By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
The gold statues came out at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles this week, where the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Law & Order star Mariska Hargitay, crowned 'Widow's Bay' and 'The Pitt' as the night's dominant winners, according to Al Jazeera.
The standout individual moment belonged to Jean Smart, who took home her fifth Emmy for 'Hacks.' The win makes her the first performer to claim lead comedy actress honors in every season the show has aired — a run of dominance BBC's Entertainment & Arts desk called one of the ceremony's headline stories.
BBC also reported that the real color came after the cameras cut away: winners kept the celebrations going backstage, and some of the night's most-talked-about viral moments happened off-screen, out of view of the broadcast audience. Neither BBC nor Al Jazeera's dispatches we have in hand spell out exactly which moments went viral or who was involved backstage, so we're not speculating on details beyond what's confirmed.
What is confirmed: Hargitay held the hosting reins for the night, 'Widow's Bay' and 'The Pitt' were the big winners across categories, and Smart's fifth trophy cements her as one of the category's defining performers of the era.
For a night built on speeches and standing ovations, the real headline may be the one that outlasts the broadcast: a record that can't be topped, only tied.
If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera and the BBC.
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