The daily show won outstanding speech at the 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday (September 15). It is the franchise's 13th win in this category (or its predecessor categories). The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won 11 times. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah won once, last year. This year, the show won with six rotating hosts: Stewart, Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic and Dulcé Sloan.
This brings Stewart's Primetime Emmy total to 23. The record for most Emmy wins is held by Sheila Nevins, who has won 32 Primetime Emmys for her work on HBO programs.
The daily show won in a stacked category that also included Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyers. None of these other shows have ever won in this category. This is the 12th nomination in the category for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which puts it in a tie with Real Time with Bill Maher for most nods here without a win. It is the seventh nod for Colbert's show and the second for Meyers' show.
Kimmel feigned disappointment at the result. “John, you should be ashamed of yourself. You said you were retiring.”
The Primetime Emmys were ably hosted by the father and son team of Eugene and Dan Levy, who won multiple Emmys four years ago for their work on Schitt's Creek.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won Outstanding Variety Script for the second year in a row, again winning Saturday Night Live. Before these two victories, Last week tonight won Outstanding Variety Speech Series seven years in a row. In addition, Oliver and his writers have won the Emmy for Variety Writing nine years in a row. Oliver won his first three Primetime Emmy Awards as a writer The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Shogun won four awards in the telecast, including outstanding drama series. Adding to the 14 awards it won at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys, the show won 18 Emmys for its first season — more than any other show in a single year. Shogun is the first show to win outstanding drama series for its freshman season since then The Handmaid's Tale seven years ago.
Much of the dialogue in Shogun it's in japanese. It was the second non-English-language series to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, after the Korean series Squid gamewhich was nominated (but didn't win) two years ago.
This increasing globalization at the Emmys mirrors what is happening in both film and popular music. At the Oscars earlier this year, for the first time, three films that are largely in a language other than English – Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest – were nominated for Best Picture. And in the last decade, we've witnessed the explosive popularity of Latin music and K-pop. Two years ago, Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language album to receive a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
The Bear it also won four awards on the TV show. Adding to the seven Creative Arts Emmys it won, the show won 11 Emmys for its second season. This allows him to break his own record, set last year, for the most wins for a sitcom in a single season. But, surprisingly, it missed out on Best Comedy Series Hackswhich won a total of three awards.
Later Shogun and The Bear in terms of most 2024 Emmy wins (combining tonight's telecast and Creative Arts Emmys) are: Baby Reindeer and Saturday Night Live (six each). Jim Henson Idea Man (five); Blue Eye Samurai, The Oscars and Ripley (four each). Hacks, Billy Joel: The 100th—Live at Madison Square Garden, The Crown, Morning show, Only murders in the building and Welcome to Wrexham (three each and The Daily Show, Girls State, How I Met Your Father, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Love On The Spectrum, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Traitors (two each).
Only murders in the building was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series for the third year in a row, making Selena Gomez (who is an executive producer on the show) the most nominated Latina producer in Emmy history. (Gomez said she is a “proud third-generation Mexican-American.”) Gomez was also nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the first time, but lost to HacksJean Smart. Gomez, one of five Latinx nominees this year, sat in the front row with her boyfriend, music producer Benny Blanco.
The Traitors won Outstanding Reality Competition Program in its second year on air. It beat four previous winners in the category: The Amazing Race (10 wins), RuPaul's Drag Race (five wins), The Voice (four wins) and Top chef (one win). Alan Cumming, his host The Traitorswon Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys.
This ends an eight-year streak in which RuPaul Charles won at least one Primetime Emmy. He has won 14 Primetime Emmys, which is more than any other person of color.
Alex Edelman won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for his HBO special Alex Edelman: Just for us. Edelman, 35, won a special Tony three months ago for the Broadway show that was the basis for the special.
Music played an important role in the Emmy telecast.
Jelly Roll sang his current hit “I Am Not Okay,” which soundtracked the In Memoriam spot. The song, which he co-wrote with Taylor Phillips, Ashley Gorley and Casey Brown, was very effective, more so than the sometimes overly obvious classics generally used at this point. The segment included Martin Mull, game show host Peter Marshall, talk show host Phil Donahue and fitness guru Richard Simmons, while comedy legend Bob Newhart. Jimmy Kimmel chose two words that described Newhart to a T: “gently hilarious.” There was another tribute to Newhart when the music at the end of the show was the theme The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78).
In addition, the producers cleverly inserted musical elements throughout the show. Leading into a segment about TV dads, they played The Temptations' 1972 classic 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone'. Leading into a segment about coaches, they played Survivor's 1982 motivational anthem 'Eye of the Tiger' . A tribute to producer Greg Berlanti, who received the 2024 Governors Award, included Paula Cole's 1997 hit “I Don't Want to Wait,” the theme from his breakthrough hit Dawson's Creek. Ron Howard and Henry Winkler made a cap Happy days50th anniversary with Winkler as The Fonz hitting the jukebox to play the show's theme song, Pratt & McClain's “Happy Days,” a 1976 Billboard Hot 100 hit.
On another musical note, John Oliver paid a touching tribute to his recently deceased dog Hoagie. When the show tried to play him with schmaltz orchestral music, he said: “I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now.”
