Primetime Emmy Awards: Succession, The Bear & Beef dominate

Last Updated on January 24, 2024

Another edition of the Primetime Emmys is in the books, and Succession, The Bear and Beef cleaned up, earning almost every award they were nominated for in their respective categories. It’s crazy to think, but the nominees were announced way back in July, as the ceremony was postponed from September all the way until now due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Succession has taken home the Emmy for Best Drama Series every year it’s been nominated in, except the first season. To note, the (many) awards The Bear won tonight were for its first season rather than its even more acclaimed second season, which aired on Hulu after the cut-off for Emmy consideration. Just last night, The Bear won a whole raft of awards at the CCA’s for season 2, so expect them to be right back on the Emmy stage before long. 

Meanwhile, Ted Lasso was shut out after winning Best Comedy for its first two seasons, with many noting that the third (and presumably final) season didn’t measure up to the others in terms of quality. On another note, it was nice to see Kieran Culkin win an Emmy for Succession, as his performance is often overlooked in favor of Jeremy Strong’s, but as anyone can tell you, this season belonged to Roman. The only sad thing is that Better Call Saul, despite many (many) Emmy nominations over the years, ends its run Emmyless. In some ways, stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn were so good that they almost made their work seem effortless, which it certainly was not. Then again, I expect both to go on to other huge shows, and Odenkirk may win a guest star Emmy next year for his appearance on The Bear last season.

Here are all the winners: 

Best Drama Series
Succession

Best Comedy Series
The Bear

Limited or Anthology Series
Beef

Lead Actress in Drama Series:
Sarah Snook: Succession

Lead Actor In A Drama Series
Kieran Culkin: Succession

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Jeremy Allen White: The Bear

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:
Quinta Brunson: Abbott Elementary

Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Steven Yeun: Beef

Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Ali Wong: Beef

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series:
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Ebon Moss-Bachrach: The Bear

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Matthew Macfadyen: Succession

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Jennifer Coolidge: The White Lotus

Supporting Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series or TV movie:
Niecy Nash-Betts: Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie:
Paul Walter Hauser: Black Bird

Scripted Variety Series
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Reality-Competition Program:
RuPaul’s Drag Race

Writing For A Comedy Series:
Christopher Storer: The Bear – “System”

Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series
Christopher Storer: The Bear – “Review”

Outstanding Talk Series
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah

Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Directing For A Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Lee Sung Jin: Beef – “Figures of Light”

Writing For A Drama Series
Jesse Armstrong: Succession

Writing for a Limited Series:
Lee Sung Jin: Beef – “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”

Directing for a Drama Series
Mark Mylod: Succession – “Connor’s Wedding”

Outstanding Variety Special (Live)
Elton John: Farewell from Dodger Stadium

For the record, I think FX should submit The Bear as a drama series next year. As much as I love it (and it’s my favourite thing on TV), is it really a comedy? Maybe you could say the first season was, but the second season is way more of a drama.