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The 2025 Emmys ended up being a nice night.
“Nice” isn’t juicy, but it’s also far from terrible.
First time winner Seth Rogen set this tone with his acceptance speech kicking off the evening. When he took home the expected Best Actor win for his showbiz comedy “The Studio,” rather than making a crass joke or political comment as one might expect, Rogen talked about how he’s never won anything in his life.
“I don’t know what to say – this is so nice!” he gushed.
That ended up being the theme of the ceremony.
Hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze and airing on CBS on Sunday, Sept. 14, the 2025 Emmys was a showdown between “The Pitt,” “Severance,” “The White Lotus” and “The Studio.”
Although it was a big night for “Severance,” “The Pitt,” and “The Studio,” no one show dominated; the Emmys spread the love across a wide swatch of winners, including those shows, “The Pitt,” “Hacks” and even shows like “Andor” and “Somebody Somewhere.”
“The Pitt” took the top prizes for “best drama” and “lead actor,” beating “Severance.” But, the latter show still got several respectable wins, like “lead actress” for Britt Lower and “supporting actor” for Tramell Tillman (who made history as the first Black man to win that category).
There were a slew of first-time winners in the big categories, including Wyle, Rogen, Lower, Tillman, “The Penguin” star Cristin Milioti and “Adolescence” star Owen Cooper (who also made history as the youngest male winner, at age 15).
The “best drama” actor race was a tense toss-up; while Wyle got the trophy, it was a bloodbath between him and “Severance” star Adam Scott. Pedro Pascal could have even taken it for “The Last of Us,” the winner was far from guaranteed.
Shockingly, the buzzy “The White Lotus” got largely shut out. It turns out the HBO vacation dramedy makes for good memes and behind the scenes gossip, but that doesn’t always translate to wins.
“SNL50: The Anniversary Special” won the Outstanding Variety Special – beating Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar (who were nominated for the Super Bowl and for the Beyonce Bowl).
As a first time host – and a comedian who isn’t a household name – Bargatze was a forgettable shrug of an emcee.
But he did the job fine enough, and didn’t bomb (like the 2024 Golden Globes host, Jo Koy).
At one point, he quipped, “A lot of people are wondering, why am I hosting?”
Well, at least he was self-aware. It was hard to disagree.
Bargatze’s main bit that he kept returning to was mildly creative, but got old.
On-screen, he showed how he plans to donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls club – but he said he planned to deduct $1,000 from that amount for any acceptance speech that goes on longer than the allotted 45 seconds.
“I know. It’s tough. It’s brutal. What are you gonna do, though? I can’t change it. This is a game I made up, and these are the rules,” he explained.
The ceremony wasn’t a total snooze, but nobody fell off the stage, fought or slapped anyone on live TV.
There were some deserved wins, a few surprises and amusing moments.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder both got expected wins for “Hacks,” continuing the trend of the Emmys showering that show with love.
“Severance” led the pack with 27 nominations, so unsurprisingly, it was a big night for the slick AppleTV+ thriller, with its wins including Tillman (who had the nice line, “My first acting coach was tough, but all great mothers are”) and Lower.
Jennifer Coolidge came onstage as a presenter, joking that she was hoping to be nominated for her apparent work on medical drama “The Pitt,” where she played, “a horny grandmother having a colonoscopy during a power outage.”
Alrighty then. At this point, Coolidge rambling on about something outlandish has become a mainstay at awards shows.
There were a few surprising wins, such as Jeff Hiller taking home the trophy for Supporting Actor in a Comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” a big upset over Ike Barinholtz for “The Studio,” Harrison Ford for “Shrinking” and Ebon Moss-Bachrach for “The Bear.”
Any of them would be a more expected win, but Hiller took home the prize, with a funny speech thanking HBO for putting a show about “sweaty middle aged” people on the same network that airs the “sexy teens” of “Euphoria.”
Adding to the “nice” atmosphere, in the middle of the show, Reba McEntire led a 40th anniversary tribute to “The Golden Girls” by singing that show’s theme song, “Thank You For Being a Friend,” joined by Little Big Town duo Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman.
It wasn’t a groundbreaking or sexy bit, but it was pleasant.
All in all, it wasn’t one for the books, but there were many deserved wins, enough surprises to keep things from getting boring and nothing too cringeworthy happening.
With awards shows, that’s all you can hope for.
English (US)