Emmys 2024: Shogun’s slow start leads to a drama sweep

Shogun has made Emmy history, but at first looked like it was struggling.

The period drama that would become

the first non-English-language show to win the Emmy for outstanding drama series

got off to a slow start at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, held in Los Angeles on Sept 15 (Sept 16 Singapore time).

American actor Billy Crudup from Apple TV+’s The Morning Show won in the category of outstanding supporting actor in a drama series, edging out Shogun’s Japanese actors Tadanobu Asano and Takehiro Hira.

When the spy thriller Slow Horses beat Shogun’s two entries in the outstanding writing in a drama series category, it looked like Shogun would belong to the same club as the comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm or crime drama Better Call Saul – much nominated, but never winning.

Then came Shogun’s curse-breaking win of the night, for outstanding directing in a drama series, won by Frederick E.O. Toye.

This was followed by Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada’s win for outstanding lead actor in a drama series and, soon afterwards, by Japanese actress Anna Sawai taking home outstanding lead actress in a drama series.

The New Zealand-born, Japan-based Sawai, 32, did what Korean-American actress Sandra Oh could not: Be the first Asian performer to win in that category.

Oh received four outstanding lead actress nominations, one each for the four seasons of the thriller Killing Eve (2018 to 2022).

In Shogun, set in the 1600s, Sawai plays Toda Mariko, a Christian noblewoman who acts as an interpreter between marooned English sailor John Blackthorne (British actor Cosmo Jarvis) and his captor Lord Toranaga (Sanada). Mariko becomes entangled in the schemes of the two men as they use each other to defeat their enemies.

The series is based on a 1975 novel by James Clavell and is available on Disney+.

In her acceptance speech, Sawai acknowledged her mother and all women like her.

“Mum, I love you. You are the reason I’m here. You showed me stoicism and that’s how I was able to portray Mariko. This is for all the women who expect nothing and continue to be an example for everyone.”

Sanada’s acceptance speech touched on the unique cross-cultural nature of the show.

“It was an East-West dream project, with respect. Shogun taught me that when people work together, we can make miracles. We can make a better future together,” said the 63-year-old.

The series’ four wins at the Primetime Emmys added more lustre to its record-setting 14 wins at the Creative Arts Emmys held on Sept 8, which had allowed it to clinch the record for the most wins by any show in a single year.

Executive producer Justin Marks recognised the significance of Shogun’s victory in his acceptance speech for the Emmy for outstanding drama series, when he thanked the studio FX Networks for having “green-lit a very expensive, subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax is a poetry competition”.

“I have no idea why you did that,” he said.

Sawai and Sanada join the small club of Asian actors with Emmy wins.

In January,

at the strike-delayed 75th Primetime Emmy Awards,

Ali Wong was the first Asian woman to win outstanding lead actress in a limited series for her role in Netflix’s Beef (2023). Her Beef co-star Steven Yeun won the Emmy for lead actor in a limited series, but the first actor of Asian descent to take home that prize was British actor Riz Ahmed in 2017, for his role in the crime drama The Night Of (2016).

Sanada is the second Asian actor to win in the lead actor in a drama series category. South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, for his role in Squid Game (2021 to present),

was the first Asian to win that award

and the first person to win it for a non-English-speaking performance.

Squid Game earned several Emmy wins in 2022 and was nominated in the outstanding drama series category, but lost the award to satirical drama Succession (2018 to 2023).

One major upset of the evening was the failure of The Bear (2022 to present) to snag the Emmy for outstanding comedy series.

The show

had been on a hot streak,

with its star Jeremy Allen White winning outstanding lead actor in a comedy series and co-star Ebon Moss-Bachrach winning the corresponding prize in the supporting actor category, a feat that Liza Colon-Zayas also pulled off in the supporting actress race.

With another win in the outstanding directing in a comedy series race, the show about an award-winning chef’s struggle to run a sandwich shop in Chicago looked set to clinch the top comedy award of the night.

But its streak ended abruptly when Hacks (2024 to present) took the prize. The win by the show about a legendary but past-her-prime comedienne played by Jean Smart – who had won the lead actress in a comedy series prize earlier that night – came as a surprise.

Pundits speculated that Emmy voters were paying attention to online grumbling about the way The Bear’s studio, FX, had strategically positioned it as a comedy at the Emmys instead of a drama when its content is mostly serious.

The father-son hosting team of Eugene and Dan Levy of Schitt’s Creek (2015 to 2020) fame made light of the controversy in their opening monologue.

Eugene Levy said: “I love the show. And I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy. In the true spirit of The Bear, we will not be making any jokes.”

List of main winners at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards

Outstanding drama series: Shogun

Outstanding comedy series: Hacks

Outstanding limited or anthology series: Baby Reindeer

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series: Anna Sawai, Shogun

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series: Hiroyuki Sanada, Shogun

Outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series: Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country

Outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series: Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

Outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series: Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer

Outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series: Lamorne Morris, Fargo

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: Jean Smart, Hacks

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series: Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series: Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series: Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series: Liza Colon-Zayas, The Bear

Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear

Outstanding directing in a drama series: Frederick E.O. Toye, Shogun

Outstanding directing in a comedy series: Christopher Storer, The Bear

Outstanding writing in a limited or anthology series: Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

Outstanding writing in a drama series: Will Smith, Slow Horses