Succession, Ted Lasso top Emmys 2022, first timers shine

ANI

Succession and Ted Lasso topped the Emmy Awards on Monday, in a ceremony in Los Angeles that touted the influence of TV and extended honours to Squid Game and winners who delivered messages of empowerment. The evening’s uplifting tone, as voiced especially by Zendaya, Lizzo and Sheryl Lee Ralph, was in contrast to the darkness that pervaded the storytelling of best drama series winner Succession and even comedy series victor Ted Lasso.

“Thanks for making such a safe space to make this very difficult show,” said Zendaya, claiming her second best drama actress award for Euphoria, about a group of teens’ tough coming-of-age. Succession, about a media empire run by a grasping and cutthroat family, split drama series honours with Squid Game, a South Korean-set global sensation about the idle rich turning the poor into entertainment fodder.

Lee Jung-jae of Squid Game, who played the show’s moral centre, became the first Asian to win the Emmy for best drama series actor.

“Thank you for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen,” Lee said to Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who earned the Emmy for best drama series directing. In Korean, Lee thanked the audience in his native country for watching.

Jason Sudeikis and Jean Smart collected back-to-back acting trophies, but several new Emmy winners were minted, with Lizzo and Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph of Abbott Elementary collecting trophies.

Sudeikis won his second consecutive trophy for playing the unlikely US coach of a British soccer team in the comedy Ted Lasso, with Smart matching that haul for her role as a veteran comedian in Hacks. There was a ripple of reaction in the theatre when Succession creator Jesse Armstrong mentioned Britain’s newly crowned Princes Charles III in accepting the show’s trophy, the cast standing alongside him.

“Big week for successions, new king in the UK, this for us. Evidently a little bit more voting involved in our winning than Prince Charles,” Armstrong said. —AP

HALL OF FAME Full List of Emmy 2022 Winners

• Best Drama Series—Succession (HBO)
• Best Comedy Series—Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
• Best Limited or Anthology Series—The White Lotus (HBO)
• Lead Actor in Drama Series—Lee Jung-Jae (Squid Game)
• Lead Actress in a Drama Series— Zendaya (Euphoria)
• Lead Actor in a Comedy Series—Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso)
• Lead Actress in a Comedy Series—Jean Smart (Hacks)
• Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie—Michael Keaton (Dopesick)
• Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie—Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout)
• Supporting Actor in a Drama Series—Matthew Macfadyen (Succession)
• Supporting Actress in a Drama Series—Julia Garner (Ozark)
• Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso)
• Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series—Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary) —