Rhea Seehorn's speech was the 2026 Emmy telecast in microcosm. On the one hand, here was the star of Pluribus, who had somehow not won an Emmy at any point for her brilliant work on Better Call Saul — a Hall of Fame show that infamously holds the record for most nominations without an Emmy win — finally getting her deserved moment on the stage, in what felt as much a makeup award for her work as Albuquerque's best lawyer Kim Wexler as for how incredible she is as world's greatest misanthrope Carol Sturka on Pluribus. And on the other hand, the show's producers kept telling the orchestra to play her off the stage before her speech was finished.
Alan Sepinwall
Why did the producers do this to Seehorn? Apparently, they wanted to be sure the show stayed tight. Which meant that the two-odd hours that followed were filled with bad production numbers and protracted and unfunny comedy bits. And even with all that padding, it turned out the show came in so short on time that final presenters Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey — unsurprisingly baked — were asked to vamp for as long as possible before presenting the night's final award, where Widow's Bay won Outstanding Comedy Series.
So we had a show that featured wonderful first-time winners like Seehorn, the great Stephen Root (with only his second nomination ever in a career that included him reading passages aloud from the memoir Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler), Widow's Bay director Hiro Murai (who technically has shared two producing Emmys, but never won before for directing, despite being behind the camera on both Atlanta and Station Eleven), Kate O'Flynn, Widow's Bay creator Katie Dippold, and Tom Pelphrey from Task. And even many of the people who had won Emmys before — some, like Hacks star Jean Smart and The Diplomat co-star Allison Janney, had won many many Emmys before — made return trip to the stage in recognition of terrific work. Some gave good speeches, all seemed to enjoy — or at least be stunned by — their moment. Widow's Bay dominated the comedy categories. (Smart's victory came in the one category for which the Apple horror comedy wasn't nominated tonight.) But voters spread the wealth in the drama and limited series categories more than they had in recent ceremonies, which have been plagued by party line voting where one show apiece wins all the trophies for each genre.
But we also had a show with terrible production choice after terrible production choice, a host in Mariska Hargitay who suggested that "game for anything" isn't automatically the best trait for a performer, and an attitude that, even more than usual, suggested that the people making the Emmys would rather be doing literally anything other than showing people accepting awards for their work on television.
Alan Sepinwall