Did you hear the one about the Emmys’ being super diverse this year? The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, which ran Monday night on NBC, opened not with the hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost, but with a parade of beloved performers, including Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon and Ricky Martin, doing an awkwardly self-deprecating musical bit about Hollywood’s commitment to inclusion called “We Solved It.” From that point, the word “diversity” (or “diverse”) lingered like a trending hashtag, hammered home by one person after another seemingly every few minutes. [Read about what happened at the Emmys and at the after-parties.] It was the running theme of the night, while curiously the discussion around #MeToo at the first Emmys ceremony since The New York Times’s Harvey Weinstein story broke last year was noticeably muted. This was especially glaring in light of the recent downfall of the former CBS chief executive Les Moonves, long one of the most powerful men in television, who stepped down earlier this month after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. (Mr. Moonves has denied these accusations.) Here are some of the most memorable moments from the Emmy Awards. — AISHA HARRIS The ‘S.N.L.’-ification of the Emmys<doc-sep>From its hosts and performers to – serendipitously – its winners, "Saturday Night Live" was overwhelmingly represented at the 2018 Emmy Awards. Unfortunately for the viewers who sat through all three hours of NBC's self-congratulatory slog, the Emmys' parade of "SNL" talent wasn't enough to save the awards show – and provided an unfortunate reminder that the glory days of the once-vaunted variety show have long since passed. Preliminary national ratings for the 70th Primetime Emmys fell 11 percent from last year, to an all-time low of 10.2 million viewers amid a sharp downward trend for all awards shows. A quick rundown of the Emmys' total "SNL" takeover: Boss Lorne Michaels produced the show, tapping head writers Michael Che and Colin Jost to reprise their "Weekend Update" routine as the Emmys' hosts. Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson opened the show's song-and-dance number, and Tina Fey, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Will Ferrell and Andy Samberg all spoke during the ceremony, with Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph appearing in the show's recurring comedy segment. "SNL" also cleaned up nicely at the awards, winning the best variety show and seeing former talents John Mulaney and Bill Hader win writing and acting trophies. The show was prefaced Monday with the announcement of Adam Driver and Kanye West as the "SNL" host and musical guest for the show's Season 44 premiere Sept. 29, treating the Emmys as an extended promo for the new episode. And while it's almost a prerequisite for the Emmys to frequently plug whatever network is airing the ceremony that year, the barrage of "SNL" talent was striking – perhaps because their material was so unfortunate. More:'Game of Thrones' wins best drama, 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' takes best comedy Review:The best and worst of the 2018 Emmys, from 'Marvelous' to that woeful opening From their earliest days hosting "Weekend Update," Jost and Che have been criticized for their sleepy segments, and their opening Emmys monologue didn't show any improvement, with the two cracking mostly tired jokes about diversity and #MeToo with even less magnetism than normal. Things only got worse with Armisen and Rudolph's near-unwatchable segments, and while the duo have received some positive buzz for their new Amazon series "Forever," their collective comedy greatness was nowhere to be seen during Monday's show. While Morgan fumbled his way through a Millie Bobbie Brown joke and Jones tried her best to keep up with RuPaul's drag-name zingers, Fey – always a reliable awards-show player – was relegated to introducing the in memoriam segment. And though Thompson is a perennial "SNL" MVP, his puzzling appearance as the night's final presenter, an honor bestowed on Oprah Winfrey at last year's Emmys, reeked more than a little of Studio 8H nepotism. Tack on TV legend Betty White's Lorne Michaels flattery during her appearance – "You topped yourself tonight, Lorne," she said to applause – and the producer's own acceptance speech for "SNL," in which he praised NBC's ongoing survival, and the whole show was as self-congratulatory an affair as we've seen in the Emmys. It was almost comical when a commercial for "SNL" aired during a break in the show, featuring many of the faces viewers had already seen during the telecast, plus a clip of Alec Baldwin's increasingly stale take on President Donald Trump, a performance awards show viewers were mercilessly spared. With Baldwin's Trump impression nearing its two-year anniversary, it's hard not to imagine that NBC would want to leverage the Emmys to drum up excitement for the new "SNL" season. And yet the show seemed like less the comedy triumph its writers and producer likely hoped it would be and more like a misguided scheme by Jack Donaghy – a much funnier Baldwin character from a far superior NBC show, the late, great "30 Rock" – to maximize the network's corporate synergy at any cost. As elaborate as the Emmys' "SNL" takeover may have been, its team failed at their most basic mission: to make it funny.<doc-sep>
After a lively opening number (featuring fellow NBC comedic stable members Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson) that only served to drive home what a strange choice they are as Emmy hosts, Michael Che and Colin Jost kicked things off with a comparatively stiff monologue that mostly scored lukewarm laughs. Though their jokes tackled the expected timely topics — sexual harassment, Roseanne, representation — they were delivered with an offhand lightness that robbed them of their deserved weight, and thus dulled their comedic impact. Jost noted that the audience members were allowed to drink in their seats, joking about “losing inhibitions at a work function” before launching into quips about getting calls from Ronan Farrow (who wrote on the Harvey Weinstein allegations for the New Yorker as well as reporting on misconduct allegations against Les Moonves). Che continued by saying that Roseanne Barr, recently fired from her own show for racist statements, had “had a rough year” — notably a sentiment last expressed (and walked back) by Norm Macdonald — and gave a sarcastic congratulations to Laurie Metcalf for her supporting actress nomination for the infamously canceled Roseanne revival. He and Jost also joked about the subject of that opening number, representation, calling out ER for having no Filipino nurses and guessing that one day there’d be an all-white reboot of Atlanta. Though the reception in the Microsoft Auditorium seemed muted on the television feed, reaction shorts from the audience members helped give some life to the lackluster monologue, including Chrissy Teigen’s reluctance to play along and Brian Tyree Henry’s no-go reaction to the proposed Atlanta reboot. Brian Tyree Henry isn’t here for that @AtlantaFX remake that Michael Che cooked up during his #Emmys opening dialogue! pic.twitter.com/zbrhlwpeYj — Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) September 18, 2018 Nonetheless, the monologue seemed to lose more air as it continued, lending a whiff of sympathy to Jimmy Kimmel’s entreaty to applaud as he presented the next award. (“Let’s have a hand for Michael and Colin, weren’t they great?”) At least we’ll always have that opening number.