Terp Cheered as Biggest Winner at Emmys

Winning an Emmy for his work directing the 2018 Academy Awards was not the highlight of Glenn Weiss ’83’s night on Monday.

The director of hundreds of live TV shows—from the Tonys to the Democratic National Convention to “Survivor” reunion episodes— accepted his award, got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen.

Inviting her onto the stage, he said, “Jan, you are the sunshine of my life, and Mom was right: Don't ever let go of your sunshine. You wonder why I don't like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife." 

He offered her his late mother’s wedding ring as she burst into tears. (She said yes.)

The Terp’s gesture was widely cited as the highlight of the telecast, winning over the audience at home and the celebrities in the room.

Talk-show host John Oliver, in his Emmy speech later, quipped, “On behalf of everyone in attendance, I would like to thank Glenn Weiss’ fiancée for saying yes. This could have been a very different evening. You really came through.”

Backstage, Weiss, a former radio/TV/film major who has won 22 Emmys, didn’t seem to have a plan B for proposing in case he lost.

“Waited till next year?” he told the press before suggesting that he might have proposed at the Governor’s Ball after-party or even at their standby post-awards show restaurant: In-N-Out Burger.