Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is receiving criticism for his actions during an acceptance speech at the 74th Emmy Awards.
During the event on Monday night, “Abbott Elementary” creator and writer Quinta Brunson was presented with the award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series.
Before actor Will Arnett announced the winner, he dragged Kimmel on stage.
As Brunson took the stage, she looked down at Kimmel, saying, “Jimmy, wake up. I won. Jimmy?”
He proceeded to stay there on the ground next to the mic for the entire duration of Brunson’s acceptance speech.
In case you missed it:
https://twitter.com/votebustamante/status/1569580917043376129
Los Angeles Times reporter Ashley Lee later asked Brunson about the moment.
“It didn’t bother me that much. I consider him one of the comedy godfathers. I don’t know — tomorrow, maybe I’ll be mad at him. I’m gonna be on his show on Wed, I might punch him in the face. We’ll see,” Brunson said.
However, critics on Twitter were not too happy with Kimmel.
One user said Kimmel “should’ve made a public apology by now.”
Another called Kimmel an “unfunny and a bad person.”
Read more reactions below:
https://twitter.com/ishenarobinson/status/1569652569558974465
https://twitter.com/BranwenBingle/status/1569649492596781057
Later in the evening, Kimmel praised Brunson.
“She is so unbelievably talented and I saw her pilot before it came out on ABC and I wrote to her. 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,'” Kimmel said.
In his review of the show, The New York Times’ Mike Hale wrote that the Emmys “did a better job of getting past Covid-19 than they did of losing the big streaming-video chip on their shoulder.”
He added, “For one more year, we got the weird spectacle of broadcast TV nervously proclaiming its relevance as if it wouldn’t have the chance to do so much longer.”