TV juggernauts Succession and The Bear both scored major success with six wins during the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, closely followed by Beef which received five on-stage awards.
Hollywood stars descended on the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles for the annual awards, which were pushed back from September due to the US actors’ and writers’ strikes, to celebrate the best in television.
The final series of Succession, about warring siblings in a media dynasty, was named best drama series.
Best limited series went to Beef, the Netflix show starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as a duo who start a life-changing feud after a road rage incident.
The Bear, about a star chef who returns to Chicago to run the family business after the death of his brother, picked up best comedy series, prompting actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach to share a comical on-stage kiss with co-star Matty Matheson.
Moss-Bachrach had earlier won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy, alongside Jeremy Allen White, who picked up best lead actor in a comedy, and Ayo Edebiri who was awarded the best supporting actress in the category.
The Bear creator Christopher Storer won two Emmy Awards for best directing and best writing on a comedy series but could not make it to the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Kieran Culkin kissed Succession co-star Brian Cox on the lips when it was announced he had won the Emmy for lead actor in a drama series, before announcing he would like more children with his wife, Jazz Charton.
“You said maybe if I win, I love you so much,” Culkin said.
It came after The Last Of Us star Pedro Pascal playfully took aim at Culkin after the Succession star said “suck it Pedro” on-stage, after beating him to a Golden Globe award earlier this month.
“A lot of people have been asking about my arm, it’s actually my shoulder, and I think tonight is the perfect time to tell people – Kieran Culkin beat the shit out of me,” Pascal joked on stage.
Later in the ceremony, Culkin’s co-star Matthew Macfadyen was named best supporting actor in a drama series, while Sarah Snook thanked her young daughter during a speech after winning best lead actress in the same category.
“The biggest thank you, I think though, is to someone who won’t understand anything that I’m saying at the moment, but I carried her with me in this last season and really it was her who carried me,” she said.
“It’s very easy to act when you’re pregnant because you’ve got hormones raging and it was more that the proximity of her life growing inside me gave me the strength to do this and this performance. I love you so much and it’s all for you from here on out.”
The show’s creator and director, Jesse Armstrong, won best writing for a drama series and thanked the “creative community in the US”.
“I come from the UK and the show is about things that are close to the centre of American life and politics and we’ve always been met with generosity and good faith and that’s part of America’s tradition of being very welcoming to outsiders and it’s very nice,” he said.
“And, for some reason, the name of Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch comes to mind. I can’t speak for him but I am very grateful for the generosity I’ve been shown working in this country – it was a great sadness to end this show but it was a great pleasure.”
Beef also took home a host of gongs with stars Yeun and Wong winning outstanding lead actor and actress in a limited series respectively.
Wong said: “I wouldn’t be standing here without my amazing parents, my mother and my father who I so wish were alive to share this moment with me. My hilarious father who loved me unconditionally and taught me the value of failure.”
Creator and director Lee Sung Jin made three speeches on the night, also picking up best writing and directing of a limited series.
He said: “There is a lot of the suicidal ideation in the show, it was based on stuff I and some of the folks up here have struggled with over the years, so I’m really grateful and humbled by anyone who watched the show and reached out about their own personal struggles, it’s very life-affirming.
“I feel like we live in a world designed to keep us separate, even here some of us go home with trophies, other people don’t, and I think for some of us when we live in a world like this you begin to think there is no way anyone can understand you, or like you, or much less no potential at being loved.
“And so the greatest joy working on Beef has truly been working with the folks up here who I love so unconditionally.”
Elsewhere, The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge won best supporting actress in a drama series, using her speech to thank “all the evil gays” – referencing an episode of the show that became a viral meme.
“I had a little dream in my little town and it did happen after all, so don’t give up on your dream,” she added.
An emotional Niecy Nash-Betts won best supporting actress in a limited series for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, who thanked herself “for believing in me”.
“Finally, I accept this award on behalf of every black and brown woman who has gone unheard yet over-policed – like Glenda Cleveland, like Sandra Bland, like Breonna Taylor,” she said.
“As an artist, my job is to speak truth to power and baby I’m going to do it until the day I die – Mumma I won!”
The Emmy for best supporting actor in a limited series went to Paul Walter Hauser for Black Bird, the actor rapping his acceptance speech as he dedicated the award to his wife who “makes my heart strong and knees weak”.
The ceremony also saw Charlie Puth perform the theme tune to Friends as the Emmy Awards remembered those who have died in the industry, including star Matthew Perry.
Murder, She Wrote star Dame Angela Lansbury, Euphoria’s Angus Cloud and Len Goodman from Strictly Come Dancing were also remembered, alongside Pee Wee Herman star Paul Reubens.