Television’s best and brightest gathered in Los Angeles on Sunday for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, the industry’s premier awards gala.Here is a look at some of the more notable moments from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles:- Think of the children – Host Nate Bargatze thought he had found a way to keep a lid on the interminable “thank you” speeches that routinely make awards shows run long — and which viewers complain about.At the start of the evening, the comedian announced he would be donating $100,000 to The Boys and Girls Club of America, but would dock $1,000 for every second winners went over their allotted 45.”I know that’s tough. It’s hard,” he deadpanned.”What are you going to do? I can’t change it. This is a game I made up, and these are the rules.”He said, however, he would add $1,000 back into the pot for every second a speaker did not use.An on-screen counter kept track and mercilessly wound down as actors and directors indulged themselves with thanking long lists of colleagues, family members, agents and the like.While some winners kept broadly within their time — and John Oliver managed such a short speech that the total rose significantly — by the end of the night, the donation was well in the red.Fortunately for the non-profit, which organizes after-school programs for young people, Bargatze said he and CBS would donate a total of $350,000.- King Colbert -Late night funnyman Stephen Colbert was one of the heroes of the night, walking out to a standing ovation at the start of the show when he took the stage.CBS said in July it was cancelling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump as “a big fat bribe.”Trump celebrated the cancellation, but the entertainment industry rallied around Colbert, with fellow late night hosts vowing to support his nomination for best talk show, an award he won to wild applause.Colbert told the audience he has realized his topical show, which frequently skewers Trump and what the comedian claims is a vanishing civil space, is about loss.”Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” he said.”In September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America.”- Five women and one man – When “Hunger Games” actress Elizabeth Banks proudly announced the gender split among nominees for director of a limited series, the audience cheered appreciatively.”When was the last time a directing category had five women and one man?” she asked.”I did not bother to look that up, but I think we all agree it was never,” she said.Then she opened the envelope and announced the only man nominated — Philip Barantini — had won for dark word-of-mouth smash “Adolescence.” – ICE and Gaza – At a time of heightened political tensions in the United States, and just days after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead, politics occasionally poked through the glitz and glamour of the evening.Best supporting actress Hannah Einbinder from “Hacks” used her victory speech to deliver a brief, but very much no-holds barred statement that addressed the war in Gaza, immigration raids and her support for the Philadelphia Eagles.”Go Birds, Fuck ICE and free Palestine,” she said.Javier Bardem, meanwhile, wore a keffiyeh scarf in what he said was a show of support for Palestinians.Speaking to AFP on the red carpet, he said he was boycotting industry players he believed were supporting Israel in its war in Gaza.”We target film companies and film institutions that are complicit and are related to whitewashing or justifying the genocide in Gaza and for Israel, of Israel, and its apartheid regime,” he said.Writer Daniel O’Brien, who accepted the award for best scripted variety series on behalf of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” spoke of a growing feeling in Hollywood that speaking out against the present US government is increasingly hard.He said he and the team were honored to share the prize “with all writers of late night political comedy, while that is still a type of show that’s allowed to exist.”

Here is a list of the winners in key categories for the 77th Emmy Awards, which were handed out in Los Angeles on Sunday.”Adolescence” won for best limited series, while “The Pitt” and “The Studio” won for best drama and best comedy, respectively.OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES: “The Pitt”OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES: “The Studio”OUTSTANDING LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES: “Adolescence”LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA: Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA: Britt Lower, “Severance”SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA: Tramell Tillman, “Severance”SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA: Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY: Seth Rogen, “The Studio”LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY: Jean Smart, “Hacks”SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY: Jeff Hiller, “Somebody Somewhere”SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY: Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”LEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE: Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”LEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE: Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE: Owen Cooper, “Adolescence”SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE: Erin Doherty, “Adolescence”

Television’s biggest stars hit the red carpet Sunday under a bright September sun for the Emmys, the first of many awards shows that will offer style trends on the road to the Oscars.Jenna Ortega, the star of Netflix’s Addams family revamp “Wednesday,” turned heads in her striking Givenchy black skirt — and only chunky jewels draped over her torso.Here are some of the other top looks seen at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles:- Regal in red – Selena Gomez, who stars in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” arrived on the arm of her fiance, music producer Benny Blanco, wearing a floor-length red sleeveless Louis Vuitton column gown with a slit and a sweeping train. Sydney Sweeney, the “Euphoria” star who presented an award on Sunday, also got the memo, wearing a stunning strapless red satin Oscar de la Renta gown with a plunging draped bow neckline — and plenty of diamonds.And Cristin Milioti, who won the Emmy for best actress in a limited series for gritty Batman spin-off “The Penguin,” oozed glamour in a crimson Danielle Frankel gown with a dramatic structured bodice.- Perfect white suits -Most fashion pundits say people should not wear white after Labor Day — but the rule only applies to regular humans, not A-listers.Pedro Pascal — a nominee for best drama actor in “The Last of Us” — exuded cool in a double-breasted cream Celine suit, sunglasses and just the right amount of stubble.Gwendoline Christie, a nominee for sci-fi office thriller “Severance” who also stars in “Wednesday,” stunned in a fitted pale Tom Ford suit, her hair slicked back for maximum drama.And Tramell Tillman, who won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama for “Severance,” also looked dapper in white, with a glittering brooch to complete the look.- Fall hues – Unlike most of Hollywood’s awards shows, the Emmys are not a winter affair, but instead take place as fall is about to begin — and that showed in the color palette on display on the red carpet.Oscar winner Kathy Bates — a nominee for best actress in a drama for CBS’s reboot of legal drama “Matlock” — looked regal in a floor-length brown gown with long sleeves and a draped bodice.Seth Rogen — who won Emmys for best comedy actor, director and series for his manic industry satire “The Studio,” which he co-created — sported a brown Ermenegildo Zegna tux with a velvet jacket.- Barbiecore: still happening – Blackpink singer Lisa, who made her acting debut in “The White Lotus,” stunned in a sculptural off-the-shoulder pink Lever Couture gown that revealed lots of leg and trailed off in a long swirling skirt of tulle ribbons.Her co-star Aimee Lee Wood also looked pretty in pink wearing a strapless Alexander McQueen pink gown with a bodice that revealed a hint of red.And Jeff Hiller, a surprise winner for best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” sparked joy in his Chanel-coded pink tweed suit with pearl embellishments.- Accessorize, but make it political -The war in Gaza was certainly on the minds of some Emmys attendees. Megan Stalter, one of the breakout stars of comedy powerhouse “Hacks,” showed up casual in a white t-shirt and jeans, but her handbag did all the talking.The black purse had white tape on it with a simple message: “Ceasefire!”And Javier Bardem, a nominee for best supporting actor in a limited series for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” wore a black and white keffiyeh around his neck.”A lot of people are giving me their support in whispers, and I go, ‘Don’t whisper, say it out loud’,” Bardem told AFP on the red carpet.”We target film companies and film institutions that are complicit and are related to whitewashing or justifying the genocide in Gaza.”

Roughly 100 days after Elon Musk’s dramatic departure from the Trump White House, federal workers are still grappling with the lasting damage from his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The consequences of this unprecedented assault on the federal bureaucracy are expected to reverberate for years.From his modest office in the executive building adjacent to the White House, Musk orchestrated an aggressive takeover of major government branches. His strategy was surgical yet devastating: deploy small teams of tech experts to systematically dismantle and disrupt the nation’s more than 2 million-strong civil service.The shock-and-awe campaign succeeded beyond expectations. According to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan Washington-based NGO, nearly 200,000 civil servants have left the federal workforce so far. For many of these workers — including numerous military veterans — the experience proved profoundly traumatic, with decades-long careers abruptly terminated and their life’s work dismissed as meaningless waste.Following Musk’s very public falling-out with President Trump this spring, DOGE has been largely dismantled. “Not much” remains of the original operation, explained Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.”It’s a little bit like Godzilla having flattened the city and left,” Stier told AFP. “Godzilla is gone, but there’s still a flattened city.”- ‘Unfixable’ -Musk himself now declares the US government “basically unfixable,” having concluded that lawmakers from both parties will resist spending cuts that could alienate voters and donors.Most of DOGE’s leadership followed Musk’s exit, including Steve Davis, Musk’s trusted lieutenant who led the teams that infiltrated government offices and computer systems to implement budget cuts. However, some operatives remain embedded throughout the federal government, working as regular employees while continuing to exert influence: making their activities harder to monitor.”Don’t misunderstand the lack of the loud face that was Elon Musk to think they have disappeared,” warned one Pentagon worker, speaking anonymously to avoid retaliation. “DOGE is still alive and causing a ruckus.”Several prominent Musk allies maintain significant positions.Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder and Tesla board member, now oversees the redesign of government websites.Aram Moghaddassi serves as chief information officer at the Social Security Administration, though a whistleblower has accused his team of uploading a critical database to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially exposing hundreds of millions of Americans’ personal information to hackers.Brad Smith, a health startup investor, initially left DOGE after implementing sweeping cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), but has returned to oversee global health initiatives at the State Department.Scott Kupor, former managing partner at venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, now heads the US Office of Personnel Management — the federal government’s massive human resources operation. His former boss, Marc Andreessen, remains highly influential within the White House.Other Musk loyalists occupy more junior positions throughout the government. In a bizarre development, Edward Coristine — who gained media attention under the nickname “Big Balls” — took a regular government job and helped trigger Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to patrol Washington’s streets after Coristine was assaulted in the capital.- Who is DOGE? -These changes have complicated DOGE’s very definition. “The question of, how do you define DOGE? Who is DOGE? has gotten a lot more complicated,” observed Faith Williams, director of the effective and accountable government program at the Project on Government Oversight.Officially, Amy Gleeson, a health tech sector veteran, now leads the department as acting chief, but her White House influence is minimal. Federal workers report that DOGE’s mission has effectively been transferred to Russell Vought, a fierce opponent of government who now controls the powerful Office of Management and Budget.For civil liberties advocate Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, these developments are “extremely worrisome” because DOGE’s work now operates “behind a curtain” and away from public scrutiny.This hidden operation includes acts of incompetence and questionable decision-making, as reported by whistleblowers and disillusioned employees who have left government to expose wrongdoing.”My bet is that for every whistleblower you see, there’s some very large multiple of bad things that have happened, which we don’t know about,” Stier warned.The federal workforce meanwhile must continue to navigate this transformed landscape, dealing with skeleton crews and knowledge gaps while what is left of DOGE operates largely out of public view.

A white light flashes above the studio door as Bonnie Ralston takes to the air waves of Allegheny Mountain Radio, one of the many stations across the United States imperiled by President Donald Trump’s funding cuts. The station, which relies on volunteers like Ralston, is one of the only to broadcast in the area, delivering news, sports and music to the small mountain towns along the border of Virginia and West Virginia.”We don’t know what is going to happen to us,” Ralston, 59, told AFP.At Trump’s request, Republicans in Congress voted to cut federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the key funding source for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), both of which conservatives have long accused of liberal bias.But those funds also backed many smaller radio and TV stations around the nation.Allegheny Mountain Radio, for instance, is expected to lose funding that accounted for 60-65 percent of its budget.The small station, which employs 10 people, has enough reserves to survive for at least a year, said general manager Scott Smith.”We cannot continue operating in the red and pulling from reserves forever. We know we’re going to run out of money at some time if we don’t find more income.””Ultimately, the consequences are our very existence when it comes down to it,” said Smith, 58.- ‘We need it’ -Nestled in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains in the Appalachia region of the eastern United States, the radio station is one of the only local media outlets in the rural area.Few outside radio signals reach this remote region, about 60 miles from the nearest shopping center, where the telephone network is unreliable.In Monterey, a small town of around 120 residents, Allegheny Mountain Radio is a lifeline.”It’s very vital for local information,” said Jay Garber, the mayor of Monterey, noting that most of the town’s inhabitants are elderly and rely on traditional forms of media.Local resident Polly Turner, 74, told AFP she does not own a computer and depends on the radio station to stay informed.”We need it. We’ll be lost without it,” she said.Chris Wayne, another Monterey local, warned that the loss of Allegheny Mountain Radio could have serious consequences.”As soon as you get out of town a little bit, the cellphone signal goes away. So if you don’t have that, the radio station is the only way you’re gonna find out if there’s, like, flood water coming,” the 42-year-old explained, adding that the town is located below the Jackson River, a major waterway.- Community support -Allegheny Mountain Radio’s rural listeners, who overwhelmingly supported Trump during last year’s presidential election, have not always welcomed the radio station despite its vital role. “Some people say we’re too leftist because we utilize NPR newscast,” Smith, the station’s manager, said. “I think the majority of people here understand the value that we provide, no matter what political orientation they might ascribe to,” he continued. Since Congress finalized the funding cuts, messages of support have poured in from the community, and more than 200 people have donated to keep Allegheny Mountain Radio running. The communal rallying has left Smith feeling “optimistic.” “When you’ve got that level of support and validation coming to you, it only hardens your resolve,” he said.”We’re not going to roll over and die. We’re going to keep kicking and fighting and finding ways to make this work.”