You truly love to see it: Eddie Murphy has won his first-ever Emmy for his Saturday Night Live hosting gig. In a full-circle twist, the win comes almost 40 years after his first Emmy nomination as an SNL cast member. Murphy’s Emmys win was awarded during the fifth night of the Creative Arts Emmys hosted by Nicole Byer. This year’s ceremony was done virtually, with winners pre-recording acceptance speeches from their own homes and the evening’s proceedings airing on FXX.
Murphy won the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy for his December 2019 SNL comeback show. Murphy’s return to SNL last year was a highlight of the season mostly due to the timing of his return. It had been 36 years since Murphy was seen on the SNL stage, then performing as a cast regular. More than 30 years later, Murphy came back as the guest host while promoting his Netflix pic Dolemite Is My Name. The actor went above and beyond during his SNL comeback show, reprising classic characters like Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson while reminding us that his comedic instincts are still sharp as a tack.
In a pre-recorded clip later shared on the Television Academy’s Twitter and Instagram, Murphy gave an effusive acceptance speech from his home.
Thank you to everybody at the Emmys. Thank you so much for giving me an Emmy. I don’t have an Emmy. This is 40 years since I started Saturday Night Live. This is my first Emmy, so thank you so much. I want to thank Lorne Michaels for putting this whole thing together and making this happen. And I want to thank, the cast, the writers, and the crew at SNL. This was a very, very special thing for me to come back and have the show turn out the way it did. I’m still floating from it. And thank you to everybody for giving me an Emmy.
Saturday’s Emmy win was particularly bittersweet considering Murphy has already been nominated for an Emmy four times. Murphy’s 2020 Emmys nom was his first in 21 years, with the actor previously getting nominated thrice during his time on SNL and then again in the Outstanding Animated Program category (programming one hour or less) for Fox’s The PJ’s in 1999. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly on this big win, Murphy shared, “It’s so special because it was 36 years to the day since I was on the show. For it to turn out the way it turned out and this on top of it…it’s just really really special.”
Watch Eddie Murphy’s acceptance speech below. For more, check out Collider TV Editor Liz Shannon Miller’s 2020 Emmy predictions.