The 2024 Emmy Awards are a night for hope, artistry, celebration, success, but also … outreach. Partway through the ceremony, four legendary cast members of Saturday Night Live made an appearance to share a message of hope and support with executive producer Lorne Michaels. Before presenting the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special to Alex Edelman (okay!), Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers, Kristen Wiig, and Bowen Yang took to the stage to address a glaring oversight in Television Academy history, which is that their “dear friend and mentor, Lorne Michaels, has been nominated for and lost the Emmys 85 times. He has never won.”
“Lorne, look at me,” said Wiig. “You do have value. You are worthy. You are not and have never been a loser, even though you lost a lot.”
“Each and every one of those 85 times you lost you were robbed,” said Rudolph, pronouncing the one-syllable word in three whole entire separate syllables. “Rob-buh-da!”
“Lauren,” added Yang. “It gets better. Just because SNL didn’t work doesn’t mean your next idea won’t. Keep dreaming!”
Then, Meyers alerted the group that Michaels has in fact personally won 21 Emmys, with SNL winning over 200 over its soon-to-be 50 years, which only goes to show that anything is possible if you only believe! Even a sad old man can go from losing 85 times to winning 200 times in a matter of minutes if he puts his heart to it. That is the enduring magic, power, and inspirational potential of television.
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