This story originally posted as “Game of Thrones Wins Best Drama Series Emmy Second Year in a Row” on TV Guide.
Advertisement
Writing, Drama Series • David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, “Game of Thrones”, HBO. The drama won best limited series, while Courtney B. Vance, who played defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, won best actor in a limited series.
Unlike the former American football player, it was The People v O.J. Simpson that cleaned up at the 68th annual Emmy Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
Sarah Paulson won the outstanding lead actress Emmy for her role in The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. The actress read her acceptance speech from a sheet of paper, saying in part: “I think that “Veep” has torn down the wall between comedy and politics”. Among them is “How to Get Away with Murder” star Viola Davis, who a year ago became the first woman of color to be honored as best drama series actress. “I mean, if it wasn’t for television would Donald Trump be running for president?” he asked.
Jeffrey Tambor, who plays her transgender ex-spouse and is vying to repeat as best comedy actor, shared serious words about the series.
Actor, Drama Series: Rami Malek, Mr. Robot. The prerecorded portion began with a freeway chase (in a white Bronco) with Malcolm-Jamal Warner driving – an obvious reference to Emmys’ front-runner for limited series, “The People v. O.J. Simpson (which starred Warner as Al Cowlings)”.
British actress Maggie Smith was honoured as best supporting actress in a drama series for the final season of Downton Abbey. 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.
“There is nearly as much drama in the race for best drama actor”, said Gold Derby editor Tom O’Neil.
Generally, it’s not very easy to tell what the overall theme of an Emmy Awards ceremony is going to be until after Game Of Thrones or Modern Family start pulling in every award, but a specific theme started to take shape early on that then turned into a rallying cry when Transparent’s Jill Soloway won a directing Emmy and shouted “topple the patriarchy”.
“There’s great stuff on network, there’s great stuff on cable”, said Alan Yang, who won a comedy writing award with Aziz Ansari for Netflix’s “Master of None”.
Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama: Susanne Bier, The Night Manager. That year the victor was HBO’s sketch comedy “Tracey Takes On…”, which was followed by five consecutive wins for CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman”, 10 consecutive wins for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”, back-to-back wins for “Daily Show” spinoff “The Colbert Report”, and a farewell victory last year for “Daily Show”.
Advertisement
Variety Sketch Series: Key & Peele.
