Perhaps the most difficult task for an awards show producer is figuring out when to play a winner off the stage. On Sunday night, 76th “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” had just won another Emmy award—its second in a row for scripted variety series—and the host’s speech was starting to drag.
A nervous Oliver had already messed up his son Hudson’s name (he accidentally called him “husband”) and then started talking about his dog. For the Jesse Collins Entertainment team, it seemed like a good time to wrap things up, so they went all out with the playoff music.
And then, as the orchestral music grew louder, Oliver revealed the clue: the dog had just died.
“I was like, ‘Oh, turn the music down!'” laughs executive producer Jesse Collins about this unexpected moment. “You’re trying to make a phone call. And then John Oliver’s dog shows up!”
Dionne Harmon, president of Jesse Collins Entertainment, said: “He talked about the dog and we thought: He’s dead? No! Bring the music back and pay some respect to the dead dog!”
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Collins said Oliver took the moment with humor. “That was great television!” he added.
Collins, Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, Senior VP of Specials at Jesse Collins Entertainment, met with diversity on the Sunday immediately after the 76th.th The Emmy broadcast will reveal some behind-the-scenes details of this year’s show. (diversity also spoke with ABC and Disney executives on Sunday night to get some additional information on certain aspects of the show.)
For the Jesse Collins Entertainment team, it was the second Emmys of the year, following the reunion-heavy event in January. This time, the goal was to continue the success of that event (which had been postponed from September 2023 due to the Hollywood strikes), but give it its own twist, with segments honoring TV moms, villains, doctors, cops and more, in addition to cast reunions for “Happy Days” and “The West Wing.”
All in all, the show started about 10 minutes late this year, which isn’t bad for a live event. According to Collins, Harmon and Rouzan-Clay, no major elements were cut due to time constraints. And there was no specific moment that caused the show to start a little late.
“It was like not cutting 20 seconds here or 10 seconds there, but adding 10 seconds to everything, 10 seconds,” Collins said. “Because there were great moments, great comedy that came across. In the end, we were happy with that.”
Here you will find more information and answers to some of your burning questions about this year’s show.
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>> Hosts Eugene and Dan Levy were instrumental in the creativity of their interactions, including opting for a traditional, witty stage introduction rather than a recorded play or production number.
“It was never about a big song and dance number,” Collins said. “It was about performing comedy, building a connection with the audience and showcasing their relationship.”
Rouzan-Clay said, “We prepared for what you’re going to see the rest of the evening.” Harmon added, “You can’t fake that. Her relationship was the most important thing about her role as host. So we wanted to bring that to the forefront from the start.”
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>> Why was award-winning comedian Jeremy Allen White’s “Jesus Christ” remark blacked out? This is not the fault of the producers, who didn’t even know it happened. The credit goes to an overzealous network censor who works completely independently of the production team and even the network’s special managers.
“We don’t have control of the button and we don’t hear it,” Harmon noted. “We have a delay, so we see what happens. We don’t have a feed to the actual show. We don’t have the button.”
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>> Yes, the unusual moment when Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Taylor Zakhar Perez were seen in a backstage bar talking about Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch was a paid product integration.
“Oh dear,” giggled Collins. “Compelling television! It was an integration opportunity with ABC and the Academy and Johnnie Walker.”
Moss-Bachrach is a paid spokesperson for the brand, so his participation made sense. “He’s shooting a big movie and flew in to do this for us,” Rouzan-Clay said.
Harmon said, “It was just about doing something in a creative way. I mean, a bar at an event like this, an upscale drink, how it works, at least it wasn’t a broom. It fit. Fancy drink for a fancy night. We’ve seen some interesting integrations throughout our career!”
Collins joked: “I was tempted to have a drink during the show.”
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>> Collins had heard Jelly Roll’s song “I Am Not Okay” before its release and 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 performing on that show. And he was wearing a blazer! That’s probably the first time in his life he’s worn a blazer. And no hat. He made it very clear that he wasn’t wearing a hat.”
Harmon noted that when Jelly Roll plays the song on tour, “people bring posters with names and pictures of loved ones who have passed away. It’s kind of a standout moment in his show.”
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>> Jimmy Kimmel’s tribute to Bob Newhart at the end of “In Memoriam” was placed there when producers realized Jelly Roll would also open his segment with a speech.
“It seemed difficult to have Jimmy talk and then play Jelly,” Collins said. “Bob Newhart was such an iconic person to wrap up with, so it made sense for Jimmy to come out.”
>> Many of the Levys’ contributions were grounded in truth – including Eugene’s desire not to do a segment from the audience. “That was a real thing,” Collins said of Eugene Levy’s desire not to do anything in the audience. Rouzan-Clay added, “That scenario where Dan is in the audience and Eugene is way away, that was all them and so iconic.”
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>> Some of the scenes for the awards ceremony were worked on, others were based on screen captures – but at home it was often difficult to tell the difference. And that was intentional.
“It’s a lot about timing,” Harmon said. “Like, do we have the time to get an entire car on stage? Where we had time, we were able to really build out those moments, and where we needed to speed things up, we leaned more heavily on the screen content. That screen was incredible. The ‘SNL’ stages, I swear, I thought I could run away from them. I was shocked it was a screen.”
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>> The hardest piece to find for the set? The ’50s-style jukebox for the show’s “Happy Days” reunion between Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. (Winkler’s Fonz famously banged on the jukebox to get it to play, something he recreated at Sunday’s Emmys.) “We finally found it at a prop shop,” Collins said.
>> The plan was always to dedicate the “Happy Days” tribute to Howard and Winkler only, which is why no other series stars like Donny Most (Ralph) or Anson Williams (Potsie) came along. “No, it was always these two from the beginning. Because the idea was really to have them there and not to make it a big reunion,” Collins said. “We love all these guys. I think we held the big reunion of the cast for ‘The West Wing.'”
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>> Speaking of “The West Wing,” that might have been the worst-kept secret of the night. Producers kept the show’s reunions under wraps — but then ABC, in a press release announcing the Emmy presenters, named all of the show’s cast, 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 attend due to availability issues (which is why other former cast members, such as Rob Lowe, were absent from the stage).
>> Sorry, Friends fans, there was never a plan for this cast to return to the stage. (And with the death of Matthew Perry, that was now even less likely.)
“Honestly, when we talked about the shows, we knew we weren’t going to do a lot of them,” Collins said of further reunions in September. “Although a ‘Friends’ reunion would have been great, we just didn’t decide to do it.”
>> If you noticed that the stage microphone wasn’t always there in time for the speakers, it was because there was actually a technical glitch. “We had problems with the pop-up microphone,” Collins said. “Just mechanical failures, and they were able to fix it.”
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>> The moment at the end when Catherine O’Hara ripped up the envelope announcing the winner of the best comedy series sent ABC executives into a panic. According to insiders, Alphabet Net employees knew nothing about the O’Hara gag – and panicked when they remembered the infamous Oscar envelope error. Thankfully, the winner was announced – but with “Hacks” surprisingly winning over “The Bear,” at least one insider noted that the Emmy truthers had been given fresh fodder.
