SNL Cast Members Colin Jost and Michael Che Host Emmys

Ryan Ash, Staff Writer

What do choppy banter, a focus on diversity and a wedding proposal have in common? The Emmys had them all this year.

The 70th annual Emmy awards took place Monday.

The show opened up with “SNL” “Weekend Update” hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, who made a wide variety of jokes on topics including Hollywood’s sexual assault scandals, lowered Emmy viewership, the decline of cable networks and diversity in Hollywood.

Diversity continued to be a talking point throughout the show, as Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon led a song and dance number entitled “We Solved it,” where they satirically sang about how racism in Hollywood has now been solved because a few major roles have been given to non-white actors.

Despite the multitude of self-congratulatory remarks from actors on how the Emmy nominees were more diverse this year than they have ever been, that diversity didn’t seem to translate to the winners as well.

Of the six most coveted individual Emmys: Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy, Drama, and Limited series/movie, only one went to a non-white actor.

Many of the awards presenters had trouble with the pre-reveal banter that is so common in award shows. Oftentimes, their jokes would be met with scattered laughter or even near silence, and some presenters seemed like they didn’t have any prepared material or went off script.

One surprise certainly made the night more interesting. After accepting his Emmy for directing the Oscars, Glen Weiss proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen, live on stage. Svendsen joined him on stage and accepted.

The night closed out with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” winning the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and “Game of Thrones” winning the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

Netflix came out on top of the awards with a total of seven Emmys, while HBO and Amazon followed close behind with six and five respectively. All five of Amazon’s Emmys came from one show, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which was the clear queen of the night.