• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 11 hours ago

“The Pitt” is a great show, but its emergence as the winner of two of the most prestigious Emmys Sunday night came as a surprise -- and a welcome one, at that.

Going into the Emmys each year, it is reasonable to assume that the drama series that is talked about the most, and garners the most nominations, will come away with the show’s top awards -- most notably Best Drama, which went to “The Pitt.”

Apple’s “Severance” was the one to watch. This show certainly got the most attention in the past year and the most nominations, with 27. 

It felt like a shoe-in for Best Drama and with that, Best Actor in a Drama to nominee Adam Scott.

But the Best Drama Actor Emmy went to Noah Wyle (photo above), the star of “The Pitt,” a hospital emergency-drama not unlike the network series that made him a star so long ago, “ER” (1994-2009 on NBC). He was on the show for 11 of its 15 seasons.

Wyle richly deserved this year’s Best Actor award. As a very experienced television actor, he brings great authority to the show in his role as the senior attending physician in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room.

There may have been a wee bit of sentiment too in favor of Wyle, 54, who was nominated for “ER” five years in a row, but never won. Sunday night’s Emmy was the first of his long career.

“The Pitt,” which premiered last January on HBO Max (then just Max), also won a Best Supporting Actress award for Katherine LaNasa, who plays charge nurse Dana Evans.

One of the executive producers of “The Pitt,” created by Scott Gemmill, is John Wells, 69, one-time showrunner on “ER.” 

As a result, “The Pitt” is a show in the mold of the best of network television that is nevertheless a hit in the streaming era.

“Severance” was hardly shut out, however. It won an Emmy for Britt Lower for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for Tramel Tillman, who thanked his mother who he had brought with him and was sitting in the audience.

His sweet tribute was one of the show’s best moments. Others included the Emmy win for Owen Cooper, 15, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie for “Adolescence” on Netflix.

The English-born teen was naturally surprised to win the award, but he gave a very confident acceptance speech for a 15-year-old. 

“Standing up here … wow, this is so surreal,” Cooper said. “I think tonight proves that if you listen and you focus and you step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life.”

Cooper was the youngest male to ever win an acting Emmy. Child actor Roxana Zal holds the overall title. She was 14 when she won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for “Something About Amelia” in 1984.

“Adolescence” was also a big winner Sunday night. Actor Stephen Graham made multiple appearances on stage to accept Emmys for the show.

Graham won the Emmy for Best Actor in a Limited Drama Series, but he was also the show’s co-creator, co-executive producer and co-writer. 

Thus, he shared in the Emmys the show won for won for Outstanding Limited Drama or Anthology Series and Outstanding Writing. Erin Doherty won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for the show as well.

Other big winners included “The Studio” on Apple TV+. Actor Seth Rogen, who was involved in all aspects of “The Studio,” made multiple on-stage appearances to accept awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

Generally speaking, the telecast of “The 77th Emmy Awards” on CBS was business as usual for recent Emmy shows.

There was a smattering of curse words caught by the seven-second delay that prevented them from airing.

There was at least one “Free Palestine,” voiced by Hannah Einbinder, winner of an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy for “Hacks.” 

Thankfully, the show was mostly devoid of this sort of virtue-signaling that has characterized our major awards shows for a number of years.

As a matter of fact, the Emmys had a bit of a country twang this year. Reba McIntire was joined by singers Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman of the country band Little Big Town to sing “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the theme song of “The Golden Girls,” to mark the 40th anniversary of the show’s premiere.

In addition, Tennessean Nate Bargatze was host of the show, and another comedian from Tennessee, Leanne Morgan, presented the Emmy for Best Reality Competition Series (the winner was “The Traitor,” seen on Peacock).

Then, country stars Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson duetted on the Gill song “Go Rest High On That Mountain” to accompany this year’s “In Memoriam” tribute remembering the TV luminaries who died in the past year.

Onstage reunions at the Emmys included the joint appearance of Ray Romano and Brad Garrett of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” They presented the Best Comedy award that was won by “The Studio.”

The Best Drama Emmy won by “The Pitt” at the very end of the show was presented by Mariska Hargitay and other veterans of the “Law & Order” franchise who appeared on a re-creation of one of the show’s sets to mark the start of it all 35 years ago.

Last but definitely not least was the reunion of Samantha Graham and Alexis Bledel, mother and daughter, respectively, from “Gilmore Girls,” to mark the show’s 25th anniversary.

Finally, let the record show that Lorne Michaels, 80, won his 24th Emmy, this one for “SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” which aired last winter on NBC.