On the whole, Sunday's 69th Primetime Emmy Awards were pretty fantastic.
Incredible shows were honored, most awards were incredibly deserved, and most of the speeches were suitably incredible themselves.
However, a couple of minutes (1 minute and 57 seconds, to be exact) into his gorgeous acceptance speech after winning best actor in a drama for his role on This Is Us, Sterling K. Brown was played off. And he wasn't just played off—the music got louder, his microphone got cut, and the lights went down, despite the fact that he was still talking.
This would be understandable in terms of keeping the show on time (it actually ended when it was supposed to, for once) if Nicole Kidman hadn't been given nearly three minutes (two minutes and 45 seconds, to be exact) for her speech a few minutes before.
Whatever the reason for that brutal cut off, nearly everyone who watched was at least a little outraged. While Brown was given the opportunity backstage to finish the speech, 20th Century Fox and NBC did him one even better, giving him a full page ad in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter that featured his entire speech, which Brown confessed to Variety on Monday was "a little long."
What follows is the part of the speech he didn't get to read:
"I wanted to thank our writers," Brown began as the music started to play. "A show doesn't get seven acting nominations without some impeccable, beautiful, thoughtful writing. You guys are our life's blood, so I want to thank you so much. To our producers and directors, in particular John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, and the crazy cool Ken Olin. I thank you for your guidance and friendship."
"And I wanted to thank Dan Fogelman—he is the Hebrew hammer with which our house is built. He makes me laugh and cry in equal parts and keeps me coming back for more, and in his own little small special way, he's not trying to make America great again, he's trying to make it the best that it's ever been, and I love him for taking me on this journey with him. I wanted to thank my manager of 17 years, Jennifer Wiley-Stockton. We've been doing this for a long time, and it feels like we're just getting started. I can't wait to see what's next."
"And to my wife—they cut me off before I got to thank my wife, man! Ryan Michelle Bathe, you're everything. You make my life worth living and you gave me two of the most beautiful things that God has ever put on this planet: my sons, Andrew Jason Sterling Brown, Amaré Michael Ryan Christian Brown, your daddy loves you with the strength of 1,000 suns. I'll see you Monday after work. Love you. Thank you."
All together now: Awww.
This was Brown's second Emmy win, though first for outstanding actor in a drama. He won last year for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series for his work on The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
This Is Us returns Tuesday, September 26 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.)