'The Bear' romps early with 3 acting wins at Emmy Awards

LOS ANGELES — “The Bear” is coming back for seconds in a big way at the Emmys, scoring repeat wins Sunday night for best actor, best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a comedy.

The star of the FX show Jeremy Allen White won best actor in a comedy for the second straight year, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach repeated as best supporting actor.

A surprise came when Liza Colón-Zayas won best supporting actor over major competition.

“How could I have thought it would be possible to be in the presence of Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett,” Colón-Zayas said as tears welled in her eyes as she accepted the award on the stage of the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

She is the first Latina to win in the category.

“To all the Latinas who are looking at me,” she said, “keep believing and vote.”

White said backstage that he was watching in the wings as Colón-Zayas won and “that was just the greatest.”

He also shouted out two acting wins the show had already scored at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards, when Jamie Lee Curtis won best guest actress in a comedy for playing his mother, and Jon Bernthal won best guest actor for playing his big brother.

“The Bear” won six times including most of the top comedy categories at the strike-delayed Emmys in January.

While the third season of FX’s “The Bear” has already dropped, the trio won their second Emmys for its second, in which White’s chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto attempts to turn his family’s grungy Chicago sandwich shop into an elite restaurant.

The father-son hosting duo of Eugene and Dan Levy in their monologue at the top of the show mocked the very dramatic “The Bear” being in the comedy category.

“In honor of ‘The Bear’ we will be making no jokes,” Eugene Levy said, to laughs.

Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks.” She has won for all three seasons of “Hacks,” and has six Emmys overall.

She beat nominees including Ayo Edebiri, who as co-star of “The Bear” moved from supporting actress, which she won in January, to lead actress.

Coming into the show the big story was another FX show, “Shogun,” which had already taken the most Emmys for a show in a single season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony.

“Shogun” lost its first chance at winning on the main show Sunday when Billy Crudup took best supporting actor in a drama over Tadanobu Asano for his role on the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.”

“Shogun,” the FX series about lordly politicking in feudal Japan, can still win as many as five more Emmys, including best actor in a drama, best actress in a drama and best drama series.

Veteran screen star Hiroyuki Sanada, up for best actor, Anna Sawai, up for best actress, are in position to become the first Japanese actors to win Emmys.

If it faces any competition at all for the best drama prize, it could come for the sixth and final season of “The Crown,” the only show among the nominees that has won before in a category recently dominated by the retired “Succession.”

Elizabeth Debicki took best supporting actress in a drama for playing Princess Diana at the end of her life in the sixth and final season of the show.

“Playing this part, based on this unparalleled, incredible human being, has been my great privilege,” Debicki said. “It’s been a gift.”

Multiple Oscar winners among the nominees include Streep, Robert Downey Jr. and Jodie Foster, who could get her first Emmy for best actress in a limited series for “True Detective: Night Country.”

The HBO show that features Foster as a police chief investigating mysterious deaths in the darkness of a north Alaskan winter was the top nominee among limited or anthology series, but it could lose out on several Emmys to Netflix’s darkly quirky “Baby Reindeer,” which surged on the eve of July’s nominations and is now the popular pick for best limited series, best actor for creator and star Richard Gadd.

Jessica Gunning already won best supporting actress Sunday for playing his tormentor.

“I feel like I’m gonna wake up any minute now,” Gunning said. “This whole thing has been a dream.”

Best actor in a comedy was presented by a trio of sitcom dads: George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Similarly themed presenter teams will appear throughout the night.