Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
GLEN WELDON: You're listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour, the podcast that keeps you on top of the latest in pop culture, or it would if you followed the show. If you don't follow the show, we can't help you. You're out there on your own, wandering the wilderness, making references that are years out of date, and we don't want that for you. So follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on your favorite podcast app.
LINDA HOLMES: They had her do a very bad opening number, which I kind of think was bad on purpose. To a degree, I think it was cheesy, corny earnest on purpose, like an ant trying to be cool. And I say that as an ant who is not cool.
WELDON: Exactly.
[THEME MUSIC]
WELDON: It was a big night for some TV shows. We like a lot around here, The Pitt and Pluribus got some love. And Widow's Bay really cleaned up. And Matthew Rhys made some history. There is plenty to talk about. I'm Glen Weldon. It is 12:08 in the AM, and we are recapping the 2026 Emmy Awards. Joining me tonight is my fellow NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour host, Linda Holmes. Hey, Linda.
HOLMES: Hello, Glen.
WELDON: Hey. That's-- we got a lot of energy. Let's get right to it.
HOLMES: We do. My energy is up.
WELDON: My energy is up, and then it might fall off towards the end because there's some precedent.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Then I'm just going to stretch at the end of the show.
WELDON: Then we're all going to sit here and talk incessantly.
HOLMES: Yeah, huh?
WELDON: Let's start with the big one that we're all-- I think we're both happy with. Widow's Bay won for Outstanding--
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: --Comedy Series. Do you have thoughts about just this win? Because I mean, I think folks had this as a two-show race between Hacks and Widow's Bay. Hacks was a returning favorite--
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: --taking its final bow, but Widow's Bay was the moment. I mean, it's the first real word-of-mouth phenomenon we've had in a while. Are you happy?
HOLMES: I think that's right. Yes, I'm very happy. I think this is a really interesting show. I think it's accurate when people point out that it was a big, creative swing that kind of, in retrospect, now, it's easy to say like, oh, yeah, you know, this is, like, a mystery comedy. It makes sense that it was successful. But at the time, you can see how it was a large gamble for the people who got involved in it. But it has such a great cast. And it's also like, super weird in a way that I thought was satisfying. So yeah, I was very happy to see this win Outstanding Comedy Series and then go on to win a bunch of other things, too.
WELDON: A bunch of other things like, Matthew Rhys won two awards tonight. He did win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Widow's Bay. He also won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for The Beast in Me. He is the very first actor to ever win lead performance awards in two different categories in the same year. Thoughts about that?
HOLMES: I mean, I'm a big fan of him. I think he is a super versatile guy. If you saw him in The Beast in Me, you know that he has the ability to go very, very big as a scary person. In Widow's Bay, he kind of goes big as a kind of terrified person. And I do think those go in very different directions. And I admire the versatility. He also, you know, in, I think, 2018, he won Lead Actor in a Drama Series for The Americans. So he's kind of--
WELDON: Yep.
HOLMES: --made his way through the major categories. He's a versatile dude. I'm happy for him.
WELDON: Yeah, I'm happy for him, too. I'm also happy for everybody else on this show because they really cleaned up, as we mentioned. Kate O'Flynn won. She plays Patricia. She won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
HOLMES: I love her.
WELDON: The great and good Stephen Root for Outstanding Supporting Actor--
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: --in a Comedy Series--
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: --I was pulling for him, but I didn't think it was a lock. And I was very happy that that happened.
HOLMES: Yeah, I was a little bit-- listen, I love Stephen Root. Stephen Root can win anything. I'm never going to be not happy that he won. But this was also the category that Harrison Ford was nominated in for Shrinking. I think he's wonderful in Shrinking and was particularly good in this season. It's also the category that Nick Offerman was nominated in for--
WELDON: Sure.
HOLMES: --Margo's Got Money Troubles. And he was wonderful in that. If I was going to squeak one away from Widow's Bay, it might be this one, simply because I was so attached to some of the other performances. But I can take nothing away from how good Stephen Root is in this, and I will never begrudge him anything. So that's fine.
WELDON: If you did try to squeak it away, I would squeak it right back.
HOLMES: I know, I know.
WELDON: But let's keep going with the Widow's Bay love. Katie Dippold won for writing. And Hiro Murai won for directing. It's a really good night for a really good show that came out of nowhere.
HOLMES: Absolutely.
WELDON: That's what you want to see.
HOLMES: Absolutely. And if the name Katie Dippold doesn't mean anything to you, you may have seen the famous tweet in which she was dressed up as the Babadook at a Halloween party that turned out nobody else was in costume. It's kind of, I think, the first time a lot of people found out who she was, even though--
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: --she's work on a bunch of great television and written great movies. And I'm delighted for her. And Hiro Murai is an outstanding director who's worked on a bunch of different stuff, worked on Atlanta, worked on--
WELDON: Yep.
HOLMES: --Mr. And Mrs. Smith, and was a producer on The Bear, and has really gotten around with a bunch of interesting projects, and is kind of-- to me, kind of a director of the moment and of the era. And so, delighted to see him, you know, pick up something for Widow's Bay.
WELDON: Yep. Yep, and with all these Widow's Bay wins, I pretty much got my comedy wishlist, except for one category. And that's the one we're talking about now. And I'm not going to take it away from the great and good Jean Smart, who won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Hacks. She won that award for every year that she was eligible for. And I'll just say this. For gay men, this was a tough one because our two mommies were fighting, right? Jean Smart and Lisa Kudrow, who was up for The Comeback, of course. Jean Smart is 5 for 5. As I say, she won for every season of that show. This is a feat. This is an achievement. And I'm not taking it away from her.
HOLMES: No, absolutely. And I think this was not my personal favorite performance in this category. I think, you know, you mentioned Lisa Kudrow. There were some other ones I really loved. Again, I really loved Elle Fanning in Margot's Got Money Troubles. There were a lot of performances I liked in that category. Jean Smart is great. Jean Smart is great.
WELDON: Jean Smart is great, and she remains great. OK, after the break, we'll talk about wins in the drama categories, plus how Mariska Hargitay fared as host. So do not go away.
WELDON: Welcome back. And as I mentioned at the top, following Pop Culture Happy Hour is the best way to know you're staying up to date on everything, not just the Emmys. So hit that Follow button on your preferred podcast app, and sit back and bask in your awesomeness. OK, so let's go. The Pitt won for Outstanding Drama Series.
HOLMES: Yep.
WELDON: It's its second year that it won. I think people were kind of expecting this. Were you expecting this?
HOLMES: I was expecting this. You know, there were people who didn't like this season of The Pitt as much as the first season. I thought it was just as good, but different. I think they actually made some more daring choices in this season than they made in the first season. I was delighted that it won again. And that's despite the fact that-- again, look, there were a bunch of really good shows in this category. I also thought Pluribus was a terrific show. There's lots to like. There's lots to be in favor of. I loved The Pitt, man. The Pitt has--
WELDON: Sure.
HOLMES: --lots of fans for a reason, I would say.
WELDON: Yeah, absolutely. And it was, I think, a Pitt versus Pluribus fight.
HOLMES: Felt like it.
WELDON: Pluribus is a critical darling. It's very buzzy. And lots of folks love it. But it is never going to be the water cooler phenomenon that The Pitt is. It just doesn't have that kind of reach. I think its appeal is maybe a little-- you know, all those long, silent shots, all that wordlessness can come off a little esoteric. I mean, The Pitt is a-- I don't want to say crowd-pleaser because it can get pretty gnarly.
HOLMES: No, but it's more digestible for sure--
WELDON: OK.
HOLMES: --I think, than Pluribus. Pluribus is a weird show. And--
WELDON: It's a weird show.
HOLMES: --that kind of storytelling does not appeal to as many people, necessarily, as broadly as a hospital show. I think The Pitt is a really, really good hospital show, you know, not unlike many hospital shows that have been very popular. It's just executed differently, with some different values overlaid and some different choices of focus. But that kind of storytelling-- patients come in and out. You meet the doctors, and you know what's going on in their lives. That stuff has always been popular. And they have found it is still popular, as opposed to very strange science fiction story that's kind of alienating, based around this character who is not very likable and often will really get under people's skin. I mean, when we talk about risk versus not risk, I think Pluribus is a different kind of risk.
WELDON: Yeah, but The Pitt is led by Noah Wyle, who won, once again, Lead Actor in a Drama. And talk to me about this, because Noah Wyle is one of the most likable actors we have.
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: And he put his character through it this season and had-- he took a very likable character and had that character make choices that could potentially turn viewers off--
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: --of him and the character--
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: --and the series. But he won. So tell me more.
HOLMES: Yeah, I am not, in any way, saying that this is the entirety of people who liked the second season less. But there are people who liked the second season less whose main complaint was he's acting like such a jerk. I think having the courage to break or threaten the fondness that people have for your heroic character, to the point where they're thinking, he's just not a good boss right now, and he's sometimes not even a good doctor to people, I think that's a daring thing to do in the second season of a show with a very, very likable lead and a very, very likable lead actor, but also lead character, who's kind of been your-- this is what we wish every doctor was like.
WELDON: This is not coasting. This is pushing himself. I like this. So the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series went, finally, to Rhea Seehorn for Pluribus.
HOLMES: Yay.
WELDON: That sound you hear, listeners, is the nation's TV critics unclenching--
HOLMES: Yep.
WELDON: --and finally saying, OK, we can relax, because this thing that should have happened a long time ago has finally happened.
HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. She was in Better Call Saul for a number of seasons without being nominated. And it was considered something of a travesty that she had never been nominated. Then she was nominated twice, but she didn't win. And so she came over to Pluribus. She got on this show, won the Emmy in her first season as the lead of Pluribus, which I think is delightful. She's excellent in it. This show, as we've talked about, this show is weird. And if you can't kind of attach to her, it doesn't work at all.
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: She's basically-- she's not the only person in the show, but she's kind of the only person in the show. So, yeah.
WELDON: Yeah. I mean, she is the show in a sense that, you know, people say that about a lot of different shows. This-- in this case, it's true. Vince Gilligan also won for Outstanding Writing for a Drama for Pluribus. He's won Emmys before. This is the first one for this new show. That's great.
HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. Really like Vince Gilligan. Happy to see him having a new show that works well.
WELDON: Allison Janney won in Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work on The Diplomat. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series went to Tom Pelphrey in Task. I didn't expect that, but I think you did because you might have seen this Pitt split coming. Talk to me about that.
HOLMES: Yeah. So what happened is that both the Supporting Actress Drama and the Supporting Actor Drama categories had seven nominees, right, which is a lot. In the actress category, four of the seven were from The Pitt. In the actor category, three of the seven were from The Pitt. And you can end up kind of splitting your vote. Not-- I mean, people will talk about splitting the vote when there's two. I don't necessarily--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --think that it comes into play that much when there's two. I do think when there's three or four, all of whom are kind of well-liked by different people for different reasons, I suspect there was some vote splitting that went on. But with that said, Allison Janney is Allison Janney and in The Diplomat was highly praised for that performance and deserves to be. And she's her, right? She's Allison Janney, right?
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: And it's the same-- I had heard a ton of praise for that Tom Pelphrey performance. On its own, there were people who thought he was going to win anyway because Task was a heavily promoted, you know--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --HBO product. Likely to win something. So I was not surprised by either of these all that much. She's very good in The Diplomat. She's-- Allison Janney is very scary on The Diplomat. She's very scheming.
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: Very scheming.
WELDON: Oh, interesting. OK.
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: Slow Horses won for Directing in a Drama Series. That went to Saul Metzstein. And let's move on to talking now about Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. You know, when these nominations came out, one of your takeaways was very, very smart. You said that there was a time when this category was the most exciting. It was featuring some of the most compelling and innovative storytelling, performances. You were talking about things like Mare of Easttown, and WandaVision, and I May Destroy You, and Underground Railroad. I don't get the sense that these shows are the ones capturing the zeitgeist right now.
HOLMES: Well, the Academy didn't think so because they put most of the awards for Limited Series or Anthology over in the creative arts--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --ceremonies that happened before the ceremony tonight. So they don't think that they're the hottest ticket. Now, in the end, DTF St. Louis, which won Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and also won some of the other awards in this realm, is a show that a lot of people really like. I personally didn't watch it, I will acknowledge. But it is a show people like, but I don't think we're in that place where there's a lot of kind of excitement about this category in the same way that-- you know, the ones that you mentioned, which people were so intense about and--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --so attached to. I don't really get that.
WELDON: Yeah. OK, so DTF St. Louis, as you mentioned, wins Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Sally Field won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. This was for her work in the Netflix movie Remarkably Bright Creatures.
HOLMES: Yep.
WELDON: Yeah, Sally Field. Sally Field won an Emmy. This is a thing that you can--
HOLMES: Absolutely. You know, some actors have just been around a long time, and it never hurts to see them win again. Again, a movie I did not watch, but a movie that I know a lot of people really liked, based on a novel that a lot of people really liked. Can't argue with Sally Field.
WELDON: Outstanding Reality Competition went to The Traitors.
HOLMES: Good show.
WELDON: Good show. And we just pick a favorite reality competition, and they kind of stick with it for years.
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: And so this is the third time in a row for The Traitors. We're probably going to get some more.
HOLMES: Yep, I think so. They have-- as you said, they're very loyal, I think, partly because a lot of people who vote in these awards don't necessarily watch very many of these shows. So they vote for whatever won last year. That said, The Traitors, I think, is a good show. And I think a lot of that award is for Alan Cumming. And Alan Cumming is an exceptionally good host. So--
WELDON: And he won for reality host.
HOLMES: Yes, he did. Yes, he did.
WELDON: OK, Outstanding Variety Series went to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. That had an air of inevitability to it, didn't it?
HOLMES: 1,000%, yes. Obviously, they went off the air this year. And there were a certain number of-- you know, there was a lot of mourning of the end of that show, and also some joyful celebrating of what that show had been. If you saw him performing with David Byrne in David Byrne's--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --outfit. Really fun. Really celebratory, joyful. But yes, because of the circumstances, this felt inevitable. Yes.
WELDON: OK, and now let's pivot to the broadcast itself, hosted by Mariska Hargitay. What did you think?
HOLMES: She's not a professional comedian. She's not a traditional awards show host. She's an actor. And she's been in television, as they referred to over and over again-- she's been in television for a gazillion years. Been on SVU since, I think 1999, and they referred repeatedly to the length of time that show's been on. I think she was incredibly game and kind of dorky and cringey. They had her do a very bad opening number, which I kind of think was bad on purpose to a degree. I think it was cheesy, corny earnest on purpose, like an ant trying to be cool. And I say that as an ant who is not cool.
WELDON: Exactly.
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
MARISKA HARGITAY: (SINGING) Guy Fieri's eating up on me, yeah, me We're all watching shows and smelling feet, bare feet Singing, I love TV streams Minus money troubles on the airplane, baby
[END PLAYBACK]
HOLMES: I think that that's what they were sort of going for. And I think it did that. Over the course of the evening, did I think everything she did was great? No, but she's incredibly game. She was very willing. They called upon a couple of things that people know about her. She went to one of the Knicks games with Taylor Swift. So Taylor Swift showed up in a pre-taped skit with a bunch of the SVU regulars. So she participated. She was enthusiastic. She brought a lot of energy. And I think that's kind of what you need from a host, which I will always prefer to-- you know, you'll remember, last year at this time, we were watching Nate Bargatze, who did the whole thing with sort of an air of "I don't really care about or know about television. This is stupid." And that's quiet an-- unfortunately, quite a common award show host attitude.
WELDON: Sure.
HOLMES: I always greatly dislike it. So be a nerd who loves the thing, you know?
WELDON: Yeah, I mean, we're on the same page here because this is an award show. It can't be cool.
HOLMES: Mm-mm. Exactly.
WELDON: But by the very-- if you try to make it cool, you make it snide and--
HOLMES: Exactly.
WELDON: --dismissive. And so don't make it cool. I mean, and I am never going to turn my nose up at a production number where there's dancing television sets, you know, and cheesy song parodies, corn. Like, this is a stew. An award show is a stew. Adding some cornstarch to a stew, I'm never going to turn my nose up at that either, because it makes it stick to the ribs. She's game. She commits to the bit, even when that bit is terrible.
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
HARGITAY: And I got to say, you know, over the years, there have been a lot of jokes about his name, which is so unfair because Dick Wolf isn't even his real name. His real name is Richard Penis.
[END PLAYBACK]
HOLMES: I think whoever wrote it just thought it would be funny to see her say it. I think that's probably as deep as it went. It was a mixed bag for her for sure, but I thought--
WELDON: Sure.
HOLMES: --she acquitted herself quite well.
WELDON: I mean, they obviously went-- they made moves to revitalize the broadcast this year-- the Emmys did. A big one was reducing the number of awards handed out tonight by pretty early on in the night. This is what I'm saying. The structure was weird. All of the acting awards had been handed out. We did get a lot fewer clip packages, which always feel like padding. There was that one year where we just had actors from old shows kind of come on stage and stand there--
HOLMES: Yes.
WELDON: --on the set of their old show.
HOLMES: We did not have that this year. And I was glad.
WELDON: It was just there to acknowledge the fact that time has an effect on human skin. That's the only reason I could figure out--
HOLMES: Yes, agreed.
WELDON: --why they were doing that. But by frontloading the actor categories-- I don't know-- actors are good TV. They're familiar faces. They're energetic. They're charismatic.
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: They engender good feelings because you-- you're personally invested in them, in a way that you're maybe not as invested in--
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: --directors, writers, producers. Consequently, the last half of the broadcast kind of went off a cliff in terms of pacing and the mood. And it also got heavy because we hit a wall of in memoriam, which were I think were very tasteful and well-executed. But we hit this wall of in memoriams that really-- I was missing the corn. I was missing the shtick. I was missing Mariska.
HOLMES: Yeah, you first had the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, which went to Michael J. Fox for his work trying to find a cure for Parkinson's, which, you know, I think that work's very admirable. I think it was very good to kind of hear him talk about that work and, you know, to recognize everything that he has done. I love that guy. And he was very funny when he popped up on Shrinking.
WELDON: Yep.
HOLMES: I was very happy about that. So that was warm, but heavy, right? And then, like you said, we went into-- you know, there was a Dolly Parton in memoriam. There was a Catherine O'Hara in memoriam. There was the general in memoriam that showed kind of everybody ending on James Burrows. And then Jamie Lee Curtis had a memoriam to Rob Reiner. I think, as you sort of alluded to, I think all of those were fine for what they were, and they were very deserved, right? I wouldn't have wanted them to skip-- I don't know if Reba McEntire singing a song on the Emmys to honor Dolly Parton is what I would have done, as opposed to maybe showing some stuff Dolly Parton did--
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: --on TV, but obviously, deserved. Catherine O'Hara in memoriam-- obviously deserved. Part of this is just there were several people. I think they felt they needed to take an extra moment and acknowledge. But the cumulative effect was that in the back half of the show, you had not that many awards that felt competitive anymore, because I was pretty sure Widow's Bay was going to win comedy series, particularly by this point. And I was pretty sure The Pitt was going to win drama series. So kind of, what are we waiting for--
WELDON: Right.
HOLMES: --that's going to be great television? And in the meanwhile-- in the meantime, everything's very, very sad. But they messed up the pacing, so that at the very, very end, they were asking Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey to vamp, which--
WELDON: Yep.
HOLMES: --I think is the least-- the most not optimal outcome you could possibly come up with is putting those guys out there and being like, just talk for a while.
WELDON: Just you're so-- yeah.
HOLMES: First of all, you've already played people off the stage during their speeches a few times.
WELDON: Rhea Seehorn, yeah.
HOLMES: That makes the-- you know, the "well, we've got extra time to fill" feel particularly bad. You've cut several awards from the show to leave extra time. And now you find that you need these two dudes, who I personally feel I have heard talk enough, you're just asking them to fill time.
WELDON: You can't help but feel like you're kind of stuck in a dorm room with them late at night. You know what I mean?
HOLMES: For real. For real.
WELDON: These are the guys who you don't need to tell to stretch because they--
HOLMES: No.
WELDON: --their whole life, their whole vibe is stretch. But yeah, but we always have something to say about the broadcast itself. It's always--
HOLMES: True.
WELDON: It's always a kind of a lumpy [LAUGHS] mess.
HOLMES: Yeah.
WELDON: But again, you just needed somebody like her to sell it. She did her best to sell it.
HOLMES: She did.
WELDON: I was mostly sold.
HOLMES: She did. And listen, at the end of an Emmys night, I'm always looking back, being like, how pleased am I about the people that they honored? And honestly, across the board, very pleased. Like, there really aren't any of these that I look at, and I say--
WELDON: Yeah.
HOLMES: --that's a travesty. There are people that I look at and I say, oh, I also would have loved to see that person win, right? I also would have loved to see something for Shrinking. I would have loved to see something for Margot's Got Money Troubles in this ceremony, right? I've got that on my mind. But the things that actually won, I can't complain about that.
WELDON: All right, well, it's the end of another Emmys night. That brings us to the end of our show. Linda Holmes, thank you so much for being here. And go to bed.
HOLMES: Oh, thank you, buddy. I appreciate that.
WELDON: This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Mike Katzif, and edited--
HOLMES: Woo-hoo.
WELDON: --by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. And I know I sound like a broken record, but if you're not already following the show, do that right now, so you're not stuck making out-of-date references to things like broken records. Ask your parents what a broken record is, kid. I'm Glen Weldon. And we'll see you all next time.
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