This was published 10 months ago
The winners and losers at the 2022 Emmy awards
By Karl Quinn
No matter the platitudes about it being an honour just to be nominated, there are always winners and losers at an awards show. And at this year’s Emmys on Monday (Los Angeles time), the biggest winner was The White Lotus, and the biggest loser arguably Better Call Saul.
The HBO series about the dynamics between guests and staff at a luxury island resort won 10 of the 20 Primetime Emmy awards for which it was nominated, including five at the televised ceremony (to add to the five it picked up at the creative arts ceremony held a day earlier).
Murray Bartlett accepts his award for outstanding supporting actor in a limited anthology series or movie for The White Lotus.Credit: AP
Creator Mike White collected three statues, for writing, directing and, as one of the show’s producers, for outstanding limited or anthology series.
Australian actor Murray Bartlett, who had been toiling in relative obscurity since moving from his native Perth to Los Angeles in 2000 before The White Lotus turned him into one of Tinseltown’s hottest properties, was a popular winner in the supporting actor category. Best supporting actress winner Jennifer Coolidge, meanwhile, provided one of the show’s highlights by dancing to the wind-up music rather than taking the hint to get off stage.
The ultra-violent South Korean series Squid Game, a massive hit for Netflix, picked up six awards from 14 nominations, including in the prestigious directing and acting categories, for Hwang Dong-hyuk and Lee Jung-jae respectively.
The show also made history by being the first foreign-language series to be nominated for best drama, though it lost out there to Succession.
Matthew Macfadyen accepts the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for Succession.Credit: AP
The critically acclaimed HBO series about a powerful and morally bankrupt media family also won for writing, where series creator Jesse Armstrong claimed his third win, while English actor Matthew Macfadyen won the best supporting actor award for his turn as Tom Wambsgans.
Australian actress Sarah Snook, who plays Tom’s wife Siobhan Roy in the show, was also nominated (her second time) but lost out to Ozark‘s Julia Garner.
On a win-to-nominations ratio, the only show to come close to The White Lotus was Abbott Elementary, the Disney+ comedy set in a Philadelphia public school. It collected three of the seven awards for which it was nominated.
Ted Lasso was one of last year’s big success stories, winning in seven of the 20 categories for which it was nominated. This year, despite the mixed reaction to its second season, which headed into much darker territory, it still won four out of 20. All were in the major comedy categories, too: outstanding lead actor (Jason Sudeikis), supporting actor (Brett Goldstein), directing (M.J. Delaney) and comedy series.
Martin Short, Selena Gomez and Steve Martin were largely overlooked for Only Murders in the Building. Credit: Caitlin Cronenberg
Only Murders in the Building was fancied to lead the comedy field this year, but while stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez provided some good moments on stage, the only cast member to score was Nathan Lane as best guest. With two technical wins a day earlier, the show wound up with three from 17 nominations.
Apple’s much-fancied series Severance was largely overlooked, collecting just two awards from 14 nominations, both of them in the technical categories – original score and title design – that had been handed out on Sunday. During Monday’s main event it went empty-handed.
But by far the biggest snub of this year’s Emmys was delivered to Better Call Saul. Nominated in seven categories – including actor and actress, writing, directing and best series – the Breaking Bad spin-off, which screens on Stan, won none.
Academy voters were at least consistent: across its six seasons, the show has been nominated 46 times in all, but has yet to win a single award.
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