Anna Sawai, left, and Hiroyuki Sanada won outstanding lead actress and actor in a drama series for Shōgun at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 15.Mike Blake/Reuters
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Not everything came up roses for Eugene and Dan Levy, Canadian father and son comic actors, in their hosting duties of the Emmy Awards.
You wouldn’t exactly call Sunday night’s ceremony – which saw FX’s Shōgun and HBO Max’s Hacks named top drama and comedy, respectively – the day that the Levys broke the Internet.
But the stars and co-creators of Schitt’s Creek endeared themselves to audiences both in person at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and watching from home around the world by resurrecting their well-honed father-and-son act familiar from their late lamented CBC sitcom (and, more recently, from Canadian digital banking commercials).
The key was leaning into the fact that the two tuxedoed Levys weren’t exactly obvious host material for a major American awards show.
“We’re not stand-up comedians,” the older, more eyebrowed Levy said, right off the top, wearing a black bow tie to complement his white hair.
The on-screen moments that gave Emmys’ hosts Eugene and Dan Levy a place in Canadians’ hearts
“We’re more like actors, acting like hosts,” the younger, queerer, cooler-but-not-that-much-cooler Levy followed up, in a white bow tie set off against his black hair.
It wasn’t just the fact that Eugene and Dan aren’t late-night talk shows hosts or current cast members of Saturday Night Live like so many of their recent predecessors – but the fact that they were the first Canadians to host the Emmys since Howie Mandel was part of a five-host anomaly in 2008.
Prior to that, you have to go back to 1996 to find noted Canuck Michael J. Fox co-hosting alongside Paul Reiser and Oprah Winfrey.
Will Hollywood ever believe a Canadian can do the task of hosting the Emmys solo? The Levys offered a theory why not.
“In what can only be described a cruel joke, two Canadians have been put in charge of playing you off tonight,” said Dan, in the opening dialogue.
“Canadians don’t like interrupting anybody – it goes against our nature,” said Eugene.
Indeed, Dan framed his heartfelt plea for winners not to go over their time limit in their acceptance speeches this way, pointing to his 77-year-old conflict-averse father: “I don’t want to be alarmist here, but having to cut you off could kill this man.”
The Levys continued to play up their allergy to usual hosting duties throughout the evening, such as when Eugene showed up in the wrong aisle for an audience interaction bit (in what was, itself, a bit) – and said he thought it was a mistake to do it anyway. “I find it uncomfortable,” he said. “I don’t want to be handing out tacos in the audience.”
Dan, meanwhile, got his biggest solo laugh of the night when he seemed to mock the ceremony’s recurring segment that brought a seemingly randomly selected group of actors who had played similar-ish “archetypes” – TV mom, TV dads, TV doctors, etc. – on stage to make the broadcast stretch on interminably.
The way Levy looked at the camera as he said “Cops!” while introducing Jimmy Smits (NYPD Blue), Don Johnson (Miami Vice) and Niecy Nash (Reno 911!) was a wonderful lampooning of the whole misguided endeavour.
Of course, it was classic Canadian self-deprecation for the Levys to pretend that either of them would be unsuited to the job of Emmy host: while Dan’s not a TV sketch comedian, his father is one of the GOATs; and while Eugene’s not a talk-show host, his son started off his career as a very good one on MTV Canada’s chat-fest The Hills: The After Show.
The truth is they were both in their element and the Levys’ hosting gig was a chance for a proper celebration of Schitt’s Creek’s comedy sweep at the Emmys in 2020. At that time, the show’s cast popped Champagne 3,500 kilometres away from Los Angeles at Casa Loma in Toronto because the nascent COVID-19 pandemic meant the Emmys were held via a video conference ceremony.
The Schitt’s Creek reunion vibes maxed out when the rest of the fictional Rose family – Annie Murphy and Catherine O’Hara – showed up to hand out the final award of the evening.
The lesson for future award-show hosts: underpromise, overdeliver, eyebrows.
Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy, and Dan Levy speak onstage at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
The bad: The ads
The only thing that nearly scuttled the Levys’ hosting job was that their squabbling pere-fils shtick started to wear thin due all the ads for a certain Canadian digital bank airing during each commercial break on this side of the border.
But that faux-pas of having the hosts hawk lower interest rates in-between segments was forgotten after The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Red, White & Royal Blue’s Taylor Zakhar Perez stumbled their way through what looked like a sponsored segment in-show for a whisky brand. Moss-Bachrach, who had just won his second supporting actor in a comedy Emmy, was clearly embarrassed and it undercut his just victory.
The good: Comedy wins comedy
That final award of the evening went to Hacks, an HBO Max/Crave comedy about comedians that works on many different comedic levels – and brings together multi-generational comedic talents as Schitt’s Creek did before it.
Jen Statsky, Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and the team from Hacks accept the award for outstanding comedy series.Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press
This surprise win upended what had been the biggest gripe all evening: that the FX restaurant dramedy The Bear was up for 23 Emmys, making it the most nominated comedy in the TV awards history despite not being, well, all that funny.
“I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is truly a comedy,” said Eugene early on. “But in the true spirit of The Bear, we will not be making any jokes.”
You could sense a Bear backlash brewing as the show won a series of early awards – and star Jeremy Allen White and showrunner Christopher Storer gave lacklustre speeches for their (per the Emmy announcer) “second consecutive” wins.
But genuine enthusiasm broke out when Liza Colón-Zayas won for her performance as Tina Marrero on The Bear. The diminutive actress first thanked the Emmy producers for lowering the microphone for her – and ended by shouting out her fellow Latinas: “Keep believing – and vote, vote for your rights.”
Most (in)advertently comic speech of the night
John Oliver’s speech after Last Week Tonight won for outstanding scripted variety series was wonderfully bonkers. Though his long-form fake-news show had a 50/50 chance of winning (it was only up against SNL), he seemed unprepared to take the stage: he called one of his children “husband” and then delivered a tribute to his recently deceased dog that had the audience in stitches and led him to drop an F-bomb that made it through to the Canadian airwaves at least. Oliver concluded by addressing all the dogs watching at home: “You’re very good girls, you’re very good boys … please play me off now.”
Dead, panned
”And the Emmy for deceased industry professional we will miss most goes to …”
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel walked on stage right after the in memoriam with this line. It took a moment for the shocked audience to realize that he wasn’t making fun of a lingering picture of Bob Newhart, but was there to pay tribute to the recently deceased American comedy legend. It made the Levys look extra good that awards-show veteran Kimmel was the one to make the worst joke of the night.
Best acceptance speech innovation
”I’ll do another thing on my podcast and thank the people I forgot to thank,” said Fargo’s Lamorne Morris, winning outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie. Why has no one thought of this before? We could all go to bed so much earlier.