s what they missed:
— It appears that that capital T talent has been velvet curtained from the countless plebes (cough, cough, writers and executives) desperately trying to get a drink in the Peacock lobby. There are several exceptions. White Lotus nominee F. Murray Abraham — not canceled for everybody — stops for multiple selfies before making his way into the theater.
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— And, since last we Emmy’d in this building (RIP Microsoft theater!), they’ve installed those no-check out snack stations where they just KNOW what you take, like the airport bodegas or those apocalyptic Amazon Fresh supermarkets. Succession director (and, later, Emmy winner) Mark Mylod, terminally polite, takes a minute to grasp the concept, looking both ways before slowly exiting like an amateur thief.
— Whether it’s because they’re the most populist attendees or, more likely, the most conspicuously dressed, the competitors from RuPaul’s Drag Race clog up the left Orchestra pathway with screams from fans and pleas for selfies. As is any Drag Queen’s want, they oblige! (But, seriously, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons need to find their seats… )
— Ten minutes before showtime, we get our first Mama Doris appearance. She advises winners on how to ascend the stage and the importance of brevity in their acceptance speeches and does so in under the 45-second limit. “If you go over; you’re going to have to deal with me!” (Early winner Jennifer Coolidge found this out the hard way.)
— Thirteen minutes into the telecast and already three standing ovations — is this a European film festival? And not that we’re ranking them, but Christina Applegate’s was slightly slow to start, Carol Burnett’s was immediate and Quinta Brunson’s was maybe 70 percent of the room.
— Maybe blame the overwhelmingly white crowd, but the Martin reunion is the first to fall a tad flat with the room. The jokes didn’t land, except for Tichina Arnold’s. She can deliver even the lamest of lines with absolute brilliance.
— Since the Coolidge interruption, Mama Doris becomes consciously absent — even for longer speeches. There was definitely a little bristling in the room when the Queen of funny speeches — remember the 2022 Emmys!? — is seemingly censored. John Oliver only brings her back when he challenges her by listing off Liverpool FC’s starting 11. She seems a little less enthusiastic in her beckoning him off.
— The number of standing ovations at this point, not an HOUR into the telecast, is maddening. But Marla Gibbs gets the largest and longest since Burnett. Let’s maybe save these for our nonagenarians icons… or Niecy Nash-Betts, the only person to get the room to jump to their feet AFTER her speech.
— People freaking SCREAMED when Katherine Heigl came out. Like, legit “you get a car!” response from at least 10 women.
— The Bear creator Christopher Storer is a no-show as his FX “comedy” continues to clean up, and he, personally, wins two awards — and counting. Upside: it bought back some time for the show’s producers, who have clearly rethought the Mama Doris plan. According to Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Storer is home with Covid.
— Rather than listen to whatever it was that newly minted Emmy winner Trevor Noah had to say, many audience members were trying to figure out what it was that Roy Wood Jr. was mouthing from stage behind him. If Twitter (sorry, X) is to be believed, he was mouthing, “Please hire a host.” (If you need a primer, the former correspondent took himself out of contention to replace Noah once the very public casting search dragged on — and on and on).
— In a night of too many standing ovations, perhaps nobody jumped to their feet faster than the gay men of RuPaul’s Drag Race when Taraji P. Henson and Joan Collins took the stage. Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews almost launched themselves into the rafters before the two women were even visible.
— And that’s it. Everyone began flooding out, off to the many parties as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Speech” played from stage.
See the full list of 2023 Emmy winners here.
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