Later in the night, after The Voice won the best reality show, Burnett, a producer for that show as well, shot back, saying Kimmel gave “another five minutes of free publicity” to Trump.
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But amid all of the self-congratulation, one victor skipped the ceremony: Dame Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey), whose absence drew comedic fire from Kimmel when she won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a drama series. Kimmel had joked early in the evening about Smith having never attending the award show despite winning multiple times. Game of Thrones came up empty-handed in the supporting actor and actress categories, in which it had multiple nominees who likely cannibalised votes from one another. Jeffrey Tambor’s trophy as top comedy actor for “Transparent” also was his second.
Perhaps the evening’s biggest surprise was a cameo appearance by former U.S. presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, who appeared in the broadcast’s opening sketch as Louis-Dreyfus’ driver, explaining he was “between jobs”.
“I have not always been a good man, but I play one hell of a woman”, Anderson said, dedicating the award to his late mother, Ora Zella Anderson. “Some of you Asian parents do me a favor and get your kids cameras instead of violins and we’ll be all good”.
Kate McKinnon, who won best supporting actress in a comedy for her performance on “Saturday Night Live”, generated the most Twitter buzz of any nominated actor, with about 28,000 tweets.
The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards were a chance for Hollywood to celebrate the best that television has to offer – except the rest of the country’s invitations apparently got lost in the mail.
Rami Malek won the Emmy for Actor in a Drama Series for the first season of “Mr. Robot”, available on Amazon Prime.
“She’ll tell me where it will go in our house”, he said.
A shaking Louis-Dreyfus ended her speech by dedicating the trophy to her father, who she said died Friday. In earning her 5th consecutive award this year, Dreyfus has made Emmy history for most wins in the category.
This year’s edition comes amid a creative resurgence in small-screen entertainment fuelled by a shift in at-home, on-demand viewing that has led to what critics have called television’s second golden age. The show also won outstanding writing and outstanding directing for a drama for the episode “The Battle of the Bastards”.
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When asked about the possibility of a prequel or spinoff following the end of the series, Benioff tempered expectations-asking reporters to pose that question to author George R.R. Martin, and implying that he and Weiss would bow out of the show once “Thrones” reached its conclusion: “It’s a great world, I’m sure there will be other series set in Westeros, but for us, this is it”.
