It’s reliably exciting to see celebrity couples show up at award shows (hi, Ali Wong and Bill Hader!), but in January, the 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.
The Emmys were 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 Succession 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 asking his wife if they can have more from the Emmys stage). Even offstage, though, family ties remained strong, with Niecy Nash-Betts attending alongside her mother, Margaret Ensley, and siblings Pedro and Lux Pascal walking the red carpet 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. More family fun would follow at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, where the likes of Billy Joel, Gracie Abrams, Victoria Monét, and Dua Lipa all made next of kin their plus-ones.
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 twinning with her lookalike daughter, Ava, at the 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 tiny mom, Gloria Campano, 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 the Oscars. I’m talking uncles and nephews, step-siblings and third cousins mugging for the camera together…and, really, that’s not such a stretch, given Hollywood is chock-full of weird family connections. (Take the fact that Gloria Steinem is Christian Bale’s stepmother, for instance; 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?
See all our favorite awards-season family-bonding moments—from the Emmys to the Globes to the Grammys—below.