Credit : Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty;Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

The 2025 Emmy Awards had it all, from feel-good wins for The Pitt and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to some red carpet moments that deserve a second time in the spotlight. Seth Rogen broke records and host Nate Bargatze tried a bit that didn’t quite land (though it did eventually land a lot of money in a charity’s coffers, so, everyone wins in the end, we guess).

See the best and worst moments of the night — and spare a thought for the actresses whose ribcages were crushed in the name of fashion — in our roundup of the highs, lows and yikes of the Emmys.

01of 12

 

Best SNL Skit in the Wild: Philo T. Farnsworth Invents TV

Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

Nate Bargatze’s opening sketch called back to his instant classic “Washington’s Dream” sketch from Saturday Night Live, this time taking an imagined look inside the laboratory of Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, in the 1920s.

When Farnsworth’s lab assistants (played by Bowen Yang, Mikey Day and James Austin Johnson) ask the important questions about the future of TV such as: Will the Emmy Awards go to the shows that have the most viewers? They’re rewarded with the nonsensical (but accurate) responses, including “Not even close. Most people will watch football and Yellowstone. … We create a world where the finest artists craft stories of staggering beauty that millions will watch on their phones while sitting on the toilet. That is television and this is the Emmys.”

02of 12

 

Best, Worst and Oops: The Charity Donation Countdown

CBS

At the start of the show, Bargatze said he would donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America — with one catch. If a speech ran longer than 45 seconds, he’d deduct $1,000 for each second it went too long. If a speech went under, he’d add $1,000 per extra second back. This got mixed reactions in the PEOPLE Emmys Slack channel, with many finding it uncomfortable; it also led to a few fun reactions, like when Hannah Einbinder noticed she was going long, then offered to make up the difference so she could end with “Go Birds, f— ICE and free Palestine.”

03of 12

 

Worst Night to Be a Winner’s Accountant or Third Cousin

CBS

If you were tangentially related to a winner tonight and thought you might finally get your moment on national television, the rapidly decreasing charity countdown ticker meant that you were instead going to get an awkward text after the fact, and you were going to like it. Did you want to be the reason cash was ripped out of the hands of the boys and girls?! (In the end, Bargatze announced a total donation of $350,000 to the charity, a feel-good finale to an awkward bit that had us grinding our teeth towards the end of the night.)

04of 12

 

Best: Creative Guy Style

Amy Sussman/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty

One of our favorite ongoing red carpet trends is how the guys seem to have more and more fun with their wardrobe each year. There were fits thrown by the usual suspects (such as Brian Tyree Henry and Harvey Guillén, not pictured) and more surprising looks such as a tuxedo designed by Figs (yes, the scrubs company) on Noah Wyle (also not pictured). In fact, there were so many great guy outfits we had a hard time narrowing down a selection of guys to show above — but we landed on Chris Meloni, Jeff Hiller, Colman Domingo and Seth Rogen.

05of 12

 

Best: Big Ol’ Necklaces

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty;Kevin Mazur/Getty;Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty;Amy Sussman/Getty

Sure, the Emmys is a celebration of the best in television … but it’s also an excuse to get decked out in some ridiculous jewelry. We were particularly hypnotized by the big honkin’ pendants on Sydney Sweeney (whose Lorraine Schwartz necklace comprises 120 carats of diamonds), Meghann Fahy (wearing Tiffany & Co. diamonds), Natasha Rothwell (in a David Webb emerald and diamond necklace) and Parker Posey (wearing a Sabayaschi necklace with a 45-carat emerald and 50 carats of aquamarines and diamonds).

06of 12

 

Oops: The Name Fumbles

Kevin Winter/Getty

Jason Bateman awarded outstanding supporting actor in a drama series to “TRAM-ell Tillman.” Nate Bargatze welcomed “Carrie Fanchild. Farchild! Karen Fairchild?” ahead of her performance of “Thank You for Being a Friend” during the Golden Girls tribute. Could we get some phonetic spellings on the teleprompter please?! It’s everyone’s big night!

07of 12

 

Best Preserved: The Gilmore Girls

Amy Sussman/Getty

Is talking fast and wearing bootcut jeans the secret to eternal youth? Judging by Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham’s as-if-we-never-said-goodbye appearance during their onstage reunion, we might as well give it a shot. (And by the way, since I’ve got a platform and I’m not afraid to use it, I’m going to boldly declare that I am team NONE of Rory’s boyfriends.)

08of 12

 

Best Night to Be Seth Rogen

Kevin Winter/Getty

Though we’re not sure there’s ever a bad night to be Seth Rogen — he seems like he’s pretty happy to be here — his repeated returns to the stage for the show he created and starred in, The Studio, must have been an all-time high.

“I’m legitimately embarrassed how happy this makes me,” he said while accepting for outstanding comedy series.

09of 12

 

Worst Night for Oxygen Levels

Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty;John Shearer/WireImage;Frazer Harrison/Getty

Heather McMahan, Chase Sui Wonders and Leslie Bibb were among those (Brittany Snow included) who openly admitted to suffering for fashion. Wonders declared she had “dissociated” in order to be laced into her Thom Browne gown, which for which “the intestines had been rearranged;” Bibb noted she too couldn’t breathe in her Armani Privé; and McMahan expressed her envy over Meg Stalter’s jeans and tee look, saying she was wearing three pairs of Spanx and a girdle under her Anne Barge gown. Not that we ever begrudge anyone their Fashun, but we do hope they all have a tracksuit to change into so they can get In-N-Out before the afterparties.

10of 12

 

Best Reason Not to Go to the Fridge Mid-Show: Secret Speech Notes

Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

On the whole, the winners’ speeches were thoughtful, moving and engaging. But Britt Lower’s and Cristin Milioti’s were even more than that: They were mysterious, with writing scrawled on the side facing the camera! Okay, we can explain: Lower’s was a reference to her Severance character, while Milioti said she had written her speech on the back of some notes she took at therapy earlier that week. But we like the idea of sending hidden messages through the TV.

11of 12

 

Worst Night to Be a Hypochondriac

cbs

Was it just us, or did we learn a lot about health conditions thanks to the plethora of pharmaceutical advertising tonight? Right about the time an eyelash mite started talking to us, we started Googling whether it would be possible to overnight ourselves one of those germ isolation bubbles.

12of 12

 

Best Victory Lap: Stephen Colbert

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

After what many felt was a suspiciously timed announcement by CBS that Late Night with Stephen Colbert would end after this year, it was unsurprising that the room shook with cheers as the crowd took to their feet to celebrate the show’s win for outstanding variety series.

After his heartfelt and jubilant thank yous, he ended on a thoughtful note about the show, which he said began as a late-night show about love, then evolved.

“At a certain point … I realized that in some ways, we were doing a late-night comedy show about loss. And that’s related to love, because you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” he said. “Ten years later, in September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”