Perhaps the toughest call for an awards producer is figuring out when to start playing a winner off the stage. On Sunday night’s 76th Emmys, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” had just won yet another prize — its second in a row for scripted variety series — and the host’s speech had started to go long.
A flustered Oliver had already botched his son Hudson’s name (calling him “Husband” by mistake) and then started to talk about his dog. For the Jesse Collins Entertainment team, it felt like a good time to wrap things up. So, they kicked the playoff music into high gear.
And then, Oliver revealed the kicker, as the orchestral music got louder: The dog had just died.
“I was like, ‘oh, take the music down!’” executive producer Jesse Collins laughs about that unexpected moment. “You’re just trying to make a call. And then John Oliver’s dog pops up!”
Said Jesse Collins Entertainment president Dionne Harmon: “He was talking about the dog, and we’re like… he’s dead? No! Take the music back, give the dead dog some respect!”
Collins said Oliver was a good sport about the moment. “It was great TV!” he added.
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Collins, Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, Jesse Collins Entertainment’s senior VP of specials, sat down with Variety on Sunday immediately after the 76th Emmys telecast to reveal some of the behind-the-scenes details to this year’s show. (Variety also spoke with ABC and Disney execs on Sunday night to get some additional color about certain aspects to the show.)
It was the second Emmys of the year for the Jesse Collins Entertainment team, following January’s reunion-heavy affair. This time, the goal was to continue the success of that event (which had been pushed from September 2023 due to the Hollywood strikes) but give it its own spin, with segments paying tribute to TV moms, villains, doctors, cops and more in addition to cast gatherings for “Happy Days” and “The West Wing.”
All told, this year’s show wound up going around 10 minutes late, which isn’t bad for a live event. According to Collins, Harmon and Rouzan-Clay, no major elements were cut for time. And there was no specific moment that caused the show to go a touch late.
“It was like, as opposed to saving 20 seconds here or 10 seconds there, everything was adding 10, adding 10,” Collins said. “Because you had great moments, you had great comedy that spread. In the end, we were happy with it.”
Here are more tidbits and answers to some of your burning questions about this year’s show.
>> Hosts Eugene and Dan Levy drove much of the creative when it came to their interactions. That included going with a traditional joke-heavy stage open, as opposed to a taped piece or production number.
“It was never about a big song and dance number,” Collins said. “It was about coming out with comedy, connecting with the audience and showcasing their relationship.”
Said Rouzan-Clay: “We were setting up what you were going to see for the rest of the night.” Added Harmon, “You can’t fake that. Their relationship was the marquee thing about them hosting. So, we wanted to put that in full sway out of the gate.”
>> Why was comedy actor winner Jeremy Allen White’s “Jesus Christ” remark bleeped? That’s not the responsibility of the producers, who didn’t even know it had happened. Credit an overzealous network censor — who operates completely separate from the production team, and even the network’s specials execs.
“We don’t control the button, and we don’t hear it,” Harmon noted. “We’re on a delay so we see what happens. We don’t have a feed to the real show. We don’t have the button.”
>> Yes, that unusual moment where Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Taylor Zakhar Perez were seen at a backstage bar talking about Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch was a paid product integration.
“Oh dear,” Collins chuckled. “Riveting television! It was an integration opportunity with ABC and the Academy and Johnnie Walker.”
Moss-Bachrach is a paid spokesperson for the brand, which is why it made sense for him to participate. “He’s shooting a big movie, and flew in to do this for us,” Rouzan-Clay said.
Said Harmon: “It was just about trying to do something in a creative way. I mean, a bar at an event like this, an upscale drink like it works, at least it wasn’t a broom. It matched. Fancy drink for a fancy night. We’ve had some interesting integration across our career!”
Quipped Collins: “I was tempted to drink some during the show.”
>> Collins had heard Jelly Roll’s song “I Am Not Okay” even before it came out, and he knew it would be perfect for the In Memoriam segment.
“I thought it was a very brave performance,” Collins said. “He was phenomenal. It was a different type of artist to perform on this show. And he wore a blazer! That’s the first time he’s probably wore a blazer in his whole life. And no hat. He was very specific that he’s not wearing a hat.”
Harmon noted that when Jelly Roll performs the song on tour, “people bring posters, and they have names and pictures of loved ones who’ve passed. It’s kind of a marquee moment in his show.
>> Jimmy Kimmel’s tribute to Bob Newhart at the end of the In Memoriam was placed there when the producers realized Jelly Roll was going to open his segment with a speech as well.
“It seemed tough to have Jimmy talk and then go into Jelly,” Collins said. “Bob Newhart was such an iconic person to end with, so it made sense for Jimmy to come out.”
>> Many of the Levys’ bits were based in truth — including Eugene’s desire not to do a segment from the audience. “That was a real thing,” Collins said of how Eugene Levy preferred not to do anything in the crowd. Added Rouzan-Clay: “That setup where Dan is in the audience and Eugene is far away, that was all them and so iconic.”
>> Some of the set pieces for the tributes were built out, while others relied on screen images — but it was often hard to tell the difference at home. And that was by design.
“A lot of it is timing,” Harmon said. “Like, do we have the time to bring a whole car onto stage? Where we had time, we were able to really build out those moments and where it needed to move faster, we leaned more heavily on the screen content. That screen was incredible. The ‘SNL’ steps, I swear I thought I could walk off that. I was shocked that it was a screen.”
>> The hardest piece to find for the sets? The 1950s-style jukebox for the show’s “Happy Days” reunion between Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. (Winkler’s Fonz famously hit the jukebox to make it play, something he re-created on Sunday’s Emmys.) “We finally found it at a prop shop,” Collins said.
>> The plan was always to keep the “Happy Days” tribute to just Howard and Winkler, which is why you didn’t see other series stars drop by, like Donny Most (Ralph) or Anson Williams (Potsie). “No, it was always those two from the beginning. Because the idea was really to have the two of them and not build it out into a big reunion,” Collins said. “We love all those guys. I think we were holding the big cast reunion for ‘The West Wing.’”
>> Speaking of “The West Wing,” that was perhaps the most poorly-kept secret of the night. The producers kept that show’s reunions under wraps — but then an ABC press release announcing Emmy presenters included all of the show’s cast among the names, including Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney and Richard Schiff. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going to happen.
“They announced all the names!” Collins said.
Harmon confirmed that the entire cast was invited, but not everyone could make it due to availability issues (which is why other alums, like Rob Lowe, were not on stage).
>> Sorry, “Friends” fans, there was never a plan for that cast to return to the stage. (And obviously, with the death of Matthew Perry, that was even less likely now.)
“Honestly, when we were talking about the shows, we knew we weren’t going to do a lot of them,” Collins said of doing more reunions in September. “Although, a ‘Friends’ reunion would have been amazing, we just didn’t go down that direction.”
>> If you noticed that the stage microphone didn’t always make it up in time for presenters, that’s because there indeed was a technical malfunction. “We had pop-up mic challenges,’ Collins said. “Just mechanical mistakes, and they were able to fix it.”
>> That moment at the end, when Catherine O’Hara ripped up the envelope announcing the outstanding comedy series winner, gave ABC execs a moment of panic. Insiders said the Alphabet net suits didn’t know about the O’Hara gag — and had a serious panic moment, remembering the infamous Oscars envelope gaffe. Luckily, the winner was announced — but with “Hacks” scoring a surprise win over “The Bear,” at least one insider noted that Emmy truthers had been given fresh fodder.
From Variety US