‘The Pitt’ wins big at Emmys

HBO Max’s Pittsburgh-set ER drama “The Pitt” won best drama, lead actor (Noah Wyle) and supporting actress (Katherine LaNasa) awards at the “77th Emmy Awards” Sunday night on CBS, besting Apple TV+’s frontrunner, “Severance.”

In accepting his first-ever Emmy, Wyle thanked his fellow nominees, the show’s production crew, HBO Max and Warner Bros. and executive producer John Wells for “allowing me the conditions to exist for lightning to strike in my life twice; John Wells, thank you for being that lightning.”

Wyle concluded by saying, “To anybody going on shift tonight or going off shift, thank you for being in that job, this is for you.”

“The Pitt” entered the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles Sunday night with 13 nominations, trailing Apple TV+’s “Severance” (27 noms), HBO’s “The Penguin” (24), Apple TV+’s “The Studio” (23), HBO’s “The White Lotus” (23), HBO’s “The Last of Us” (16), Disney+’s “Andor” (14) and HBO Max’s “Hacks” (14) and tied with Netflix’s “Adolescence” (13) and FX’s “The Bear.”

“The Studio” won best comedy series and became the most awarded comedy in Emmy history, breaking the record set by FX’s “The Bear” in 2023.

Host Nate Bargatze kicked off the night with a funny play on his past “Saturday Night Live” “Washington’s Dream” sketch but instead he played Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, who predicted the future while “SNL” stars Bowen Yang, Mikey Day and James Austin Johnson played Farnsworth’s lab techs.

Farnsworth’s accurate predictions included a future Travel Channel for travel, a Food Network for food and a History Channel not for history but for aliens.

“Just as there will be no learning on The Learning Channel,” Bargatze said, referencing cable’s TLC.

He also promised a TV network for people of every culture, Telemundo for Spanish speakers and BET for Black audiences.

“Will there be a network for white people?” one of the techs asked.

“Why, CBS of course,” Bargatze said.

It’s a funny, knowing sketch that worked well as an introduction that was inside but not too inside.

Bargatze promised to give $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of America as long as winners’ speeches stayed 45 seconds or less. For every second under, he’d add $1,000 of his own money; for every second over, he’d take away $1,000. After just 45 minutes the donation amount was down to $85,000. It ended the night below $0. The bit started funny but going back to it repeatedly ate up more time than Bargatze’s admonition managed to save. (In the end, between Bargatze and CBS, they donated $350,000 to the good cause.)

Bargatze avoided politics but others did not. Hannah Einbinder, winner for supporting comedy actress on “Hacks,” advocated for Palestine and got bleeped for telling ICE where to go. One of the writers of “Last Week Tonight” said, “We share this award with the writers of late-night political comedy for as long as that’s allowed to exist.” The Television Academy’s Cris Abrego acknowledged Congress’ defunding of PBS, saying, “Culture belongs to the people so if our industry is to thrive, we need to include more voices, not fewer.”

Stephen Colbert turned up as a presenter with his resume in hand, asking, “Is anyone hiring, because I’ve got 200 very qualified candidates with me tonight who will be available soon,” a reference to his staff who will be out of work in May when “The Late Show” ends.

Colbert’s “Late Show” won its first variety talk Emmy and Colbert recalled before he started the show he expressed an interest in doing a late-night comedy show about love.

“I don’t know if I ever figured that out, but at a certain point, and you can guess what that point was, I realized we were in some ways doing a late-night comedy show about loss,” Colbert said. “And that’s related to love because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it. And 10 years later in September 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”

Among the winners there were some reruns (Jean Smart for “Hacks” again) but also some firsts, including Tramell Tillman (“Severance”) became the first Black man to ever win a best supporting drama actor Emmy and Owen Cooper (“Adolescence”) is the youngest male actor to win an Emmy. And there were surprises, like Kathy Bates losing best drama actor to Britt Lower of “Severance,” and Jeff Hiller winning for the little-seen “Somebody Somewhere.”

“For the past 25 years I’ve been like, ‘World, I wanna be an actor,’ ” Hiller said. “And the world’s been like, ‘Maybe computers.’ Thank you, HBO, for putting on a show about sweaty middle-aged people on the same network as the sexy teenagers of ‘Euphoria.’ ” Hiller thanked the show’s writers for writing a show about “connection and love in a time when compassion is seen as a weakness.”

Among the tributes to TV shows of the past, Reba McEntire and friends singing “The Golden Girls” theme song seemed like an odd waste of time but the “Gilmore Girls” 25th anniversary bit was well-written and funny.

‘The Pitt’ watch

Emmys presenter Jennifer Coolidge joked that she hoped to be nominated for her work on “The Pitt.” (She was not on the show.)

“I played a horny grandmother having a colonoscopy during a power outage and I had to play a lot of levels and I even had to do my own prep,” she said.

On CBS’s pre-show, Wyle teased season two, set over July 4th weekend, saying, “Americans have a lot of creative ways to hurt themselves and we’re going to exploit a lot of them on America’s 250th birthday.”

Supporting drama actress winner Katherine LaNasa, who plays nurse Dana on the show, thanked “The Pitt” executive producer John Wells, saying, “My whole career I wanted to work for John Wells. He elevates everything in his way. I’m so much better when you’re around mostly because I don’t want to get fired.”

Backstage after winning, La Nasa said, “I feel like a lot of tired, old working women really feel seen now. … All the nurses and people in the medical community also feel really seen by Dana and all that she gives and endures, it’s kind of a love letter to them.”

LaNasa mentioned her own experience in the past as a cancer patient, saying, “There were some nurses that really mattered. What I took away from it is the little things really, really matter when you feel vulnerable and I liked bringing that to the role.”

An additional local note, Ted Danson, a 1972 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, and wife Mary Steenburgen received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

2025 Emmy winners

Best drama: “The Pitt” (HBO Max).

Best comedy: “The Studio” (Apple TV+).

Best limited series: “Adolescence” (Netflix).

Best actor, drama: Noah Wyle, “The Pitt.”

Best actress, drama: Britt Lower, “Severance.”

Best actor, comedy: Seth Rogen, “The Studio.”

Best actress, comedy: Jean Smart, “Hacks.”

Best actor, limited series/TV movie: Stephen Graham, “Adolescence.”

Best actress, limited series/TV movie: Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin” (HBO).

Supporting actor, drama: Tramell Tillman, “Severance.”

Supporting actress, drama: Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt.”

Supporting actor, comedy: Jeff Hiller, “Somebody Somewhere” (HBO).

Supporting actress, comedy: Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks.”

Supporting actor, limited series/movie: Owen Cooper, “Adolescence.”

Supporting actress, limited series/movie: Erin Doherty, “Adolescence.”

Variety scripted series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO).

Reality/competition program: “The Traitors” (Peacock).

Variety talk series: “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)

Directing, drama series: Adam Randall, “Slow Horses” (“Hello Goodbye”).

Directing, comedy series: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, “The Studio” (“The Oner”).

Directing, limited series/TV movie: Philip Barantini, “Adolescence.”

Writing, comedy series: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez, “The Studio” (“The Promotion”).

Writing, drama series: Dan Gilroy, “Andor” (Disney+).

Writing, limited series, movie, drama special: Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, “Adolescence.”

Writing, variety special: “SNL50: The Anniversary Special.” (NBC).

Writing, variety series: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”