The 2024 Emmy Awards Were a True Family Affair

It’s reliably exciting to see celebrity couples show up at award shows (hi, !), but the 2024 Emmy Awards exemplified an arguably even more heartwarming trend: the “family date.” Instead of your parents forcing you to go camping, say, the famous person version is a little less crunchy and a little more glam—and so far, it’s my favorite theme of this year’s awards season.

Monday was a big night for family, from host Anthony Anderson tapping his IRL mom for bits (and to serve as the ceremony’s play off music), to stars Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin using their wins to talk about their love for their young children (and, in Culkin’s case, straight up if they can have more from the Emmys stage).

Even offstage, though, family ties remained strong, with attending alongside her mother Margaret Ensley, and siblings Pedro and Lux Pascal together. Christina Applegate, Padma Lakshmi, and Justin Chambers also all brought their daughters along to the Emmys, making them shoo ins for the Cool Parent of the Year award.

Parents bringing their adult children to award shows is nothing new (just think of Reese Witherspoon taking her son, Deacon, to the Golden Globes, and then with her lookalike daughter, Ava, at the recent Critics Choice Awards; or Martin Scorsese and his daughter Francesca at the Globes), and the reverse has been known to occur as well; name one thing sweeter than Bradley Cooper bringing his to the Golden Globes—but personally, I’m rooting for some even more obscure family ties to be brought into the award show arena before .

I’m talking uncles and nephews, step siblings and third cousins mugging for the camera together...and, really, that’s not a stretch, given Hollywood is chock full of weird family connections. (Take the fact that Gloria Steinem is , say; and God forbid you forget that Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Cage are first cousins.) Who says an award show can’t do double duty as a family reunion?.