“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Big Little Lies,” and “Saturday Night Live” emerged as the biggest winners from Sunday night’s 69th Emmy Awards ceremony. “The Handmaid’s Tale” won the coveted Outstanding Drama award for its debut season, in a year in which “Game of Thrones” was ineligible, leaving many of the categories that it usually dominates up for grabs.
In addition to Best Drama, “Handmaid” won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama (Elizabeth Moss), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama (Ann Dowd), Outstanding Directing for a Drama (Reed Morano), and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Bruce Miller). “Big Little Lies” nearly swept the Limited Series/TV Movie awards, earning for Supporting Actress (Laura Dern), Directing (Jean-Marc Vallée), Supporting Actor (Alexander Skarsgård), Lead Actress (Nicole Kidman), and Outstanding Limited Series. “Saturday Night Live” won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Kate McKinnon), Outstanding Variety Sketch Series, Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Alec Baldwin), and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series (Don Roy King).
“Veep” and “Atlanta” dominated the remainder of the comedy awards. “Veep” won Outstanding Comedy Series for the third year in a row, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus won Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy for the sixth year in a row, breaking her own record for most Emmys won by someone for the same role in the same series. Donald Glover won Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy, and Outstanding Director for a comedy series, becoming the first African-American to win the latter.
Another diversity milestone was reached when Lena Waithe co-won Outstanding Writing for a comedy series with Aziz Ansari. She is the first African-American woman to win the award, and she also brought LGBT diversity to the pool of winners. In fact, the diversity among the nominees made this year’s group the most diverse in Emmy history for the third year in a row, which Stephen Colbert announced during his opening monologue.
The Emmys this year once again highlighted the waning power of broadcast television. Few broadcast shows were nominated and even fewer one awards. Netflix had a total of 92 nominations, and Hulu emerged as another dominating power with “The Handmaid’s Tale”. “This is Us,” “Saturday Night Live,” and “The Voice” were the only network shows that won Sunday night, and they are all on NBC.
Another takeaway from Sunday night’s awards is the frequent mentioning of President Trump. Many stars used their time on stage to criticize President Trump or his policies, and Stephen Colbert also did not hold back in his monologue either, at one point saying that unlike the election, the Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote. Colbert also brought Sean Spicer on stage to mock his claim that President Trump’s inauguration was the most-watched ever. Spicer came on stage with a podium and jokingly claimed that the Emmy telecast will be the most-watched ever. This appearance drew a lot of criticism, many said that it made light of the Trump administration’s tendency to exaggerate or lie.
A complete list of winners and nominees can be found on www.emmys.com.