It’s the TV industry’s biggest night and viewers will be watching closely to see if two of the shows from that opening video, “Game of Thrones” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”, sweep.
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“Game of Thrones” conquered the Emmy kingdom Sunday, honored as top drama for the second consecutive year and becoming the most honored prime-time TV series ever on a night of surprises and sharp political jabs. It has no chance of winning.
Malek is also up against Oscar victor Kevin Spacey, who has never won an Emmy, in his role as manipulative President Frank Underwood in the Netflix Washington drama “House of Cards”.
“Downton Abbey”, which picked up eight nominations previous year but won only for hairstyling, marks its final season with a fourth nomination in the prestigious outstanding drama category among others.
Maggie Smith was honored as best supporting actress in a drama series for the final season of “Downton Abbey”.
But Viola Davis of “How to Get Away with Murder” failed to repeat her 2015 best drama actress win, the first for a woman of color.
Who should win: Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black” – No one works harder in the television business than Maslany, who brilliantly portrays multiple characters in every episode of this thriller. “Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell might emerge with upset wins in the lead actor and actress categories”. TV stars including Aziz Ansari, Anthony Anderson, Kristen Bell and Priyanka Chopra, among others, will present the awards during the program.
Nominees: Ellie Kemper – “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, Julia Louis-Dreyfus – “Veep”, Laurie Metcalf – “Getting On”, Tracee Ellis Ross – “Black-ish”, Amy Schumer – “Inside Amy Schumer” and Lily Tomlin – “Grace and Frankie”.
Limited Series: “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”.
There is also potential for history to be made Sunday night. Network shows that once dominated the awards have been reduced largely to onlookers, especially in the top drama series category where they’ve been shut out of the nominations since a nod for “The Good Wife” in 2011. The night’s star-studded list of presenters include Kyle Chandler, Bryan Cranston, Claire Danes, Michelle Dockery, Minnie Driver, Tony Goldwyn, Terrence Howard, Allison Janney, Rami Malek, Abigail Spencer, Kiefer Sutherland, Hank Azaria, Margo Martindale, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Peter Scolari.
Both are nominated. Both are pound-for-pound superior to “The People v. O.J. Simpson”, which, don’t get me wrong, is high-quality fare. This year, Daily Show alum John Oliver could keep it in the family with Last Week Tonight- but he’s got competition. Keegan-Michael Key from Key & Peele could be this year’s victor.
The Emmy ceremony will be hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast live on ABC television. The ceremony will be televised by ABC.
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Kimmel teased the television academy for boasting that this year’s red carpet will be the longest in the ceremony’s history at 1,325 feet.
