Richard Gadd Celebrates “Baby Reindeer” Having 'No Set Formula' as Show Takes Home Emmy: 'Explore the Uncomfortable'

The show edged out 'Fargo,' 'Lessons in Chemistry,' 'Ripley,' and 'True Detective: Night Country' to win the award

Baby Reindeer showed its resounding impact with a win in the outstanding limited or anthology series category at the 2024 Emmys

Creator and star Richard Gadd thanked the show's cast and crew before saying, "I know the industry is in a slump right now, and I know I might force or put pressure on networks and stuff to tighten the purse strings and broaden the slate but I believe that no slump is ever broken without a willingness to take risks."

He continued, "I think if Baby Reindeer has proved anything, its that there's no set formula to this, you don't need big stars, proven IP, a long-running series, catch-all storytelling to have a hit. The only constant across any success in television is good storytelling, good storytelling that speaks to our times. So, take risks, push boundaries explore the uncomfortable, dare to fail in order to achieve."

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, which tells Gadd’s semi-autobiographical story of an aspiring comedian and his stalker, sparked debate among viewers following its April debut and picked up 11 total Emmy nominations.

In Baby Reindeer, Gadd, 35, plays a version of himself — a bartender who ends up with a stalker named Martha (Jessica Gunning) — after he offers her a cup of tea while working at London pub. The real-life Martha, Fiona Harvey, sued Netflix in June for $140 million, claiming the streaming service and Gadd made it easy for viewers to identify her and ruin her livelihood. Harvey, 48, found the portrayal of Martha to be defamatory and inaccurate. Still, the seven-episode series drew in enough viewers to make it Netflix’s 10th most watched English-language shows as of June.

"I think nobody thought that it would be the stratospheric, Emmy-nominated success that it became. And it was overnight," Gadd told The Hollywood Reporter.

Related: Ripley Wins Best Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at Emmys 2024: 'It Was Like a Dream'

This year's category was stacked with talent as the other nominees included Fargo, Lessons in Chemistry, Ripley and True Detective: Night Country.

Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, stars Andrew Scott as con-man Tom Ripley. The story had previously been told in the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon and Jude Law, so Scott, 47, wanted to put a new twist on the tale.

“People have a lot of preconceptions about Tom Ripley,” Scott told Netflix's Tudum. “So it’s my job, I suppose in some ways, to ignore all that and try to create our own particular version of it.”

Scott did exactly that: the Irish actor’s portrayal earned him an Emmy nomination in the outstanding actor in a limited series or a movie category.

Season 5 of Fargo starred Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Joe Keery and Lamorne Morris and marked the first installment to be unrelated to past seasons or the 1996 film that inspired the series.

Morris’s character Deputy Witt Farr shockingly died in the season finale after trying to save Dot (Temple) from her ex-husband (Hamm). Morris, 41, told Entertainment Weekly that he hoped viewers “cry a lot” at the final episode.

“The craziest things could happen to the best people in the smallest of towns,” Morris said of the show, which takes place in small town North Dakota. “That's how these stories are made: they spawn from somewhere. And a lot of times it's what happens to good people.”

Lessons in Chemistry, based on Bonnie Garmus’s bestselling novel by the same name, takes viewers back to the 50s, when chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) accepts a job at a cooking show after society’s patriarchal ideals stops her from succeeding in the science field. Elizabeth uses the opportunity to infuse her lessons with science.

Garmus, 67, told PEOPLE that she feels "so lucky" and "grateful" that her book inspired a hit Apple TV+ show. However, “I almost feel like the book is one thing and the series is something else completely, and I'm not going to compare the two of them," she said. "And you know what? The author is super biased."

The latest installment of HBO’s True Detective put Jodie Foster and Kali Reis front and center to solve the mystery of eight men who disappeared at a research station in Alaska. Night Country marks the most-watched True Detective season and the first to be led by women both in front of the camera and behind, with Issa López serving as the showrunner, writer and director.

“I've really genuinely been here for the switch,” 61-year-old Foster, who picked up an acting nod for Night Country, told EW of the pivot. “As a kid, I just didn't think I was gonna be able to be a director because I never saw another female face. And now, the last five movies I've made, it's all been women. It's a big shift for me and it's really exciting to have that leadership style, and especially as an answer to the next installment of True Detective.”

True Detective has been picked up for a fifth season, with Lopez running the show again.

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