Emmys 2024 Delivered Historic Wins — Including ‘Shogun’

Like any great awards ceremony, some of the best surprises at the 2024 Emmys were those winners that had not quite been on people’s radars. To think that in all 10 years and five seasons that “Fargo” has been on the air, featuring celebrated performances from stars like Billy Bob Thorton, Kirsten Dunst, and Ewan McGregor, the first actor to win for their work on the anthology series is Lamorne Morris, with the “New Girl” alum even besting Robert Downey Jr. and his five different roles on “The Sympathizer.” 

And far be it to bet against “The Bear,” which broke its own record for most Emmy wins for a single season of a comedy series (though “Hacks” ultimately won the big prize,) but star Liza Colón-Zayas became the first Latina to ever win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, having won the category against icons Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett. Though that factoid went unmentioned during the segment of the show where John Leguizamo touted improvements in diversity at the Emmys, it made his shoutout to the Latinx talent in the room all the more emotional.

Another notable first that had been more expected, given the record-breaking dominance of “Shōgun,” was star Anna Sawai becoming the first Asian winner of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Together with co-star Hiroyuki Sanada winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (only the second Asian actor to do so after “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae,) it feels like even more of a statement about how the TV landscape has changed that the only Asian winners in the drama lead categories won for performances that were primarily not in English. A realization of Bong Joon-ho’s subtitle dreams.

While we are now past Peak TV, and probably the peak of diversity, equity, and inclusion conversations, these incremental changes do seem so much more notable when considering the historical context. The Emmys are in their 76th year, and we are more or less into a decade of there being more than 500 scripted TV shows on the air each season, so to still have winners who are the first of their entire race or ethnicity to accept the Emmy is a long overdue corrective. These groups were around and on TV when the Emmys started, yet there is still so much more room for groups like Native Americans and Middle Eastern performers to be recognized.

Though it is also important to highlight DEI efforts go past race, so even 73-year-old star Jean Smart winning Outstanding Lead Actress for “Hacks” a third season in a row bodes well for a TV future that represents even more of its audience. As the Max series co-creator and star Paul W. Downs said in his Outstanding Comedy Series acceptance speech, “About 20 percent of our population is over 60+, and there are only three percent of those characters on television, and I would like to see more of them.” Though the point was jokingly self-serving, with him adding “while I’m a great young supporting actor, I really want to be a good old lead.”