Jimmy Kimmel during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 18.
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With its most recent wins, the HBO fantasy program has won the most Emmy Awards of any fictional primetime TV show. You can also see complete episodes and curated highlights from the 2015-2016 season at the show’s official NBC website. “Game of Thrones” has now won more Emmy Awards than any other fictional show with 38 total awards.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who won her fifth consecutive trophy as leading actress in a comedy series for “Veep“, revealed that her heart was aching after the death of her father two days before. The Voice won for a second year in a row, and Jeffrey Tambor also did a two-fur for his lead role on Transparent.
Rami Malek and Tatiana Maslany won the top acting in a drama awards for Mr Robot and Orphan Black. Not every victor is available to stream on demand at this time – “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”, for one, is now available for purchase on disc and digital formats only – but many of them are. Other honors for the miniseries included Supporting Actor (Sterling K. Brown), Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special and Writing. 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. “She goes to ‘The Soul Train Awards,”‘ he scoffed, threatening to impose an Emmy policy that “you must be present to win”. Ben Mendelsohn of “Bloodline” won best supporting drama actor. “Our show started out as a political satire”, she said, “but it now feels more like a sobering documentary”.
“I mean, if it wasn’t for television would Donald Trump be running for president?” he asked rhetorically.
Not one to let the trend go unnoticed, host Jimmy Kimmel quipped, “The only thing we value more than diversity is congratulating ourselves on how much we value diversity”.
That sentence from Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue summed up the night perfectly. It was the third time she received the award for her role in the hit period drama. “I want everyone, no matter how you grew up, or your socio-economic standard, to have an opportunity to not be stifled at this time in the world and to be given a chance like I’ve been given a chance”.
Often as Kimmel himself sent up how diverse the Emmys are compared to everyone else, it was Alan Yang, Aziz Ansari’s cowriter on an Emmy-winning episode of his Netflix show “Master of None”, who got the best zinger.
The fake feud has continued throughout the years with Damon making multiple appearances on the show, including going to couples therapy with Kimmel and even taking him hostage and hosting the show himself.
“Thanks to Mark Burnett we don’t have to watch reality shows anymore”, Kimmel said.
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The HBO series led the field this year with 11 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series for the second straight year. That sharpened the selection process and might have affected past winners who managed to collect enough second-place votes to overcome the competition.
