HBO came into the 67th Annual Primetime Emmys as the network to beat with 126 nominations and ended up running away with four major categories, taking the trophy for drama for Game of Thrones, comedy for Veep and limited series for Olive Kitteridge. Last Sunday night at the Creative Arts Awards, HBO’s Bessie, starring Queen Latifah, was named outstanding television movie.
Overall, HBO won 43 Emmys this year, 14 of which it won during the primetime ceremony. Game of Thrones also broke the record for most Emmys won by a series in a single year, with 12, including eight won at the Creative Arts Awards.
The broadcast networks, meanwhile, only took home four awards during the primetime awards ceremony: reality competition show for NBC’s The Voice, the second year in a row the singing contest has won this award; supporting actress in a comedy for Allison Janney in CBS’ Mom; supporting actress in a limited series for Regina King; and lead actress in a drama for Oscar nominee Viola Davis in ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder. Show host Fox, even though it had nominees such as Empire’s Taraji P. Henson, was shut out.
It also wasn’t as good a night as it could have been for the streaming services, but Amazon won two awards: comedy lead actor for Transparent’s Jeffrey Tambor and comedy directing for series creator Jill Soloway. Last Sunday, Bradley Whitford was given an Emmy for his guest-starring role in Transparent as a fellow cross-dresser. Most Emmy watchers expected it to be a fight between Transparent and Modern Family, which could have broken the Emmy record for consecutive series wins with six, but Veep came in strong for the upset.
Netflix — which scored 34 nominations, just one less than Fox — came away with one win for Orange is the New Black’s Uzo Aduba as outstanding supporting actress in a drama. Overall, Netflix netted itself four trophies.
Comedy Central swept in the variety talk and sketch categories, with three wins for The Daily Show, including best variety talk show, and its now departed host, Jon Stewart, who bemoaned the lack of applause in his life now that he’s not on TV every day. Comedy Central also won in the new outstanding variety sketch series category for Inside Amy Schumer. The Daily Show’s wins on Sunday night bring it to a total of 60 Emmys over the course of its run with Stewart, including 11 best variety series awards.
Overall, however, it was HBO’s night from start to finish, with the premium cabler dominating much of the broadcast. Besides series wins for Game of Thrones and Veep, Veep star Julia Louis Dreyfus won as best actress in a comedy for the fourth year in a row, while Tony Hale was named outstanding supporting actor in a comedy for the second consecutive year. Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage won for supporting actor in a drama for the second time. Dinklage has been nominated every season for playing Tyrion “The Imp” Lannister.
The full list of winners is available here.
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