‘Succession’ Wins Best Drama Series at 2022 Emmys

“Succession” is officially named the best drama series of the year.

The hit HBO show, which previously won the title in 2020, took home the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the 2022 Emmy Awards on September 12. The series also was recognized for outstanding casting at the Creative Arts Emmys last week.

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“Succession” follows the cutthroat campaign to take over fictional media conglomerate Waystar Royco, run by aging patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox). His children, played by Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Alan Ruck, are making moves for the sale of Waystar Royco to benefit themselves. Other family members and employees, portrayed by Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfayden, and J. Smith-Cameron, also angle for a piece of the multi-billion dollar brand.

Prior to the 2022 Emmys, “Succession” has previously won 10 Emmy Awards and has been nominated a total of 48 times. The series this year beat out “Better Call Saul,” “Euphoria,” “Ozark,” “Severance,” “Squid Game,” “Stranger Things,” and “Yellowjackets” to win Outstanding Drama Series. Season 3, which premiered in October 2021, has led guild awards including WGA, DGA, and PGA. It also won the SAG Award for Best Drama Ensemble prior to winning tonight’s Outstanding Drama Series Emmy.

Lead actor Strong, who won Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2020, is also nominated for the same award this year against co-star Cox, while series regulars Braun, Culkin, Macfayden, Smith-Cameron, and Snook are recognized in their respective acting categories. Macfayden won the 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Season 3 guest stars Harriet Walker, Hope Davis, Alexander Skarsgård, Arian Moayed, James Cromwell, and Adrien Brody are nominated as well. “Succession” is also nominated for best directing and writing, among other categories.

Two-time Emmy winner Cox addressed his love for character Logan Roy earlier this year, calling him a “self-made” mogul, “unlike all those other guys, Trump, Murdoch, Conrad Black.” Yet Cox admitted that onscreen alter-ego Roy is “the antithesis of who I am,” despite having one cynical overlap with the character. “The one thing we have in common is a deep disappointment in the human experience: We think human beings are fucked,” Cox explained before adding, “I never used to swear as much as I did until I played Logan.”

“Logan would hate me,” he joked. “If Logan met me he’d say, ‘I wish that Brian Cox would just shut the fuck up.’”

Cox added that “getting a script is like getting gold,” but he can’t divulge anything about Season 4 because “the Gestapo element of HBO are present… they don’t want me to talk about ‘Succession.'”

Season 4 is currently underway. While plot details understandably remain under wraps, the official Season 4 logline reads: “The sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.”

HBO recently confirmed that Alexander Skarsgård, Dagmara Domińczyk, Arian Moayed, Juliana Canfield, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Justin Kirk, Stephen Root, Hope Davis, and Cherry Jones will be returning as guest stars in the series.

Adam McKay and Frank Rich serve as executive producers for “Succession,” along with showrunner Jesse Armstrong, Kevin Messick, Jane Tranter, Mark Mylod, Tony Roche, Scott Ferguson, Jon Brown, Lucy Prebble, Will Tracy, and Will Ferrell.

Writer and executive producer Georgia Pritchett previously revealed to The Times in 2021 that she believes the “maximum would be five seasons” for the series, but perhaps even Season 4 could be the conclusion.

“We’re at the end of filming Season 3, so at this point, Jesse is saying only one more,” Pritchett said. “But that happens every time. We’ve got a good end in sight.”

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