by Sir Elton John completed a clean sweep of the awards on Monday night, adding an Emmy to his Grammy, Oscar and Tony gongs on a great night for British entertainers at the prestigious US TV awards.
Succession scooped the evening’s top awards for best drama, best actor and best actress – with Brits Matthew Macfadyen and writer Jesse Armstrong winning best supporting actor and best writer for a drama series about instead.
Armstrong said: “This is a show about family, but it’s also about when partisan news coverage is intertwined with divisive right-wing politics, and after four seasons of satire, as I understand it, it’s a problem we’ve now fixed.
“We are very honored, we would love to do this show.”
The hit drama in the United States, about siblings at war over their father’s billion dollar media empire, won a total of six awards.
Kieran Culkin was fatherly as he accepted the award for best lead actor in a drama series, using his speech to announce that he would like more children with his wife, Jazz Charton.
“You said maybe if I win, I love you so much,” he said.
Culkin’s co-star Sarah Snook also used the moment to celebrate parenthood.
“The biggest thank you, I think, though, is to someone who won’t understand anything I’m saying right now, but I carried her last season and she really carried me,” a said Mr. Young. An Australian actress, who was pregnant with her daughter during the filming of the show.
She joked: “It’s very easy to act when you’re pregnant because you have raging hormones.”
The show’s creator and director, British screenwriter Jesse Armstrong, won best writing for a drama series and thanked the “creative community in the US”.
“I’m from the UK and the show is about things that are close to the heart of American life and politics and we’ve always had generosity and good faith and it’s part of the American tradition to be very welcoming to outsiders and it’s very welcome nice,” he said.
“And, for some reason, the name of Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch comes to mind. I can’t speak for him but I’m very grateful for the generosity I’ve been shown working in this country – it was very sad to end this show but it was a great pleasure.”
Kitchen drama The Bear created a storm with four major wins including best comedy. Jeremy Allen White won the Emmy for lead actor in a comedy series, while co-stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri won best supporting actor in their respective competitions.
Moss-Bachrach shared a cheeky kiss on stage with chef Matty Matheson who said: “I love restaurants”.
Christopher Storer The Bear won two Emmys for best directing and best writing for a comedy series, but he couldn’t make it to the ceremony.
Elton John misses ceremony for bullying
Elton Live: Farewell to Dodger Stadium won best live variety at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles – but the British pop icon was unable to take the honor after undergoing a knee operation.
Producer Ben Winston, who collected the award on his behalf, said: “I’m not Elton John, unfortunately he was oppressed. It’s fine but he wanted to send his love and thanks to the Television Academy for this incredible award.
“We knew this show would be historic, as it was going to be Elton’s last ever show in North America on tour. We knew it would be historic because it was Disney’s first global live stream.
“We didn’t know it was going to be historic because it was going to beat a man – who created the soundtrack to our lives, he did so much for society who are all heroes. We didn’t know he would win an EGOT.”
The award joins Sir Elton’s five Grammy wins, two Academy Awards for Can You Feel The Love Tonight from The Lion King and (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again from Rocketman, along with his Tony Award for best original score for the musical Aida . .
Funny beef women and White Lotus get serious for a moment
Netflix comedy drama Beef also took home plenty of gongs with stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong winning lead actor and actress in a limited series respectively.
Wong said: “I wouldn’t be standing here without my amazing parents, my mum and dad who I wish were alive to share this moment with me. My funny dad who loved me unconditionally and taught me the value of failure.”
Creator and director Lee Sung Jin made three speeches, also picking up best writing and directing of a limited series.
He said: “There’s a lot of suicidal ideation in the show, it was based on things that myself and some of the people here have struggled with over the years, so I’m really grateful and humbled to anyone who watched the show. and when they reached out about their own personal struggles, it’s very life-affirming.
“I feel like we live in a world designed to keep us apart, even here some of us go home with trophies, others don’t, and I think for some of us when we live in a world like this you start to think. there is no way anyone can understand you, or like you, or much less love you.
“And so the greatest joy of working on Beef has been working with the people here who I love unconditionally.”
Elsewhere, White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge won best supporting actress in a drama series, using her speech to thank “all the bad gay people” – a reference to the hit show’s plot.
“I had a little dream in my little town and it happened after all, so don’t give up on your dream,” she said.
An emotional Niecy Nash-Betts won best supporting actress in a limited series for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
“Finally, I accept this award on behalf of all black and brown women who are still over-policed - like Glenda Cleveland, Sandra Bland, like Breonna Taylor,” she said.
“As an artist, my job is to speak truth to power and to a child I will do it until the day I die – Grandma won!”
The Emmy for best supporting actor in a limited series went to Paul Walter Hauser for Black Bird, the actor rapping his acceptance speech as he dedicated the award to his wife “who makes my heart strong and my knees weak.”
Also at the ceremony Charlie Puth performed the theme song for Friends as the Emmy Awards remembered those who died in the industry, including star Matthew Perry.
Murder, She Wrote Dame star Angela Lansbury, Euphoria’s Angus Cloud and Strictly Come Dancing’s Len Goodman were also remembered, along with Pee Wee Herman star Paul Reubens.
