'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso' win again at Emmys

"Succession," HBO's savage sendup of Murdoch-style big media that appeared a lock to win best drama going into the 74th Annual Primetime Emmys, made good on the predictions Monday night. The win was its second in three years and spoiled "Better Call Saul's" last chance to finally land the top Emmy after six seasons and six straight best drama nominations.

The other big winners Monday were "The White Lotus," for limited series, and "Ted Lasso," which got its second consecutive top comedy award. These three winning shows had 65 Emmy nominations going into Monday, which is the Emmy version of the wind at their back. 

Meanwhile, in the major actor awards, those candidates expected to win did not confound predictions, at least at first. Zendaya won best actress for the second time for "Euphoria" while Jason Sudeikis landed his second straight best actor/comedy award, too. Jean Smart also got her second straight best actress/comedy win for "Hacks."

And then the happiest (only?) surprise of the whole night: Lee Jung-jae — "Squid Game's" Seong Gi-hun who found himself a contestant in the game from hell — won for best actor in a drama. That was historic on a few levels — the first South Korean actor to win a best actor Emmy while "Squid Game" became the first non-English language series to win an Emmy. A few moments earlier, the creator of the Netflix hit, Hwang Dong-hyuk, won for best directing in a drama. 

In another nice twist — albeit this one was expected — "The White Lotus," HBO's seriocomic worst-vacation-ever limited series, was a big winner, with veteran Australian actor Murray Bartlett as best supporting actor and his co-star Jennifer Coolidge as best supporting actress. Mike White, series showrunner and creator, won best directing and best writing for a limited series. 

Coolidge — an actor's actor who has been around this business since an early '90s cameo in "Seinfeld" — was a favorite to win, and certainly appeared to know it. "Wow, what a night!" she said and, after a reference to a preshow "lavender bath," began to thank various people who made all this possible. The Emmys' version of the curtain hook — the orchestra — then started up, but instead of leaving the stage, she started to dance. 

It was one of those impromptu moments that lifted the whole night — the other, "Abbott Elementary's" Sheryl Lee Ralph, a Uniondale High school graduate, (best supporting actress in a comedy) who sang her acceptance speech to the opening lines of Dianne Reeves' 1993 R&B standard, "Endangered Species." And speaking of "Abbott," Quinta Brunson won her first career Emmy for writing in a comedy series  for the ABC show.

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards

Kenan Thompson of "Saturday Night Live" was the host with maybe the least enviable job at the Microsoft Theater Monday night — trying to pump some life into a ceremony that seems designed to calcification and has long (and faithfully) met the expectations. (And then Ralph and Coolidge came along.) But he succeeded, with a lot of energy and a few decent dance moves.