Emmys 2018: The Snubs, Surprises, and Marriage Proposals of TV’s Biggest Night

The 70th annual Primetime Emmy Awards were a show that didn’t quite live up to the grandeur of their anniversary year. Right from the beginning, hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, the semi-popular Weekend Update duo from Saturday Night Live didn’t seem to have the stuff, a reality that was semi-acknowledged by an opening segment that featured the likes of Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Sterling K. Brown, Kristen Bell, Andy Samberg … and neither of the show’s hosts. Later appearances by the likes of Betty White and Hannah Gadsby seemed to drive home the notion that pretty much anybody would have made for better hosts than Jost and Che.

So with the entertainment quotient of the Emmys a dud, it was left to the awards themselves to provide the excitement. This was always going to be a tricky proposition after a year that saw precious few new TV shows added to the Emmy ranks. Still, it’s the surprises and, yes, in some cases snubs that make award shows like the Emmys worth watching. So how’d this year’s Emmys do?

SURPRISE: Henry Winkler an Emmy Winner? Ayyyyyy! In his seventh try, former Happy Days star and TV legend Henry Winkler finally won his first Emmy, taking the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series award for his performance on Barry.

SURPRISE: Amy Sherman-Palladino Makes History. Despite the fact that up until now Amy Sherman-Palladino’s fantastic previous TV series like Gilmore Girls and Bunheads were thoroughly ignored by Emmy voters, she made up for it this year by winning both the Writing and Directing awards in the comedy field for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show won a whopping FIVE awards on the night, barnstorming the comedy categories, and making Sherman-Palladino the first person ever to win Writing and Directing Emmys in the same year.

SURPRISE: Godless! Netflix found huge Emmy success with some of their more heralded shows (shout out, The Crown), but they found even more success with shows nobody talked about very much. Jeff Daniels took the Supporting Actor in a Limited Series win, while Merritt Wever got the second surprise Emmy of her career when she won in Supporting Actress.

SURPRISE: Regina King’s Big Awards Year Starts Now. Netflix’s success with their little-watched shows continued when two-time Emmy winner Regina King won her third for her lead role in Seven Seconds. This may not even be where King’s awards season ends, as she’s already receiving Oscar buzz for her performance in the new Barry Jenkins film, If Beale Street Could Talk. Emmy to Oscar in a few short months? Maybe!

SURPRISE: An Engagement! In perhaps the biggest victory for the idea that non-famous people should still get to accept awards on television, the winner for Directing for a Variety Special, Glenn Weiss, shouted out his girlfriend from the stage. He’d already been emotional about his mom dying just a few weeks ago, and now he was going to claim his moment, delivering a sweet, romantic marriage proposal, which was happily accepted. EASILY the most spontaneous and exciting moment of the entire night.

SNUBBED: The Best Actress in a Drama Runners-Up. I know I wrote about how if Sandra Oh didn’t win for her performance in Killing Eve, I was going to burn it all down, but I was only being halfway serious. I would have also been very happy if Keri Russell had won for the final season of The Americans. I know this was Claire Foy’s last chance to win too, but Russell or Oh winning would have been far, far more satisfying.

SNUBBED: The Handmaid’s Tale. A year after taking Outstanding Drama Series for Hulu, as well as acting trophies for Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd, and Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid’s Tale came up empty for its sophomore season. Despite a truckload of nominations (including nods for cast members who were overlooked last year, like Joseph Feinnes and Yvonne Strahovsky), the dystopian series couldn’t strike gold twice.

SNUBBED: Atlanta. Opposite The Handmaid’s Tale in comedy, Donald Glover’s Atlanta was the nomination leader with 8 major nods, only to lose all eight. Though one supposes the people behind Atlanta could take comfort knowing it could be worse: last year, Feud: Bette and Joan went home empty-handed off of 10 nominations.

SURPRISE: Thandie Newton. “I don’t even believe in God,” said the Westworld actress, “but I’m going to thank her tonight.” Us too, Thandie!

SURPRISE: RuPaul’s Drag Race finally wins. It’s about damn time, and lord knows the Reality Competition category could stand to be a lot more shaken up than it’s been, but Drag Race‘s win was a rare moment for queer celebration on the night.

SURPRISE/SNUBBED: Game of Thrones, huh? Going into the final category of the night, Game of Thrones had won as many of the night’s major awards as Westworld had, and both The Crown and The Americans had done far better. Still, HBO’s behemoth ended up on top, despite not having aired new episodes in over a year. This bodes very well for Game of Thrones‘ chances to prevail in its final season as well. But it also led to a general feeling of, “really? her?” Game of Thrones is a powerhouse show, but arguably almost any other nominee had a better season.