The only profession more respected on television than doctors is, well, cops. An hour or two after the 2024 Emmys honored the rich tradition of TV doctors with Mindy Kaling, Zach Braff and Mekhi Phifer, the ceremony brought some iconic TV cops onstage to present the award for best actor in a miniseries or anthology series or movie.

As Jimmy Smits was the first to point out when he came on stage alongside Don Johnson and Niecy Nash-Betts, they all represented very different archetypes of television cops. Like Bobby Simone in NYPD BlueSmits played a “strong, sensitive, clever guy who has to keep his very eccentric partner in check.” At the other end of the spectrum was Nash-Betts’ Raineesha Williams in Renault 911.

“Raineesha brought two important things to her job as a police officer,” said Nash-Betts. “A superficial knowledge of the law and the belief that if you’re not cute, you can’t fight crime.”

And then there is Johnson’s Sonny Crockett, one half of the central duo on MiamiVice“who played by his own rules, which always contradicted the instructions of his superiors, but in the end his methods were effective and he always brought the villains to justice.”

As Johnson noted, Crockett was just one of the cops he has played over the years. He recently returned to the fictionalized profession, playing the villainous police chief Sandy Burnne in the Netflix film Rebel Crest.

Smits couldn’t help but mention their brief overlap when he briefly played Crockett’s first partner, who is killed by a car bomb in the MiamiVice Premiere. “You were spectacular in those 30 seconds!” said Johnson. “It made you NYPD Blue.”

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Although the TV dads who previously assembled on the show (George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) made a point of thanking the actors who played their spouses, these TV cops did not mention their partners directly, as NYPD Blue‘s Dennis Franz or MiamiVice‘s Philip Michael Thomas.

The only TV cop nominated for this category this year was Jon Hamm, who played in season 5 of Fargo. Other nominees included Matt Bomer (Fellow travelers), Tom Hollander (Feud: Capote vs. the Swans) and Andrew Scott (Ripley). But the victory went to Baby reindeer Mastermind Richard Gadd. No one was more surprised by this result than Gadd himself.

“You’re all obviously crazy,” Gadd began his acceptance speech. “Thank you so much, honestly. I wasn’t expecting this at all and I wasn’t prepared for it. Jon Hamm, I’m your biggest fan! As I told you over and over again last night.”

Gadd had already given a heartfelt speech when he won the award for outstanding screenplay for a limited or anthology series or movie earlier in the evening, and this was not even his last appearance: He returned a little later when Baby reindeer was awarded as Best Miniseries or Anthology Series or Best Film.