Best and Worst Moments From the 2025 Emmy Awards

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony took place in Los Angeles on Sunday night, and whatever its limitations as a television program — and there were limitations! — the awards themselves injected some novelty into the proceedings.

The big series prizes went to new shows, with “The Pitt” winning best drama and “The Studio” best comedy. “Adolescence” dominated the limited series category. Most of the acting awards went to first-time winners, including Hollywood veterans like Seth Rogen and Noah Wyle, as well as Owen Cooper, who at 15 was the youngest male Emmy winner in history. Another first-time winner was arguably the sentimental favorite of the night: “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which was named top talk show a couple of months after CBS announced that it was canceling the show.

Along the way there were good speeches, bad writing and at least one overlong gimmick. Here were the best and worst moments of the night. — JEREMY EGNER

Nate Bargatze — a hot standup comedian who came off surprisingly stiff on an awards stage — opened the evening with a stunt to keep winners’ acceptance speeches on time: He pledged $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, but every time someone went long, money would be deducted.

As a one-off joke, it might have worked. Stretched out over three hours, it depreciated like a bad investment, becoming less funny over time while continually popping up to distract us from the emotion of the speeches we tune in to watch in the first place. Did anyone doubt that Bargatze and CBS would make the donation whole in the end? (They did, and then some.) It was the audience who paid the price. — JAMES PONIEWOZIK

Best Delightful Upset: Jeff Hiller for ‘Somebody Somewhere’

Fans of the HBO comedy “Somebody Somewhere” must have been delighted when Jeff Hiller received a surprise Emmy nomination for best supporting actor for the series’ third and final season. As Joel, a sympathetic and supportive friend to Bridget Everett’s Sam, he had a great sense of humor and was a beacon of wholesome joy — and constant giggling. But few thought he would actually win. So when he did, his moment in the sun was just as pure as fans of the series could have wished.

“I feel like I’m going to cry because for the past 25 years, I have been like, ‘World, I want to be an actor!’” he said. “And the world was like, ‘Maybe computers.’”

Sure, Harrison Ford, who had never won an Emmy (and has never won an Oscar), was a favorite for his role as a celebrated cognitive behavioral therapist in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ series “Shrinking.” But he still has had a nice career — and at least another season of “Shrinking” to play with. — SARAH BAHR

Worst Rambling: Jennifer Coolidge

Tanya McQuoid died … for this? Jennifer Coolidge is a delectable screen presence and a fun, kooky addition to almost any awards show. Except for this one.

Coolidge, a two-time winner for “The White Lotus,” came onstage this year to present the award for best actress in a comedy. Like her gown, her mood was both funereal and ruffled. In a shambolic speech, she detoured toward “The Pitt” and a colonoscopy before landing on the premise that winning is not all it’s cracked up to be. She joked that after her win, her fellow nominees deleted her from a group chat and went to Ibiza without her.

“The only reason I knew that was because Elizabeth Debicki and I have the same Ozempic dealer,” she said. “At least hers is working.” Winning the Emmy, she said, may have been the worst thing that ever happened to her. Then she gave the award to the seven-time winner Jean Smart, who seemed to feel differently. — ALEXIS SOLOSKI

Best Thank-You: Tramell Tillman to His Mother

Tramell Tillman, it must be said, did not dance. But Tillman, a first-time Emmy winner for his breakout role as an uptight office manager in the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” did deliver one of the best speeches of the night — a tight, poignant speech that also fit within the allotted 45-second window.

With a fitting combination of emotion and Milchick-like precision, Tillman, who won for his much-expanded role in Season 2, devoted most of his speech to his mother, who was in the audience. “Mama, you were there for me when no one else was and no one else would show up,” said Tillman. “Your loving kindness stays with me.” — SARAH BAHR

Best Happy Scream: Cristin Milioti

For years, the actress Cristin Milioti has been a standout presence on shows as varied as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Fargo,” “Made for Love” and “Black Mirror.” Now she has her first Emmy, for playing Sofia Falcone, a crime family matriarch in the HBO limited series “The Penguin.”

In a night of few memorable acceptance speeches, Milioti stood out for her unrehearsed exuberance, which was admittedly not very “Penguin”-like. Her speech, she said, was written on the back of her notes from therapy. (This was a big night for notes, with Britt Lower having scribbled, “Let me out,” on the back of her own speech, a reference to one of her “Severance” characters.)

Milioti thanked her family “for supporting your strange kid and showing me movies that were very inappropriate for my age,” she said. She went on to thank her colleagues before closing, arm raised and mouth wide open in joy, with “I love you, and I love acting so much!” — ALEXIS SOLOSKI

We watch the Emmys for the favorites, the surprises, the suspiciously robust hairlines, the red carpet couture. As any TV writer can tell you, almost no one enjoys it for the writing. But this year, even the teleprompters must have been cringing.

Presenters such as Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai were cued to utter platitudes like “It’s been said that the key to writing a great drama is for the writer to craft every scene with a perfect blend and balance to the action, the dialogue and the narrative.” Yikes.

As host, Bargatze looked surprisingly uncomfortable in his scripted moments, and most of the bits that were meant to be comic weren’t. Or at least not after the first joke. Presenting the award for writing for a limited series, Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn did a gag in which they asked to turn the teleprompter off. Then they flailed. Honestly? It didn’t sound much different. — ALEXIS SOLOSKI

Best Parting Words: Stephen Colbert

Colbert still appeared early to present the comedy lead actor award, jokingly asking, “Is anyone hiring?” When his “Late Show” won the talk category — as much a show of solidarity as a victory over its competitors — he got the loudest cheers of the night.

And rather than burn the place down, he went with graciousness and a recognition of the fraught political moment (which at least some observers blamed for his program’s ending): “I have never loved my country more desperately.” The room loved him just as much. — JAMES PONIEWOZIK

Best Historic Win: Owen Cooper

“I was nothing about three years ago,” said Owen Cooper, 15, who became the youngest male performer to win an acting Emmy, for the Netflix hit “Adolescence.” “I’m here now.”

Cooper’s was the most memorable win in a night full of them for “Adolescence.” The British mini-series took home eight of the 13 awards it was nominated for, including best limited series, actor (Stephen Graham), supporting actress (Erin Doherty), directing (Philip Barantini) and writing (Graham and Jack Thorne).

Cooper won for supporting actor in a limited series for his role as a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate. On the Emmy stage, he delivered an affecting acceptance speech that spoke to the commitment he brought to his performance.

“If you’re listening, you’re focusing, you just step out of your comfort zone a little bit — who cares if you get embarrassed?” he said. “Anything can be possible.” — SARAH BAHR