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    ‘Succession’ Wins Best Drama at Emmys as HBO Triumphs Again

    “Succession,” HBO’s portrait of a dysfunctional media dynasty, won best drama at the 74th Emmy Awards on Monday night, the second time the series has taken the prize.Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator, also took home the Emmy for best writing, the third time he’s won in that category. And Matthew Macfadyen won best supporting actor in a drama for the first time for his performance on the show.It was the sixth time in eight years that HBO has taken the television industry’s biggest prize for a recurring series, making it yet another triumphant night for the cable network. HBO, as well as its streaming service, HBO Max, won more Emmys (38) than any other outlet, besting its chief rival, Netflix (26).“The White Lotus,” the cable network’s beloved upstairs-downstairs dramedy that took place at a Hawaiian resort, won best limited series, and tore through several other categories. The show won 10 Emmys altogether, more than any other series. Mike White, the show’s creator and director, won a pair of Emmys for best directing and writing. And performers from the show, Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge, both received acting Emmys.“Mike White, my God, thank you for giving me one of the best experiences of my life,” Bartlett, who played an off-the-wagon hotel manager, said from the Emmys stage.But HBO’s chronicles of the rich were not the only winners on Monday night.“Ted Lasso,” the Apple TV+ sports series, won best comedy for a second consecutive year, as the tech giant continues on an awards show tear. Apple TV+, which had its debut in November 2019, won best picture at the Oscars (“CODA”) earlier this year. And Jason Sudeikis repeated as best actor in a comedy as the fish-out-of-water soccer coach in “Ted Lasso.”There were other big moments in the comedy awards. Quinta Brunson, the creator of the good-natured ABC workplace sitcom, “Abbott Elementary,” about a group of elementary schoolteachers at an underfunded Philadelphia public school, won for best writing in a comedy. It was only the second time a Black woman won the award (Lena Waithe was the first, in 2017, for “Master of None”).In one of the night’s most electric moments, Sheryl Lee Ralph won best supporting actress in a comedy for her role on “Abbott Elementary” as a veteran teacher at the school. Ralph began her Emmys speech by singing “Endangered Species” by Dianne Reeves, and received a standing ovation from the room full of nominees. Her victory was also historic: It was only the second time a Black woman won the award. The last time was in 1987, when Jackée Harry won for her role in the NBC sitcom “227.”This has been the most competitive Emmys season ever: Submissions for all the categories surged, and 2022 is very likely to set yet another record for the highest number of scripted television series.But there was also a sense of concern among the executives, producers and agents in attendance at Monday night’s Emmy Awards, that 2022 represents the pinnacle of the so-called Peak TV era, which has produced the highest number of scripted television series, nearly every year, for more than a decade.Netflix, which lost subscribers this year for the first time in a decade, has laid off hundreds of staffers and is reining in its spending. HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has shelved projects and is about to lay off a significant number of employees. NBC executives are considering ending its prime-time lineup at 10 p.m., and handing the hour over to local stations.Business challenges aside, the night was mostly a feel-good celebration. Zendaya won her second Emmy by taking best actress in a drama for her role as a troubled teen in HBO’s “Euphoria.” Jean Smart repeated as the best actress in a comedy for her role as a Joan Rivers-like comedian in HBO Max’s “Hacks.”“Squid Game,” the blood-splattered, South Korean Netflix series, won a pair of awards: Lee Jung-jae for best actor in a drama, and Hwang Dong-hyuk for directing. Those wins represented a major breakthrough for a foreign language show as television becomes more global, and as American audiences are increasingly receptive to series with subtitles.Michael Keaton, who played a small town doctor in “Dopesick,” took the best actor award in a limited series. And Amanda Seyfried won best actress in a limited series for her well-received performance as Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout.”Emmy voters often have a habit of finding a winner, and sticking with it, and this year was no different. John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” won the best talk show category for a seventh consecutive year, and “Saturday Night Live” took the best variety sketch series for a sixth straight year.This year’s ceremony was the first return to the Microsoft Theater since the pandemic. Producers for the Emmys incorporated an element that it experimented with at last year’s ceremony, which took place inside a tent: Instead of theater-style seating, nominees were gathered around tables with bottles of champagne and wine around them.This year’s host, Kenan Thompson, the “Saturday Night Live” veteran, opened the ceremony in a top hat and led a group of dancers in a bizarre interpretive dance to theme songs of famous TV series like “Law & Order,” “The Brady Bunch” and “Game of Thrones.”During his monologue, Thompson took a dig at Netflix’s recent woes.“If you don’t know what ‘Squid Game’ is, it is the contest you enter when you’re in massive debt and desperate for money,” the host said. “Joining the cast next season? Netflix.” More

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    ‘Squid Game’ and Lee Jung-jae Make Emmys History

    “Squid Game,” the dystopian Netflix drama that exploded into an international smash hit, made history on Monday, picking up multiple drama awards.Lee Jung-jae, the star of the series, took home the top acting prize and became the first person from a foreign-language show to win best actor in a drama. And Hwang Dong-hyuk won the drama directing Emmy. The series, Netflix’s most watched new series ever, according to the streamer, was also up for the Emmy for best drama, an award “Succession” ultimately won. Coming into Monday, the show had been nominated for 14 Emmys and won four, including awards for guest acting, stunts production design and visual effects. (These awards were presented earlier this month in the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony.)Lee praised the show and those involved with it for making “a realistic problem we all face come to life so creatively.” “Squid Game” tracks contestants as they take part in a tournament of childhood games played to the death. The series, which tapped into real-world concerns about economic disparity and moral bankruptcy in South Korea and beyond, became a global phenomenon, inspiring many a Halloween costume — “Squid Game”-style tracksuits and black masks — and spiking interest in Dalgona candy.Park Hae-soo and Oh Young-soo were nominated in the best supporting actor category, and Jung Ho-yeon earned a nomination for best supporting actress. All three played contestants in the violent, high-stakes tournament. More

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    Sheryl Lee Ralph Sings Her Thanks for Her First Emmy Award

    Sheryl Lee Ralph won her first Emmy on Monday night, opening her acceptance speech by belting “Endangered Species,” a song by Dianne Reeves.“I am an endangered species,” sang Ralph, who is also a Broadway performer, “but I sing no victim’s song. I am a woman, I am an artist, and I know where my voice belongs.”Ralph won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy for her role as Barbara Howard, a no-nonsense kindergarten teacher, in “Abbott Elementary.” Ralph, 65, who has been a screen actress since the 1970s and has performed on Broadway since the 1980s, was full of emotion as she accepted her award — which followed her first-ever nomination.“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true,” Ralph said, “I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever, ever give up on you.”Ralph is only the second Black woman to win the best supporting actress comedy award, according to Warner Bros., one of the studios behind the show. The first was Jackée Harry, who won in 1987 for her role in the NBC sitcom “227.”When Ralph was nominated in July, she discussed the fact that it was her first Emmy nod in a decades-long career, saying, “So many people can say, ‘Why hasn’t this happened before?’ You know what? Everything happens in divine timing. It was supposed to happen just this way, with this show. Every show that I’ve done has led me to this moment.” More

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    2022 Emmy Winners: Updating List

    The list of winners for the 74th annual Emmy Awards.[Follow live updates of the 2022 Emmy Awards here.]The 74th Emmy Awards are being broadcast live now from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles — and streaming live for the first time on Peacock.Similar to last year, the ceremony will be largely in-person and reminiscent of prepandemic award shows. Kenan Thompson, who won an Emmy in 2018 for his work on “Saturday Night Live,” is hosting.HBO’s satirical family drama “Succession” is up for the most awards, with 25 nominations including for best drama. At the Creative Arts Emmys, which was held over two ceremonies this month, it picked up its first award: outstanding casting for a drama series.The Apple TV+ sitcom “Ted Lasso” is up for 20 awards, including for best comedy and for best actor in a comedy for its lead, Jason Sudeikis. And “The White Lotus” is this year’s most nominated limited series, with 20 nods.The list below will be updated throughout Monday night’s ceremony.These are this year’s Emmy winners so far.Best Actor, Limited Series or TV MovieMichael Keaton, “Dopesick”Supporting Actress, DramaJulia Garner, “Ozark”Supporting Actor, DramaMatthew Macfadyen, “Succession”Supporting Actor, Limited Series or MovieMurray Bartlett, “The White Lotus”Documentary Or Nonfiction Series“The Beatles: Get Back” (Disney+)Documentary Or Nonfiction Special“George Carlin’s American Dream” (HBO)Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)Outstanding Variety Special, Pre-Recorded“Adele One Night Only” (CBS)Outstanding Variety Special (Live)“The Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show” (NBC) More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Atlanta’ and Fall Previews

    FX airs the start of the fourth season of the Emmy- winning show. ABC shares its fall previews.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Sept. 12-18. Details and times are subject to change.Monday74TH EMMY AWARDS 8 p.m. on NBC. Shifting from the usual Sunday night ceremony, the ceremony celebrating all things television is back on Monday, with Kenan Thompson as the host. The ceremony will be held in person at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. “Succession” leads the nominations with 25 potential awards — including in the categories of best actor and actress and best supporting actor and actress, for many of the main cast members. “Ted Lasso” follows closely behind with 20 nominations. Presenters will include Will Arnett, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler and others.TuesdayTHE COME UP 9 p.m. on Freeform. This new reality show focuses on six Gen Zers as they navigate New York City after the height of the pandemic. The stars of the show, Taofeek Abijako, Fernando Casablancas, Ben Hard, Claude Shwartz, Ebon Trower and Sophia Wilson, work on their careers and figure out where they belong within their friend groups and social circles. Four episodes will premiere back-to-back on Tuesday and then two episodes will air each week that follows.WednesdayABC FALL PREVIEW SPECIAL 8:30 p.m. on ABC. The cast of “Home Economics” will host an evening dedicated to sneak previews of what is to come on ABC this fall. One new show, “Alaska Daily,” stars Hilary Swank as a reporter who leaves New York behind to work at a local Alaska paper. Another new show, “The Rookie: Feds,” stars Nathan Fillion as an F.B.I. officer who brings in Simone Clark (played by Niecy Nash-Betts) to investigate a former student who is suspected of committing a terrorist attack. They will also show previews of the upcoming seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bachelor in Paradise” and “Abbott Elementary.”THE CHALLENGE USA 9 p.m. on CBS. The first season of this show is wrapping up, with one man and one woman to be crowned champions and a $500,000 cash prize. “The Challenge USA” differs from the original “The Challenge,” which has been airing on MTV for over 30 seasons, as it has contestants from U.S.-based reality shows, as opposed to contestants from all over the world. The participants come from shows like “The Amazing Race,” “Survivor,” “Big Brother” and “Love Island USA.”ThursdaySTRAIGHT NO CHASER: The 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The a cappella group Straight No Chaser, which was formed at Indiana University, is celebrating its anniversary with a concert back where it all began — in Indiana. The group which is touring the United States this year, performs some classic covers including “Proud Mary” and “Lean on Me,” as well as newer pop songs like “I’m Yours” and “All About That Bass” in this recorded concert.From left: Olivia, Shelia, Paxton and Cindy with Kelly Ripa and Anderson Cooper on “Generation Gap.”ABC/Raymond LiuGENERATION GAP 9 p.m. on ABC. This quiz show pairs up family members to answer questions about each other’s generations. Hosted by Kelly Ripa, each episode has also featured a special guest, including the YouTuber Colleen Ballinger (in character as Miranda Sings), and the actor Judd Hirsch. For this week’s episode — the 10th and final one of the season — the guest is the journalist Anderson Cooper.ATLANTA 10 p.m. on FX. After a four-year hiatus between Season 2 and Season 3, fans of this show will be happy that Season 4 is arriving this week, less than four months since the Season 3 finale. After last season’s romp through Europe, the characters are back in Atlanta. “If ‘Atlanta’ has always been hard to pigeonhole — it’s comedy, except when it’s drama, except when it’s horror,” James Poniewozik wrote in his New York Times review of the Season 3 premiere earlier this year, “that may be because it is about complicated people whose circumstances are always just a nudge away from any of these.”FridayDYNASTY 9 p.m. on the CW. This show, staring Elizabeth Gillies, Grant Show and Adam Huber, is finishing up its fifth and final season this week. It is based on the 1980s soap opera of the same name and features a rivalry between the Carrington and Colby families, but the show has had its own plot lines instead of building on the original show’s stories.SaturdayMeryl Streep, left, and Amanda Seyfried in “Mamma Mia!”Peter Mountain/Universal PicturesMAMMA MIA! (2008) 6:20 p.m. Based around the songs of ABBA, this movie tells the story of mother and daughter duo, Donna and Sophie (Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried), as Sophie prepares for her wedding. Hoping to meet her father, Sophie invites to the wedding three men whom her mother wrote about in her diary the summer before she was born. Harry (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan) show up and chaos ensues. “Really, this movie is incapable of harming anyone,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times, “except moviegoers with the good taste and bad manners to resist its relentless, ridiculous charm.”STAND BY ME (1986) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell and Corey Feldman star in this coming-of-age story based on Stephen King’s “The Body.” The story follows the four boys as they go on an overnight hike to try to find a body of a boy who was hit by a train. “Mostly, there is a lot of boys’ talk and good fellowship and an unstated and stated appreciation of this grand episode in their lives and how nothing will ever equal the comradeship of this summer,” Walter Goodman wrote in his New York Times review of the film.SundayJessie T. Usher in “Tales of the Walking Dead.”Curtis Bonds Baker/AMCTALES OF THE WALKING DEAD 9 p.m. on AMC. Each episode in this spinoff anthology series of “The Walking Dead” is a different story in the same post-apocalyptic world. The season’s sixth and final episode follows a couple traumatized by the state of the world, and who might be living in a haunted house. More

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    Man Sentenced for Threats to the Actress Eva LaRue and Her Daughter

    Eva LaRue, an actress known for her roles on “CSI: Miami” and “All My Children,” said her family lived in fear. James David Rogers, 58, was sentenced to just over three years.A man in Ohio was sentenced to more than three years in prison after 12 years of harassing the actress Eva LaRue and her daughter. He had threatened via letters and phone calls to torture, kill and rape them, the authorities said.Judge John A. Kronstadt of the United States District Court for the Central District of California sentenced the man, James David Rogers, to 40 months in prison on Thursday, for what prosecutors in a sentencing memorandum called a “campaign of torment” in which he “terrorized a mother and her daughter.”Mr. Rogers, 58, had pleaded guilty on April 28 to “two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications and two counts of stalking,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.Ms. LaRue is known for her roles as the DNA analyst Natalia Boa Vista on the crime series “CSI: Miami” and Maria Santos on the soap opera “All My Children.” Her daughter, Kaya Callahan, was as young as 5 years old when the threats against her began, court documents said. She is now 20. Mr. Rogers wrote threats to Ms. LaRue’s partner at the time as well.An apparent lawyer for Mr. Rogers did not respond to a request for comment.In March 2007, he began to send menacing letters to the family, court documents show, and stalking behavior continued until his arrest in November 2019. Between March 2007 and June 2015, Mr. Rogers mailed about 37 handwritten and typed letters with threats. He signed many of the letters with the name Freddy Krueger, a fictional serial killer from the horror movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”“I want to make your life so miserable that you can’t stand it,” he wrote in one letter, according to court documents. “You should be very scared,” another read.The letters were first sent to Ms. LaRue’s publicist, then to her manager, she said. Finally, she received them at home and her husband’s office at the time.“The letters were anywhere between three to six or seven pages long, detailing in the most heinous, evil, grotesque, depraved way, how he wanted to kidnap my then-5-year-old daughter and I,” she said.The family moved several times in the hopes that Mr. Rogers wouldn’t find their address again, even deciding to sell a home during the 2008 financial recession, she said. They also avoided receiving mail and packages at their home address.“They drove circuitous routes home, slept with weapons nearby and had discussions about how to seek help quickly if defendant found them and tried to harm them,” prosecutors said.Ms. LaRue never knew where the person writing the letters lived. She operated as if he could have been around the corner at any point, she said in an interview.During a “CSI: Miami” hiatus, Ms. LaRue said she fled the country. She and her daughter temporarily lived at a friend’s house in Europe because they were afraid he would come to her home.In October and November 2019, Mr. Rogers called the school Ms. Callahan attended 18 times, often posing as her father and asking questions about her whereabouts, according to court documents. In another incident, he left a voice message at the school with vulgar threats, identifying himself under the serial killer pseudonym. She was a high school senior at the time, Ms. LaRue said.Weeks later, when he was arrested, his call log had been cleared. But the phone was registered to the same number that he had called the school from, prosecutors said. It also had photos of Ms. LaRue and her daughter on it.Until his arrest, Mr. Rogers had been working as a nurse’s assistant at a nursing home, according to court documents. He said he was the caretaker for his mother.Mr. Rogers said in mitigation that he had grown up a social outcast with difficulties with his parents and struggles in school, according to court documents. He also said he had limited mobility, but prosecutors said the F.B.I. found that claim to be false. He said at his sentencing that he was receiving mental health treatment, Ms. LaRue said.Before the sentencing, Ms. LaRue and her daughter had only seen a photo of Mr. Rogers. They did not want to see him in person but they decided to go into the courtroom when they learned that he would be joining via video conference. They were left unnerved.“At one point, my brother was holding my hand because I was shaking,” she said. “And that’s not me. I’m not easily rattled by anybody or anything.”Mr. Rogers, indicted in 2019, was identified using genetic genealogy, which uses databases to match DNA to a large network of people, said Stephen Busch, a former F.B.I. special agent who worked the case. The authorities used DNA left on a discarded straw to place him, leading to his arrest.“Forensic genealogy is the greatest investigative technique since the fingerprint for law enforcement,” said Mr. Busch, who is now the CEO of a DNA investigations company. “And we’re just scratching the surface with it right now.”Genetic genealogy has been used to solve many high-profile cases in recent years, including in 2018 to identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. On “CSI: Miami,” Ms. LaRue played a DNA analyst who conducted work similar to the one used to solve this case, she said, except the technology wasn’t as developed at the time.“DNA, oddly enough, has just played such an interesting role in my life in so many ways,” she said.Ms. LaRue is now writing a show that is partly autobiographical about her experiences over the past 12 years, and which will delve into some of the new DNA methods.Mr. Rogers apologized to Ms. LaRue at the sentencing’s video conference on Thursday. But for Ms. La Rue and her daughter, the damage had been done. They both lived in fear and paranoia after more than a decade of threats, Ms. La Rue said.Every school that Ms. Callahan attended had to be notified of the stalking, and she and her daughter were surrounded by security.“This was her formative years,” Ms. LaRue said.“I was afraid for my life,” her daughter said in court.The F.B.I. investigated the case, and the violent and organized crime section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted it. More

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    ‘War of the Worlds’ Review: Dystopia à la Française

    A new season of the dark science-fiction thriller on Epix continues a tradition of smart, atmospheric genre series from the French channel Canal+.This review contains spoilers for the first two seasons of “War of the Worlds.”As you make your way through the cavernous emporium that television has become, brand loyalty may be your best hedge against disappointment. It can be limiting, sure. But if you know you are likely to enjoy the latest Taylor Sheridan drama or Adult Swim animated comedy, that’s valuable time saved.There is a logo that signals happiness for me, but it’s a little farther afield. Someone in Paris has my number: For the last decade or so, a handful of my very favorite shows have begun life on the French channel Canal+.A lot of shows from Canal+ — an ad-free subscription service analogous to HBO — don’t make it to America, and I’m sure there are plenty that I wouldn’t care for. But its programmers have a taste for atmospheric, complicated genre pieces, and over the years there has been a succession of its series that I’ve eagerly consumed: the Paris police procedural “Spiral,” the eerie supernatural-metaphysical melodrama “The Returned,” the superlative spy thriller “The Bureau.” My fixation continues with “War of the Worlds,” a particularly dark and dystopian science-fiction adventure whose third season begins Monday on Epix. (Seasons of all four shows are available at Amazon Prime Video.)“War of the Worlds” differs in being a French-English coproduction (with the Fox Networks Group) whose action, especially in recent episodes, mostly takes place in London, with English dialogue. It was created, and to this point has been written by, the British TV veteran Howard Overman, best known for creating the award-winning supernatural dramedy “Misfits.”Overman’s story has points of connection with the H.G. Wells novel he very loosely adapts: Invaders (who turn out to be physically compromised) arrive in gigantic ships and assert their dominance, while human refugees do a lot of fleeing and hunkering down. There are fewer of these refugees than Wells imagined, however. In the show’s first episode, the spacecraft that land emit a signal that kills nearly everyone on Earth, sparing only those who are underground or otherwise shielded.The first two seasons followed increasingly smaller bands of survivors in France and England who eventually coalesced in London around Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne), a scientist whose existence the invaders were somehow aware of. The feel was clammy and claustrophobic — there was no word from the rest of the world — with a steady drip-drip-drip of horror as the humans were picked off by the mechanical attack dogs the invaders deployed. The whirring, clanking noises the robots made were an eerie signature.But the show isn’t just a video-game-style thriller. Overman does a good job with the human relationships, which are marked by the anger, despair and pettiness the dire situation gives rise to. Characters backbite, bellyache, reluctantly pitch in and commit mundane acts of heroism in a largely believable manner, and there’s blessedly little inspirational speechmaking.The show is also a big-idea science fiction fantasy, of course, and that is both a strength and a weakness. The delayed revelation of who and what the invaders were, and how they connected with the show’s human characters, was intriguing — which was the minimum requirement for plugging you into the show — but the science involved felt a little more fictional than usual. And there are some fundamental questions about the plot that are still unclear, and which you suspect may remain so.Byrne in Season 2 of “War of the Worlds.”Simon Ridgway/EpixIf you’ve watched the first two seasons — here come the big spoilers — you know that the invaders are actually humans who have apparently traveled back in time on a mission of self-preservation, and that Bill stands in their way. And you know that the second season ended with Bill using the invaders’ technology to time travel himself, arriving before the invasion and committing a murder that would prevent the invaders from ever existing.So Season 3 is one of those sci-fi reboots in which things never happened and the world is back to normal, except that Bill is in prison, there’s a black hole hovering over Earth (there’s that dodgy science again) and people are having visions that look a lot like memories of the invasion that didn’t happen.The visions, presumably being experienced by people who, in the original timeline, were survivors, are a smart device for keeping the cast together — characters like the resourceful cop Zoe (Pearl Chanda), the compassionate immigrant Kariem (Bayo Gbadamosi) and the awkward French scientist Catherine (Léa Drucker), who will eventually recognize one another, and Bill. And they still have a battle to fight, since a few of the invaders, including the implacable Adina (Ania Sowinski), stowed away with Bill in the time machine and are working on building a new one.The mood and story lines in the new season are more like those of a conventional mystery — there are police chases now — with the dramatic spice of a handful of characters knowing an earthshaking secret that they can’t talk about without being considered crazy.It’s a great situation for Byrne, whose grumpy, weary performance as Bill drives the show. With a prison sentence as his reward for saving the world, Bill is now more completely fed up than ever, and his reaction when Zoe tells him he needs to do it again is succinct and profane. Byrne, in a way that feels more French than British, makes you understand exactly how big a bother this world-saving business is. More