![\"Emmys](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789453809_333_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAs the fall equinox approached from a week away, the Primetime Emmy Awards made its 78th visit, leaving trophies in some hands, the honor of just being nominated for others and bupkes for the rest of the thousands who make what we call television. Once again I have been called to witness (from afar) and report, so let\u2019s get down to it.<\/p>\n
It was the turn of NBC (and Peacock) in the round robin of major networks who broadcast the show, and to keep things literally in-house it was hosted by Mariska Hargitay, \u201cAmerica\u2019s sweetheart sex cop Olivia Benson\u201d from the network\u2019s \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d and broadcast from the Peacock Theater, formerly the Microsoft Theater, formerly the Nokia in #DTLA, formerly downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
When reviewing the Emmys, or any awards show, as television in its own right, the only real questions are what distinguishes it from its many previous appearances on the karmic wheel of life \u2014 how it tricks up the basic, immutable form, like different decorations on the same sugar cookie recipe you have been using forever. Anything unexpectedly or especially moving, rousing, funny or strange, things that go against the grain of a production that wants to keep things controlled in order to bring the ship in on time.<\/p>\n
This year the critic has been given the gift of Hargitay, primarily a serious actor (and director and producer), following in a long line of comedians and comic actors. There have been other serious actors as host, for example, Raymond Burr in 1959, Tom Selleck in 1984 and Angela Lansbury in 1993. And certainly, if you\u2019re looking for someone to represent the medium rather than merely to comment on, celebrate or joke about it, you could do no better than Hargitay, the longest-serving actor on the longest-running prime-time live-action series on American TV. She\u2019s beautiful, glamorous, self-possessed. She was recently on Broadway in \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing,\u201d which involved a degree of what comedians call \u201ccrowd work,\u201d so standing up in front of a live audience of people no more famous than she wasn\u2019t going to throw her. Professional comedian Nate Bargatze, who hosted last year, was much more of a dark horse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emmys host Mariska Hargitay with singer Taylor Swift and her cat Olivia Benson on screen during a skit the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n
(Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Although I would have bet on a pre-filmed \u201cSpecial Victims Unit\u201d routine to open the show, which is why I\u2019m not a gambler, it wasn\u2019t until an hour in that it appeared. (It involved murder-style boards, concerning the Case of Whether Taylor Swift would be making an appearance; she did, in the bit.) The pre-filmed production number that did open the show began with Hargitay and her actual good friend New York Knick Jalen Brunson steaming their clothes when Hargitay suddenly realizes she is due across the country to host the show. This led to Joan Jett\u2019s \u201cI Love Rock \u2019N Roll\u201d reconceptualized as \u201cI Love TV Screens,\u201d which included the \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d sea hag revealed to be Jennifer Coolidge, bringing boba tea (rhymes with \u201cTV\u201d); other rhymes matched \u201ceating beef\u201d and \u201cwatching \u2018Beef\u2019\u201d and \u201cEd Gein\u201d and \u201cmean.\u201d It moved to the live stage, with Hargitay flanked by dancers with television heads. Both segments felt more effortful than funny, but not unfunny.<\/p>\n
On her own, however, Hargitay was above all a woman having a good time, never less than likable and game and enthusiastic, managing the scripted patter as well as anyone might have. Her monologue included several jokes about age, one about \u201cL&O\u201d producer Dick Wolf\u2019s real name (Richard Penis), and another about her inability to pronounce \u201cfinale\u201d because she\u2019d never been in one. As is practically an Emmys tradition, some of these were confusing (even to the people performing it), or went on too long (Nick Offerman, cornered at his table, describing his work as an erotic house painter), or just had the effect of having been put on their feet without much, if any, rehearsal. Presenting the final award, for outstanding comedy, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, told to stretch \u2014 the show was actually running short \u2014 described the plot of their upcoming Apple series, \u201cBrothers,\u201d until they were allowed to move on.<\/p>\n
As to what the Television Academy calls \u201ccreative elements,\u201d everything that isn\u2019t a presentation or a speech, they advertised tributes to the 30th anniversary of \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer,\u201d certainly a typo, and the 50th of \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels,\u201d a logical impossibility, but these were really just themed groupings of presenters \u2014 Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz in the former, Kate Jackson, Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith in the latter. (The Angels managed a few words for Farrah Fawcett, but none for Shelley Hack, Tanya Roberts or David Doyle.) But there were full tributes to Dolly Parton (Sally Field enthused, Reba McEntire sang); to James Burrows, with Jamie Lee Curtis pivoting emotionally to talk about old friend Rob Reiner, who won a posthumous guest appearance Emmy this year for \u201cThe Bear\u201d; and to Catherine O\u2019Hara, with her \u201cHome Alone\u201d child Macaulay Culkin and \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek\u201d children Annie Murphy and Dan Levy, who spoke to \u201chelping her build a TV character over the age of 60 that wears leather miniskirts and eight-inch heels and speaks in a strange, sometimes unintelligible transatlantic accent, and know that she will not scare an audience away.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there was Julianna Margulies presenting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to Michael J. Fox, who, in his usual way, was eloquent and funny, and let the people know about the goodness of Bob Hope, setting up a punchline in the bargain. Like a lot of you, I love Michael J. Fox, and I\u2019m just going to leave that here, with a pile of soaked-through tissues.<\/p>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789453809_754_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
John Mulaney stole the show as a presenter at the 78th Emmy Awards ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
But what America will mostly remember from this night was John Mulaney, introducing the award for lead actor in a drama, and burning the house down with a routine that went wherever it wanted. \u201cThey can play anything, these nominees. Not just doctors. They can play a cop or an FBI agent or a secret agent. And then that\u2019s it. No other examples.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the creation of television, men have been historically underrepresented,\u201d Mulaney said, explaining that the medium was all \u201cbeauty contests and children talking to hand puppets until the early \u201960s. Until a man walked out and said, \u2018Enough. My name is Fonzie and the president\u2019s been shot.\u2019\u201d Mulaney is a man who has convulsed crowds in arenas and stadiums, but, as a local, nothing made me laugh harder than the words, \u201cYou know, I was shooting down Barham last night at 90 miles an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing against Hargitay, but it\u2019s clear that Mulaney should host this show, and every awards show, from now on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the fall equinox approached from a week away, the Primetime Emmy Awards made its 78th visit, leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1426,6758,182798,71304,48,52,51,47,50,49,1555,118851,9355,592,182797,1860,4509,4610,315,4290,72],"class_list":["post-464201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angels","tag-award","tag-bob-hope-humanitarian-award","tag-john-mulaney","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-man","tag-mariska-hargitay","tag-order","tag-people","tag-serious-actor","tag-show","tag-television","tag-thing","tag-time","tag-tribute","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}