Mark Harris, a former executive editor at Entertainment Weekly, took a gentler touch, putting the onus on the Emmy producers. “In my fantasy,” he wrote, “the Emmy producers are talking to Thomas Lennon right now and saying, ‘We love you, this was a bad call on our part, and we’re gonna stop.’”

Adding insult to injury, Lennon’s comments were often at least partially drowned out by applause. But for those who were listening closely, he did deliver at least one solid zinger.

“Our producers have asked me to give a special shout-out to any of our previous lead actress winners who are watching tonight from prison,” he said, delivering a dig at Felicity Huffman, the actress who won a 2005 Emmy and was sentenced this month for her role in the nation’s largest college admissions cheating prosecution. “Hopefully those two weeks are going to fly right by.”