Emmys 2025: Seth Rogen and Jean Smart win for comedy series for ‘The Studio’ and ‘Hacks’

The 77th Emmy Awards kicked off Sunday with wins for best actor in a comedy series for Seth Rogen in “The Studio” and best actress in a comedy series for Jean Smart in “Hacks.”

“I so could not wrap my head around this happening that I prepared nothing,” said Rogen on arriving on stage at the Peacock Theater to accept the Emmy for his work as a cringy, barely competent studio head.

“As a kid, I bought a used bowling trophy at an estate sale and my parents were like, yeah, that’s good, you should do that.”

His award was presented by Stephen Colbert, host of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” which, perhaps awkwardly, was recently canceled by CBS, the Emmys broadcaster this year. Colbert received a standing ovation from the audience, made a pitch to the crowd to hire his 200 staffers come June, and handed an old headshot and resume to nominee Harrison Ford to give to Steven Spielberg.

For Smart, the Emmy for best actress in a comedy is her seventh Emmy and fourth for her work as a stand-up comedian on the series “Hacks.”

“You honor me so much,” Smart said, explaining her slight limp after she reached the microphone. “If I was walking like John Wayne, it’s because I broke my knee this summer and it’s not quite repaired.

“Let’s be good to each other; let’s just be good to each other,” she finished.

First-time host Nate Bargatze opened the show with a sketch in which he played Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the television, talking with three of his lab assistants played by “Saturday Night Live” actors Bowen Yang, Mikey Day, and James Austin Johnson.

“I dream that one day there will be a channel for every interest,” Bargatze, as Farnsworth, said. “The Travel Channel for travel. The Food Channel for food. The History Channel for –”

“– for history?” Day’s character interjected.

“No, for aliens,” Bargatze replied.

At the end of the monologue, a few minutes later, he introduced a new initiative to keep winners within their 45 seconds for acceptance speeches. Bargatze said he was donating $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America. For every second over 45 seconds, a thousand dollars would be subtracted. For every second under 45 seconds, a thousand dollars would be added.

“I know, it’s tough, it’s brutal,” he said as the audience laughed. “What are you gonna do, I can’t change it, this is the game I made up and these are the rules.”