If I’m being honest, my metric for whether or not the 2021 Emmy Awards were going to be a success rested on whether or not Michaela Coel took home an award for her deeply affecting limited series, I May Destroy You. Up until the moment she did win—two hours and 20 minutes into the broadcast—it felt as if the Emmys were stuck in the cognitive dissonance between championing diversity and being unable to actually showcase it. Host Cedric the Entertainer and DJ Reggie Watts presented a suave, sleek event broken up with comedic bits that, heaven help me, actually made me laugh. Jason Alexander, Scott Bakula, and Alyson Hannigan did a faux roundtable out of never winning Emmys. The cast of Schitt’s Creek improv-ed their way through two category presentations. Jennifer Coolidge drawled sarcastic appreciation for the challenges men face in the industry. Host Cedric the Entertainer even talked some actual shit about the royal family, which created a fascinating array of facial expressions from the British performers. And it helped that Conan O’Brien, sitting at a nominees’ table, took it upon himself to make a bit out of the introduction to Debbie Allen’s governor’s award—and then ran onstage to “accept his award” during Stephen Colbert’s acceptance speech.
But if the nominations and attendees represented diversity, the winners didn’t. The Emmys heavily favored certain marquee shows—almost entirely led by white performers with intriguing accents. It was the night of Ted Lasso, The Crown, and Mare of Easttown, even as the show drew in numerous racially diverse performers to do comedic bits and present awards. It was as if the show was designed to counterprogram the beloved but not terribly imaginative winners list.
Generally, I liked the broadcast. After so much social distancing, seeing well-dressed beautiful people laugh at each other’s jokes feels like a balm, especially when they seem to really like working together. But other moments sent seriously mixed signals, such as when Kerry Washington introduced supporting actor in a drama, for which the recently deceased Michael K. Williams was nominated for Lovecraft Country. Nothing is exactly wrong with the fact that the Television Academy preferred Tobias Menzies to Williams’ performance, but the moment soured quickly as Washington explained that Menzies wasn’t present to accept his award. It was, of course, an unnerving reprisal of this year’s Oscars, when an absent Anthony Hopkins won over the posthumous nomination of Chadwick Boseman. Both moments failed to put language to the tragedy of the Black actors’ early deaths, and therefore missed an opportunity to describe what those actors’ performances meant to the audiences that loved them. Instead of being moments that knit the industry together, I felt I was being shown how hard it is to overcome the entrenched barriers in Hollywood.
The telecast Sunday night suggested that the Television Academy wants to be something different, but is still figuring out how. So the moments where performers stood up for each other felt especially powerful—like when winner Olivia Colman added a profane shoutout to Coel, Hacks cast member Carl Clemons-Hopkins gave Allen a standing ovation, and Hannah Waddingham bowed to fellow Emmy-winner RuPaul Charles. During the interminable period where awards shows were all done over Zoom, it was hard to remember why we watch these trumped up industry parties. But the Emmys—which, due to ongoing concerns about the pandemic, had its main party in Los Angeles with a satellite function in London—was a bittersweet reminder that being in the same room lets the members of this industry support each other personally, even as they struggle to change the industry itself.
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