2025 Emmys: Best Unseen Moments  

Plenty went down on camera during Sunday night’s Primetime Emmy telecast — or was it a gathering of the Stephen Colbert Fan Club? — but the conspicuous surplus of the f-word wasn’t the only thing that viewers didn’t catch at home. The event was filled with little Easter eggs for those sitting in the room as host Nate Bargatze joked about taking money from children for three hours.

More Money, Fewer Problems

Inside the theater, you could not see the Boys & Girls Clubs of America donation count hemorrhaging money as so many winners went over their allotted speech time. That was just for viewers at home.  Per multiple sources, those involved with the gag had expected the night’s Emmy recipients and/or their studios to make financial pledges from the podium and were said to be surprised when that didn’t happen. In the end, the CBS contributed $100,000, and Bargatze added another $250,000. So, the kids are all right.

The Farewell Tour is Off to a Good Start

It would be difficult to overstate how psyched the populace of the Peacock Theater was for Stephen Colbert — to see him onstage, to breathe the same air and to lose any remaining shred of cool when he took his first Emmy for the canceled Late Show With Stephen Colbert as it marches toward its final episode. In what felt like a rather unprecedented moment for any awards show, the audience appeared so sure and so psyched that Colbert was going to win outstanding talk series that the premature cheers almost rendered any envelope opening useless. Chants of “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen,” an encore from when he presented at the top of the show, erupted as he took the stage. Seth Rogen may have left with the most hardware, but Colbert was arguably the biggest winner.

The People United

Typically, the Television Academy’s onstage spiel is the night’s preferred moment for emptying bladders and refilling champagne flutes. But chair Cris Abrego held a captive and enthusiastic audience when he devoted the Emmy Awards governing body’s annual reminder that it’s their party to scolding Congress for defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting out of existence. His call to creative arms was a hit. It was also one the several placidly political moments of the night, which of course also featured more candid commentary like Hannah Einbinder announcing “Fuck ICE and free Palestine” as she accepted best supporting actress in a comedy.

Chivalry Isn’t Dead

There’s plenty of more depressing issues to take with America these days, so let’s turn our frustrations to the comparatively low-stakes world of manners. The only men who got up out of their seats to escort their dress-wearing female winners to the stage were imports. Brit Stephen Graham helped Adolescence co-star Erin Doherty navigate the crowd to accept her Emmy, taking his job so seriously that it seemed for a moment that he was going to join her at the mic. Then Colin Farrell, the pride of Ireland, followed suit with Penguin co-star with Cristin Milioti. American actors, please take note.

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Oldies But Goodies

During commercial breaks, memorable acceptance speeches from years past played in the theater. There was Merritt Wever’s famously brief, “Thank you so much. Um, I gotta go, bye” from her 2013 Nurse Jackie win. There was My Name is Earl creator Greg Garcia’s 2006 win, where he rattled off a list of folks he wouldn’t be thanking to uproarious laughs: “My 8th grade social studies teacher who told me to sit down and shut up because I wasn’t funny. No thank you, Mr. Mackado.” Also included was Melissa McCarthy’s win for Mike & Molly, which followed each of the category’s nominees — including Amy Poehler, Edie Falco, Martha Plimpton and Tina Fey — taking the stage, pageant style. One could read this as an easy way of amusing the audience while the show was on a pause, but it was there was arguably some subliminal messaging for the night’s winners about making their time on stage worth remembering.

It’s Called Fashion, Look It Up

The Emmy dominance of RuPaul’s Drag Race may have come to an end but long may its cast reign as agents of chaos and confusion on the red carpet and in the audience. Per usual, the queens were the least conspicuously dressed attendees — with this year’s crop including a Michael Jackson (those prosthetics!), a Miss Piggy and, yes, a Labubu. Season 17 competitor Joella was the one who showed up in the toy-inspired outfit, which didn’t not resemble some Five Nights at Freddy‘s nightmare fuel, and, to the frustration of those seated behind them, they kept the oversized headpiece on for the bulk of the show. La-oh-no!