Emmy Awards: 5 takeaways from TV's big night

With ever-dwindling audiences for award shows, the 2018 Emmy Awards faced an uphill battle to draw eyeballs Monday night.

The three-hour TV awards ceremony, held at the Microsoft Theaterin Los Angeles, had a few truly genuinely happymoments (yayfor Barry's Henry Winkler, a supporting actor winner 43 years after his last nomination). It also attempted to evade some of the pitfalls that have befallen other award shows, with fewovert political statements of the sort that audiences have deemed reason to tune out.

Didn't get a chance to watch? Here arefive key takeaways from the ceremony.

The musical opener

Musical openers are a mainstay of award shows, so of course the Emmys had one, kicking off with two of Saturday Night Live's strongest recent players Kate McKinnon and KenanThompson singinga tune called We Solved Itand poking fun at Hollywood's smug self-satisfaction over inclusion efforts andattempts to oust controversial figures.Tituss Burgess, Kristen Bell, Sterling K. Brown, Ricky Martin and Andy Samberg also took part, Sandra Oh andAidyBryant played along from in the audience and John Legend brought it home.

Social media reactions were divided, but it was just witty and punchy enough to steal the spotlight from ... oops, show hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost'slow-key opening monologue (or was it a duologue?).

The proposal

It's rare for a highly orchestrated awards show to have a true jaw-dropping moment, but Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Jones, BenedictCumberbatchand countless others were astounded when director Glenn Weiss (winner of best direction of a variety specialfor this year's Oscars telecast) turned his moment in the spotlight into a marriage proposal making a brief detour to pay tribute to his recently departed mother as well.

"You wonder why I don't like to call you my girlfriend. Because I want to call you my wife," he declared to his bewildered and ecstaticpartner JanSvendsen. An honest-to-goodness whoop rippledthrough the star-studded audience the second he finished the sentence.

Thankfully, she said yes and the Emmy Awards got its first-ever onstage proposal.

The comedian

Presenter banter is often awkward and typically groan-inducing. At best, it might make you smirk. Leave it to Hannah Gadsbyto seemingly effortlessly turn what some might consider a ho-hum category (direction of a drama series) into a smashing minute-and-a-half of relevant and resonant comedy. And if you haven't seen it already, addNanetteto your Netflix queue.

The SNLcast

Producing his second Emmy telecastin three decades, SNLhead honcho LorneMichaels most definitely put his signature stamp on the evening.

From co-hostsMichael Che and ColinJost'schilled-out,Weekend Update-feeling repartee to the alumni who popped up at every turn (Tina Fey! Maya Rudolph! Fred Armisen!) to Leslie Jones's utterly joyful, ebullient reactions both onstage and while sitting in the audience, you couldn't escape the feeling that the entire broadcast was a black-tie, awards-show version of SNL. They even hired the SNLband!

That thelong-runningsketch show picked up yet another Emmy for best variety sketch series during the telecast (bringing its record-setting haul to 72) was simply icing on the cake.

The streamers

Finally, the ceremony proved beyond any doubt that streaming services have upended the TV industry and are a force to be reckoned with.

Out of the 26 categories handed out on the telecast, Amazon triumphed in five (all thanks to The MarvelousMrs. Maisel) while Netflix ran away with seven trophies (including multiple wins for The Crown and Godless). HBO was still a serious contender with six trophies captured during the telecast, but the cable network and reigning Emmy champion ultimately tied with Netflix when it came down to overall Emmy wins (they each nabbed 23).

The streamers' message to traditional TV network and cable companies was clear: watch your back. We're taking over.