Emmys 2022: 11 Of The Best, Worst And Weirdest Moments From The Ceremony

The 74th Primetime Emmy Awards were a ride, right?

When an evening kicks off with a dance ode to Friends, includes a belted acceptance speech and makes Lizzo cry, you know you're going to run the gamut of human emotion during the three-hour telecast.

And on that count, this year's Emmys didn't disappoint. There were moments of fun happenstance (Ted Lasso himself and Succession's Logan Roy sitting next to each other! What were they talking about?!) and kooky hijinks (Jennifer Coolidge's funky outro!) mixed in among interludes of pure joy (yay, Abbott Elementary's Sheryl Lee Ralph!) and several instances of "Wait, what just happened?" (we know being an Emmys announcer is a thankless job, but c'mon).

Your devoted team here at TVLine watched the Emmys very closely — like, very closely — and selected a bunch of memorable moments that made us laugh, cry, grimace or facepalm. But we know you paid close attention, too, so we're also incredibly interested to know what you thought of the annual awards show. So grade Monday's Emmy broadcast in our poll below (or click this link to vote), then keep scrolling to see all of our picks for the evening's best and worst moments.

Host Kenan Thompson kicked off the show with a nod to popular TV shows of the past and their [checks notes] theme songs? When the umbrellas came out for the Friends tribute, we were out. Then when the dancers grooved to the Law & Order theme, we were back in! And by the time Thompson walked on stage in a Targaryen wig with the Game of Thrones dancers, we couldn't tell if that was the the most brilliant or absolute worst start to the Emmys we'd ever seen. (Grade the opening here!)

With no disrespect to the hard work of Thompson and everyone presenting, we would have been perfectly content with a three-hour live feed of the table where Ted Lasso's Jason Sudeikis and Succession's Brian Cox were sitting next to each other. Of course, we know these men aren't actually their characters — but still, what a weird and wonderful pairing, right? (Surely Logan Roy would have a hearty "F—k off" in store for Ted Lasso's "Believe" sign.)

We loved every single moment of Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph's win for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, from her shock at hearing her name announced to her triumphant singing of Dianne Reeves' "Endangered Species" to her joyful assertion "to anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn't, wouldn't, couldn't come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like." (Watch her speech here.)

The White Lotus standout — upon being "played off" during her acceptance speech for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series (and to "Hit the Road, Jack," no less! #rude) — made the most of the moment by spontaneously shimmying along to the tune. (Watch her speech here.)

As he got up to accept Saturday Night Live's latest win for Outstanding Sketch Series, series boss Lorne Michaels made a point to nudge now-former cast member Kate McKinnon to come with him and join everyone else on stage.

We were delighted to see Grammy-winning singer Lizzo take home the award for Outstanding Competition Program for her Prime Video series Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls. And her memorable acceptance speech made us love her even more: "When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media: someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me," she said. "If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I'd be like, 'You're going to see that person, but bitch, it's going to have to be you.'"

Introducing presenters and tossing to commercial breaks is a deeply thankless job for any awards show announcer, and comedian/writer Jay did a nice job of getting the show where it needed to go. That said, we did blanch at a couple of those name mispronunciations. Mariska Hagertay? C'mon now!

You can't have an awards show without a little discomfort for those of us at home, and this year's came in the form of Last Week Tonight winning for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, on an NBC telecast, just hours after John Oliver's takedown of the Law & Order franchise. No mention of Oliver's L&O segment was made aloud, of course, but paired with Law & Order's presence in Thompson's opening number, and the appearance of Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni as presenters, the timing of Last Week Tonight's commentary was certainly a little uncomfortable.

Oliver himself later acknowledged the awkwardness in the Emmys press room, laughing to reporters, "It's almost like I hadn't considered the Emmys are on NBC this year." (And, to Hargitay and Meloni's credit, we appreciate how game they were to lean into their SVU characters' long-standing sexual tension during their presenting bit.)

We certainly expected Thompson to share the Emmy stage with his SNL co-stars throughout Monday's broadcast — but a reunion with his All That/Kenan & Kel comedy partner Kel Mitchell? A genuine, nostalgic surprise for the '90s kids among us. Is Kumail Nanjiani still behind the bar to pour us some orange soda?

As you can tell from much of this list, we're suckers for a moment of sincerity — even moreso when there's a standing ovation involved. No surprise, then, that we were all verklempt over the warm, crowd-on-their-feet reception that Selma Blair received as she walked onstage to present the Outstanding Drama Series award.

"Big week for successions," began Succession creator Jesse Armstrong as he accepted the show's trophy for Outstanding Drama Series... and that would have been a fine start and finish to any acknowledgment of Queen Elizabeth II's death. But Armstrong kept going, digging himself a deeper and more uncomfortable hole as he toed the line between joking about the royal family and saying something outright insulting — until, finally, Brian Cox urged him to "keep it royalist." And when Logan Roy tells you to move on, you do.