Kathy Bates Is Visibly Shocked and Can't Stop Dropping F-Bombs as She Wins Critics Choice Award 2025

Kathy Bates can't believe she's the best actress in a drama series at the 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards!

The actress, 76, took home the win on Friday, Feb. 7 for her role in Matlock. Upon her name being called, Bates was visibly shocked, with her eyes going wide. She couldn't resist letting a few curses out either as she said "f---" twice before standing up and moving towards the stage.

In her acceptance speech, Bates acknowledged everyone who helped her achieve the award, but not before noting that she "really didn't think this was going to happen."

"When we come to work every day, there's so much love on that set, and so many hundreds of years of experience, rolling the dolly, working the camera, the costumers, the crop people, they're just the top of the line, and walking onto that set is just it feels like a miracle," Bates added. "I'm so grateful to all of them."

Related: Kathy Bates Says Ryan Murphy 'Rejuvenated My Career' with American Horror Story Role After Thinking It Might Be 'Over'

She then took the opportunity to shout out the firefighters who fought against the Los Angeles wildfires that started on Jan. 7 and were in the audience.

"Our producer, Eric Christian Olsen, had a house in Palisades, and it burned down. And so it's very personal to us and to watch all the film of you guys standing in line with just a wall of flames in front of you is just terrifying," she said, getting choked up. "And I don't know how you did it, but I thank you so much for so many of us in Los Angeles."

She then revealed a sweet gift for Olsen: "I just want to tell Eric Olsen, who hasn't quite found a home yet, this is coming to you. First thing for decor. Thank you very much."

Related: Kathy Bates Clarifies She's Not Retiring Amid Matlock’s Success: 'I Would Love for This to Keep Going' (Exclusive)

Bates is the leading lady in the CBS series Matlock, in which she plays the titular Madeline Matlock. The show’s first season aired in the second half of 2024, and Bates has said it gave her renewed hope in the entertainment industry after a period of frustration due to the limited roles being offered to a woman her age.

"I remember calling my agents and saying, ‘I think maybe I want to go into, if not retirement, semi-retirement. If I can’t afford to keep my house, I’ll sell it and maybe go to New York,’” she told PEOPLE in October. “Then this happened. I couldn’t believe it.”

Matlock is a twist on the original series, which ran from 1986 to 1995 and starred Andy Griffith. It quickly became a fan favorite, with Bates’ costar Skye P. Marshall also taking home a Critics’ Choice nomination for best supporting actress in a drama series.

This is Bates’ third Critics’ Choice nomination, with her winning once in 1999 for her role in the film Primary Colors. 

The other nominees in the category included Caitriona Balfe in Outlander, Shanola Hampton in Found, Keira Knightley in Black Doves, Keri Russell in The Diplomat and Anna Sawai in Shōgun.

Balfe, 45, has starred in Outlander as Claire Fraser since its inception in 2014. Her nomination came after she wrapped the final season of the history drama, and it marks the third time she has been up for the best actress in a drama series award.

Prior to Outlander, Balfe’s name wasn’t notable in the entertainment world. That all changed just days before season 1 of the Starz show was set to begin over a decade ago, she recalled during a 2022 interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter.

“I did the chemistry read and then it was like, ‘Can you move to Scotland in three days?’” she said, adding what screenwriter and producer Ronald D. Moore said to her before she signed the contract: “His exact words were, ‘Are you ready for your life to change?’ He literally said that as the elevator was opening, and I was like, ‘I guess?’ ”

Related: Shanola Hampton Talks Taking Risks in Found: ‘I Won’t Be Put in a Box’ (Exclusive)

Hampton’s new role as public relations specialist and crisis manager Gabi Mosely on NBC’s Found caught attention quickly after its 2023 premiere. The 47-year-old actress stars in the procedural drama, which follows Mosely’s team of investigators looking into missing person cases while she secretly has her own former kidnapper, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), whom she has trapped in her basement decades after escaping his hostage.

In October, Hampton told PEOPLE that she was happy to take on a darker role after playing an outspoken bar owner for 11 seasons on Showtime's Shameless.

"I won't be put in a box," she said. "If you meet me, you'll know that there's no box you're going to put me in. So it was very much intentional in the reading material I was pursuing but I wanted to do switch it up. And you know what that takes? That takes having faith in yourself. I told myself, 'You don't have to be Veronica forever. She's cool, you love her, but you're not going to do her next. You did her for 11 seasons. Time to show them who else you can be.' "

Nominated for Netflix’s Black Doves, Knightley stars as a woman named Helen, who works for the Black Doves — a shadowy corporate organization of international spies led by Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire). The group gathers information and sells it to the highest bidder.

In an interview with Extra in November 2024, Knightley said the “heart of the whole series” is her character’s dynamic with an assassin named Sam (Ben Whishaw), who is enlisted to help solve a murder.

"There was a deliciousness in showing that kind of friendship in the midst of murder and mayhem," she said at the time.

Knightley, who took home the only nomination for the thriller series at this year’s Critics’ Choice Awards, was also nominated for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her role in Black Doves at the 2025 Golden Globes in January.

Related: Keri Russell 'Never' Wants 'to Work', Says She Only Joins a Project if It Has This 'Unshakeable Thing'

Russell was one of four nominations the The Diplomat received at this year’s Critics’ Choice Awards. She was up for her starring role as a U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom named Kate Wyler, who, alongside her husband Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), becomes embroiled in international affairs in an attempt to prevent a global war.

In the past, Russell has opened up about how she chooses which projects to take on — and she said she can be picky.

"It takes me a lot to get to the point of saying yes," she told Variety in October. "And what usually is the unshakable thing that moves me out of the comfort zone is that it’s just a story I can’t stop thinking about.”

The Netflix political thriller’s second season premiered in October 2024, and is nominated for best drama series. Sewell is also up for best actor in a drama series, and Allison Janney, who plays Vice President Grace Penn, is nominated for best supporting actress in a drama series.

Sawai was nominated for Shōgun, which led in nominations with six total. Sawai has had a majorly successful award show season, taking home an Emmy and Golden Globe for her starring role as Toda Mariko in the FX series.

"I was crying before my name was announced; I'm a mess today," Sawai said as she made history by being the first woman of Asian descent to win outstanding lead actress in a drama series at the 2024 Emmy Awards in September.

In addition to Sawai’s nomination, Shōgun was nominated for best drama series, with Hiroyuki Sanada up for best actor in a drama series, Tadanobu Asano and Takehiro Hira for best supporting actor and Moeka Hoshi for best supporting actress.

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See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards as they're broadcasting live on E! from Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The show will also be available to stream the following day on Peacock.

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