One consistent theme was the continued creative erosion at the top broadcast networks, now merely an afterthought on television’s biggest night.
Advertisement
Games Of Thrones – hoping to break Frasier’s record total for a narrative series of 37 Emmys – has won awards for outstanding writing and directing for a drama series. Susanne Bier, the Danish director of the BBC’s spy thriller The Night Manager, won for best directing in a limited series.
Emmy recognition can help bring in bigger audiences, and more advertising dollars, at networks like FX that run commercials. “Give them auditions. Give them their stories”. “I play a young man who is, I think, like so many of us, profoundly alienated”, he told the crowd.
“The People v OJ Simpson” triumphed at the 68th Primetime Emmys, winning five awards including best limited series, while fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” was honoured as the best drama for the second consecutive year. First-time nominee Rami Malek (“Mr Robot”) won for best lead actor in a drama, while Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) won the prize for best lead actress in a drama, in a surprise win for the BBC America series.
“Oh, my God. Please tell me you’re seeing this too”, said a stunned Malek, who plays an emotionally troubled engineer caught up in a risky hacking conspiracy.
In another revision, this one implemented previous year, voting was expanded from blue-ribbon panels to – depending on the award – giving substantially more or all of the academy’s 20,000-plus members the chance to vote for finalists.
Thirty-eight represents the number of Emmy Awards the show now tallies.
Tambor, who plays a transgender character on “Transparent”, called on Hollywood to make him the last non-transgender actor to get such a role.
Veep, set the tone for the evening apologising for “the current political climate”. She promised to “rebuild that wall…and make Mexico pay for it!”
In her acceptance speech, Louis-Dreyfus said: “Our show started out as political satire but now feels like a sobering documentary”.
The presidential campaign was foremost in many minds.
In his opening monologue, the host said he was holding “Celebrity Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett responsible for the “Donald Trump phenomenon”. So when Smith won for best supporting actress, Kimmel pulled a Kanye West and, unscripted and hilariously, returned to the stage to snag the trophy himself. McKinnon’s portrayal of Clinton is her best-known impression. “No, no, no, no, no”, Kimmel said. “I wonder if he’s having a viewing party with the guys”. Sterling K. Brown, who won a supporting actor award, said later it felt like he had floated out of his body and looked down at everyone in the crowd when his name was announced. A few awards later, Brown co-star Courtney B. Vance kept the riff going by thanking his wife, Angela Bassett, with obvious adoration: “To the woman that rocks my chain”, he said. “Please tell me you’re seeing this too”, Malek said when he got onstage.
The American fought back tears as she collected the outstanding lead actress in a comedy series award.
“I’m happy to be able to stand with this in my hand for the team, happy that there was no one from ‘People vs. O.J.’ in my category”, she said. But the night was not without some disappointment for the comic. The loss “makes a lot of sense”, Damon said.
Advertisement
This year’s British winners included Dame Maggie Smith, who won outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her role in Downton Abbey. It was her third win for playing the role of a dowager and like always she didn’t attend the ceremony. That was gag material for Kimmel, who said her trophy would be in the “lost and found”.
