Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, HBO’s Veep, HBO’s Big Little Lies and NBC’s Saturday Night Live were the big winners at the 69th Annual Primetime Emmys, hosted by Stephen Colbert, on Sunday.
When the night was tallied, HBO led all networks and services with 29 total wins, while Netflix took second with 20 and NBC third with 15. Hulu came in fourth with 10, followed by ABC with seven and FX with six.
The Handmaid’s Tale won five Emmys, including the night’s biggest prize—best drama—as well as writing for Bruce Miller, directing for Reed Moreno and lead actress for Elisabeth Moss and supporting actress for Ann Dowd. Last weekend, Alexis Bleidel was named outstanding guest actress in a drama for the series as well. Hulu shouldered aside streaming competitors Netflix—which had three nominees in the category with The Crown, House of Cards and Stranger Things—and Amazon to become the first streaming service to win best drama.
Veep was named outstanding comedy series for the third straight year. While the veteran series could never be counted out, the win felt like an upset of FX’s Atlanta, which was considered the frontrunner going into the ceremony and looked to be on track to win the best comedy trophy after Donald Glover was named best lead actor in a comedy and best director.
Julia Louis Dreyfus also won her sixth straight Emmy for lead actress in a comedy for playing Selina Meyer, breaking the record for most consecutive Emmys won by any actor for a single part.
Big Little Lies cleaned up in the limited series category with a total of five wins. Besides winning best limited series, it also won best actor and actress for Alexander Skarsgard and Nicole Kidman, best supporting actress for Laura Dern and best directing for Jean-Marc Vallee.
Saturday Night Live, which entered the ceremony tied with HBO’s Westworld for the most nominations of any series at 22, was named outstanding variety sketch show. Overall, the series had nine wins, the most of any series, and brought its total number of Emmys to 52, the most of any show ever. Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin were named best supporting actress and actor in a variety series, while Don Roy King won his seventh Emmy for best directing on SNL and his tenth overall. Last weekend, Dave Chappelle and Melissa McCarthy received Emmys for their guest appearances on the show.
Sterling K. Brown was named best lead actor in a drama of NBC’s This Is Us, following up on his win last year as best supporting actor in a limited series for FX’s American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson. Last weekend, veteran TV actor Gerald McRaney won his first Emmy as outstanding guest actor in a drama for his role on This Is Us. This Is Us also was the first broadcast drama to be nominated in the outstanding drama series category since CBS’ The Good Wife in 2011.
NBC’s The Voice was named best reality-competition program for the third year in a row.
Netflix also scored wins for The Crown, with John Lithgow winning for best supporting actor for playing legendary English prime minister Winston Churchill and Asiz Ansari and Lena Waithe winning for best writing on a comedy series for the co-written episode, “Thanksgiving” on Master of None.The service’s Black Mirror: San Junipero was the surprise winner of two Emmys: one for best TV movie and one for best writing of a TV movie for Charlie Brooker.
Tags: