At the 2017 Emmys, it was good to be Stephen Colbert. It was good to be Donald Glover. It was good to be Julia Louis-Dreyfus. But it was the best to be Oprah Winfrey.
Was she nominated for an acting Emmy? No. Did she win for Outstanding Television Movie? She did not. But she was undoubtedly the star of the show.
That's because nobody could believe their luck to be in the same room as Miss Winfrey. Some people were flabbergasted to be sitting near her honor. Some people simply reveled in getting to stand onstage and be allowed to look directly at her. But whatever the reason, it seemed like every single person who won an award felt compelled to give her a shoutout.
It all started during the monologue, when Colbert noted that Winfrey was sitting in the front row even though she was snubbed for an actor nomination. Next up was his late-night competitor John Oliver, who accepted the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
"I would like to thank Oprah," he said after encouraging the audience to start tweeting about D.C. public schools. "Because she is sitting right there and it seems inappropriate not to."
Then came Riz Ahmed, who won a gold statue for his role on the HBO limited series The Night Of.
"I am lucky enough to thank Oprah as well," he started his speech. "I was also lucky enough to sit near her."
Oliver himself came back to the stage later, for another award that went to Last Week Tonight. "I would like to thank Oprah's seat filler," he joked. "I met Oprah once and it was like meeting the Queen only much, much better."
Then just to make everything come full circle, Oprah was given the honor of presenting the final award of the evening. She announced The Handmaid's Tale as the winner of Outstanding Drama Series in the most perfectly Oprah way ever (You get a statue! You get a statue! Everybody gets a statue!)
And that's how it's done.