The 2022 Emmys may be over, but Us Weekly is just getting started! We’ve got exclusive details of what you didn’t see behind the scenes of TV’s biggest night, from cast reunions to fangirl moments.
Viewers got a glimpse of The Brady Bunch reunion during host Kenan Thompson’s opening dance sequence, with Barry Williams, Mike Lookinland, Susan Olsen, Christopher Knight and Eve Plumb attending the awards show at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 12. During the broadcast, Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang was excited to meet the iconic stars, with a source exclusively telling Us that he and his mother gushed about how Yang grew up watching the series during a run-in at the Backstage Creations Giving Suite.
Abbott Elementary, Ted Lasso, Succession and The White Lotus were big winners during the evening and both Sheryl Lee Ralph and Quinta Brunson’s acceptance speeches caught viewers’ attention. While Ralph delivered an emotional — and musical — address after winning supporting comedy actress for the ABC sitcom, Brunson was forced to navigate the aftermath of a bit from Jimmy Kimmel and Will Arnett.
When the two comedians arrived on stage to present the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host was laying on the ground, pretending to be passed out drunk after his talk show lost. While some social media users thought he stole the Abbott Elementary writer’s moment, Brunson told reporters that she didn’t mind.
“Tomorrow maybe I’ll be mad at him,” she quipped to the press backstage. “I’m going to be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face. I don’t know what happens.”
Brunson revealed that she knows Kimmel, whom she referred to as “one of the comedy godfathers,” explaining: “Jimmy gave me my first big late-night spot and was one of the first people to see Abbott. He Instagram messaged me that he saw this comedy and thought it was one of the greatest comedies of all time.”
When asked about the bit, Kimmel told Entertainment Tonight: “I had my eyes closed, I had no idea where I was. It was one of the weirdest things that’s ever happened to me.”
The host went on to praise Brunson.
“She is so unbelievably talented. And I saw her pilot before it came out on ABC, and I wrote to her, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how we got this, but congratulations. You made a pilot that any network would be ecstatic to get,’” he said. “She’s a lovely person as well.”
Scroll through for an exclusive look at what you didn’t see on TV:
