On Sept. 15, the 78th Emmy Awards drew everyone back to their forgotten Peacock subscriptions to watch TV’s biggest night. The show was hosted by Mariska Hargitay, who has played Olivia Benson in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” for the past 27 seasons, with a 28th season set to air in early October. She is also the first woman to host the Emmy Awards in 15 years, which she joked about in her opening monologue, saying, “Imagine — for 15 straight years, Amy and Tina said no,” gently emphasizing how absurd it is that no other woman has hosted in over a decade. Although her quips mostly related to her time on SVU, that did not stop Hargitay from being a very engaging host. She played with the audience — “it’s so reassuring to see so many familiar faces… and I’m just talking about how many of you I’ve arrested on SVU” — and gave a sincere speech about the value of people sharing human-made creativity. She then ended that speech with an entertaining reenactment of Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theaters opening to lighten the energy before the awards were handed out.

This year’s Emmys were not overly surprising — there were no major upsets among the winners, no tragic snubs — though the nominations of “Only Murders in the Building” season 5 for outstanding comedy were a surprise [read The Justice review to see why]. However, an overall uneventful lineup left room for many big achievements and small moments from the winners. These are the highlights. 

At the top of first-time occurrences is Jean Smart winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy for “Hacks.” Smart had won this category in four previous years, and she is now the first actress to win the award for every year of a show’s run. Although “Hacks” did not eke out the Outstanding Comedy Series win, even after breaking the record for most nominations for a comedy show in one year, Smart’s fifth Outstanding Lead Actress win for the show’s fifth season is a remarkable achievement. During her speech, Smart joked that everyone was standing and applauding not because she was “that good,” but because “she’s old” — clearly, the Television Academy voters disagree.

Matthew Rhys also made this Emmy Awards a night to remember, winning both the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for “The Beast in Me” and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for “Widows Bay.” Not only was Rhys the first male performer to win two Outstanding Lead Actor awards on the same night, but when added to his Lead Actor in a Drama Series win from 2018, Rhys is also the first to have a Lead Actor win in all three of the Emmys’ biggest categories. His charm and humility shone brightly as he accepted each award. 

“Widows Bay” swept the comedy category this year, taking not only Rhys’ award for Outstanding Lead Actor but also the awards for Guest Actress, Supporting Actress, Casting, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Directing, Cinematography, Writing and Outstanding Comedy Series. This is a more than promising start to the eerie comedy show, and the second season is already in pre-production. Based on the number of thanks that writer Kattie Dippold received from the actors, there are more spooky stories to come. 

While the comedy series awards were primarily awarded to newcomers, the drama series awards were more equally distributed. “Pluribus,” another first-season show, received 18 nominations and won several awards at the Creative Arts Emmys a few days before the main event. Rhea Seehorn, the show’s lead, took her deserved win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. Vince Gilligan also received his first individual Emmy win for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for “Pluribus.” “Slow Horses” won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, its only win for this year. “The Pitt” was the star of the drama scene, with 25 nominations and six wins this year. Noah Wyle won Outstanding Actor for the second year in a row, saying, “This is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join; thank you for accepting me” while clutching his award. The show also won “Outstanding Drama Series” for its second year in a row. 

Some other notable wins include “DTF St. Louis” for Outstanding Limited or Anthology series, “Remarkably Bright Creatures” for Outstanding Movie, with Sally Field winning Outstanding Lead Actress for the same movie. “The Traitors” won Outstanding Reality Competition, which was not very striking until Alan Cummings finished his acceptance speech with a plea for Americans to go out and vote. “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which was cancelled by CBS in May, won Outstanding Variety Series. As Colbert stood at the microphone with his team, his deep love for the show his team created was more evident than his anger that it was over — and he told all the studio executives to hire the people they’d fired by ending his show. “The Muppet Show” anniversary special also won for Outstanding Variety Special (pre-recorded) and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special — maybe all the fanfare will make Disney consider rebooting the original. 

The Emmys are not just about the awards being handed out, however. Every year there are at least two pre-recorded pieces: one to start the show, and one skit in the middle. This year’s middle skit was surprisingly funny, as Hargitay and some of the SVU team put together clues to see if Taylor Swift would appear at the Emmys. They make references to her albums and songs, literally tying them back to the titles and actors of different nominees, before the rookie detective — played by Swift herself — points the team in the direction of the football game happening the same night, and how she probably would not be missing the Chiefs game for the Emmys. 

The opening music number was less charming. This year, the Emmys wrote a remix of “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, instead changing the words to “I love TV screens.” While the references to the many nominees and the cameo from Jalen Brunson are entertaining, listening to the chorus “I love TV screens” while a group of dancers performed with large TVs on their heads felt dystopian. Where last year’s Emmys sketch blatantly called out how streaming was unfair to the consumer, it is hard to tell if this year’s music video is being ironic or purposefully pushing for people to “love” their TV screens more. When paired with Hargitay’s speech about the importance of human creativity, the primary message of the 78th Emmys seems to be one thing: Stay human, but don’t stop watching your screen.