LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” became the first streaming series to win top Emmy comedy honors and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” recaptured the best drama series award Monday at a ceremony that largely slighted its most ethnically diverse field of nominees ever.
With the exception of “Saturday Night Live,” broadcast shows were shut out of the top awards as 21st-century platforms continued to overshadow traditional network fare like “This Is Us.”
HBO, which had ceded its top-dog status in total nominations for the first time in 17 years in July (108, to Netflix’s 112), ended up in a tie for wins with the streaming service at 23 each.
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” a freshman sitcom about an unhappy 1950s homemaker liberated by stand-up comedy, earned best actress honors for star Rachel Brosnahan.
Her castmate Alex Borstein earned the supporting actress trophy and the series creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino (“Gilmore Girls”), nabbed writing and directing awards.
Claire Foy of “The Crown” and Matthew Rhys of “The Americans” won top drama acting Emmys, their first trophies for the roles and last chance to claim them, with Foy’s role as Queen Elizabeth II going to another actress and Rhys’ show wrapped.
The field bested by Foy included last year’s winner Elisabeth Moss for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Sandra Oh of “Killing Eve,” who would have been the first actor of Asian descent to get a top drama award.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” said a startled Foy. She played the young British queen who, as the series continues, will be shown advancing in years.
“Game of Thrones,” which sat out last year’s Emmys because of scheduling, won its third best drama trophy despite competition from defending champ “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“Thank you for letting us take care of your people,” ”Game of Thrones” producer D.B. Weiss said to George R.R. Martin, whose novels and their characters fuel the drama.
In a ceremony that started out congratulating TV academy voters for the most historically diverse field of nominees yet, the early awards all went solely to whites.
An African-American sweep of guest series actor awards at the recent creative arts Emmys suggested big changes ahead for the awards, which only recently have given significant honors to performers and creators of color.
But there was disappointment for “Atlanta,” which had claimed acting and directing trophies last year for its star and creator Donald Glover and seemed poised for more with 16 nominations.
Rather than become the first black-led comedy in 33 years to be named the best (since “The Cosby Show” in 1985), “Atlanta” was shut out Monday (it won two awards, including guest actor for Katt Williams, last week).
The showing by “Mrs. Maisel” extended the long winning streak of shows that focus on white lives, including “Modern Family” and “Friends,” with ethnic minorities rarely given screen time.
“Let’s get it trending: #EmmysSoWhite,” presenter James Corden joked at the ceremony’s midway point.
Then Regina King broke the string, with a best actress win in a limited series or movie for “Seven Seconds,” which tracks the fallout from a white police officer’s traffic accident involving a black teenager.
“I feel like a lot of times we are so divided as a country that things are always black and white. I’m guilty of that a lot of times. I think that probably played into my assumption the chances of me winning was so small,” King said backstage.
Darren Criss, who is of Filipino descent, won the lead acting award for the miniseries “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which won best limited series. Black actress Thandie Newton won best supporting drama actress for “Westworld.”
Peter Dinklage added a third acting trophy to his collection for “Game of Thrones.”
Brosnahan used her acceptance speech to give a shout-out to her comedy’s celebration of women power.
“It’s about a woman who’s finding her voice anew, and it’s one of the things that’s happening all over the country now,” she said. She urged the audience to exercise that power by voting.
Bill Hader collected the best comedy actor award for “Barry,” a dark comedy about a hired killer who stumbles into a possible acting career.
Henry Winkler, aka “The Fonz,” won a supporting actor award — his first Emmy — for “Barry,” four decades after gaining fame for his role in “Happy Days.”
“If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you. Tonight, I got to clear the table,” an ebullient Winkler said, with an equally delighted auditorium audience rising to give him a standing ovation. To his grown children, he said: “You can go to bed now, daddy won!”
The biggest award won by a broadcast network was “Saturday Night Live” for best variety sketch series.
The Emmys kicked off with a song, “We Solved It,” a self-mocking celebration to the diversity of nominees sung by stars including Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson. The tune included a mention of Oh’s possible victory: “There were none, now there’s one, so we’re done,” the comedians sang.
Oh played along from her seat: “Thank you, but it’s an honor just to be Asian,” said the Korean-Canadian actress.
“Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, producing his second Emmy telecast in 30 years, was tasked with turning viewership around after the 2017 show’s audience of 11.4 million narrowly avoided the embarrassment of setting a new low.
The ceremony clearly bore his stamp, with Michael Che and Colin Jost as hosts and familiar “SNL” faces, including Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin, as presenters and nominees. The long-running NBC sketch show, already the top Emmy winner ever with 71, won again for best variety sketch series.
The pressure was on Michaels because NBC and other broadcasters are increasingly reliant on awards and other live events to draw viewers distracted by online options.
The networks, which air the Emmy telecast on a rotating basis, are so eager for the ad dollars it generates and its promotional value for fall shows that they endure online competitors sharing — and dominating — the stage.
REAL-LIFE DRAMA
“The Proposal.” It was a 2009 movie starring Sandra Bullock, but now will forever be the informal title of the 2018 Emmys telecast, thanks to a memorable romantic gesture from Emmy-winning director Glenn Weiss — who summoned the courage to propose to his girlfriend on live TV.
She said yes — thank the Lord. The stars in the audience responded with gasps (we saw you, Leslie Jones) and even tears (we saw you too, Queen Elizabeth — er, Claire Foy.)
That feel-good moment — along with crowd-pleasing speeches by Henry Winkler and Betty White — lightened the mood of an evening that otherwise had a lackluster feel, and disappointed many with the lack of ethnic diversity among its winners.
Some moments we’ll be talking about:
ISSUE: NOT SOLVED
Nope, they sure didn’t solve it.
The Emmys began with a happy announcement — this was the most ethnically diverse group of Emmy nominees yet — and a cheeky musical nod to the diversity issue in Hollywood, a song aptly called “We Solved It!” Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, Sterling K. Brown, Tituss Burgess and Ricky Martin, among others, sang — tongue firmly in cheek — about how far things had progressed, joined by a company of “One of Each” dancers.
But they couldn’t have known how the evening itself would progress — award after award would go to a white winner. Presenter James Corden finally said what everyone was thinking. “Let’s get it trending: #EmmysSoWhite,” he quipped, a double reference to both Betty White, who preceded him, and the prevailing color of the evening.
The string was finally broken about halfway through when Regina King was awarded best actress in a limited series or movie for “Seven Seconds.”
DA FONZ!
Sometimes it just takes a little patience to achieve your Emmy dreams — like, four decades and six nominations worth of patience.
But who’s counting? Not Henry Winkler, who bounded to the stage with delight to claim his first Emmy, more than 40 years after he was first nominated for his role as The Fonz in “Happy Days.”
The crowd rose to cheer the 72-year-old Winkler as he accepted his trophy for best supporting actor in a comedy series for HBO’s dark comedy “Barry,” joking that he was giving a speech he wrote 43 years ago.
He quoted some Hollywood advice he’d been given, that “if you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you.”
“Tonight I got to clear the table,” he said, and then jokingly told his (adult) children: “You can go to bed now. Daddy won!”
BETTY WHITE STEALS THE SHOW
If that was a feel-good moment, what do you call the sublime appearance of 96-year-old White, honored for 80 years in television?
The star of “Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” got such a huge ovation from the crowd that she quipped: “I’m just gonna quit while I’m ahead.”
“It’s incredible,” White said, “that you can stay in a career this long and still have people put up with you. I wish they did that at home.”
And she showed she wasn’t above — or beyond — a racy joke: “I want to thank Lorne Michaels for everything he’s done with me. I mean, for me,” she said of the “Saturday Night Live” creator and producer of the evening’s telecast.
POLITICS TAKES A BREAK
There was surprisingly little politics in the Emmys telecast; the name “Trump” was barely if ever mentioned. But “Full Frontal” host Samantha Bee got a few digs in.
Presenting the award for best drama actor with Taraji P. Henson, Bee was asked what drama she was watching. She was off and running.
“I’ve been watching this shocking dystopian drama called ‘the news,'” Bee said.
“I’m on approximately season 9,000. Gets darker and darker, but I can’t stop watching. You know, they really need to recast the lead.”
She suggested others might want to try, er, lighter fare.
“Just watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ instead,” she said. “It’s a lot more fun.”
A #METOO MOMENT
The #MeToo movement, on the other hand, was addressed right away by hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost.
“It’s an honor being here, sharing this night with the many, many talented and creative people in Hollywood who haven’t been caught yet,” Che said, to laughs.
Jost noted that drinks were being served to the audience.
“The one thing Hollywood needs right now is people losing their inhibitions at a work function,” he quipped.
Missing from the audience was former power player Leslie Moonves, the CBS Corp. chief who was ousted last weekend over sexual misconduct allegations. Che said one of the scariest things a Hollywood executive could hear right now is the message, “Sir, Ronan Farrow is on line one,” a reference to The New Yorker writer who has specialized in #MeToo stories, including the ones that led to Moonves’ downfall.
TALK ABOUT SEIZING THE MOMENT
Glenn Weiss knows how to spice up an awards show. In fact, that’s why he won an Emmy Monday — for directing the Oscars.
But he took his talent to new heights, using his acceptance speech to pop the question to girlfriend Jan Svendsen.
He first gave tribute to his mother, who died two weeks ago, and then addressed his girlfriend. “You wonder why I don’t want to call you my girlfriend?” he asked Svendsen. “It’s because I want to call you my wife.”
A stunned Svendsen made her way to the stage, where Weiss sank to his knee and presented her with the same ring his father gave his mother 67 years ago. Then, he asked. The answer was yes. PHEW.
Jost cracked later that there were “so many guys with rings who didn’t win tonight.”
And Emmy winner John Oliver thanked Svendsen for saying yes. “This could’ve been a very different evening,” he noted.
NO PROPOSAL FOR RUSSELL AND RHYS
There were two sweet victories for the FX spy drama “The Americans,” which concluded its six-season run in May with an acclaimed finale. The writing award for drama went to Joel Fields and Joseph Weisberg, and the best actor trophy went to Matthew Rhys, who played KGB agent Philip Jennings.
In his speech, Rhys acknowledged his longtime co-star and partner in life, Keri Russell, who lost out in the acting category to Foy.
“I don’t have the words, I don’t have the time — neither of which would do you justice, Keri,” he said. “So thank you. More to come.”
He added that there would be no second onstage proposal that night.
“She said, ‘If you propose to me, I’ll punch you clean in the mouth.'”
AP Writers David Bauder, Jonathan Landrum Jr., Mike Cidoni Lennox and Leanne Italie York contributed to this story.
THE COMPLSTE LIST OF WINNERS
Drama Series: “Game of Thrones”
Comedy Series: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Actor, Drama Series: Matthew Rhys, “The Americans”
Actress, Drama Series: Claire Foy, “The Crown”
Supporting Actor, Drama Series: Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Thandie Newton, “Westworld”
Writing, Drama Series: Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, “The Americans”
Directing, Drama Series: Stephen Daldry, “The Crown”
Actor, Comedy Series: Bill Hader, “Barry”
Actress, Comedy Series: Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: Henry Winkler, “Barry.”
Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: Alex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Writing, Comedy Series: Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Directing Comedy Series: Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Limited Series: “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Actor, Limited Series or Movie: Darren Criss, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Actress, Limited Series or Movie: Regina King, “Seven Seconds”
Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie: Jeff Daniels, “Godless”
Supporting Actress, Limited Series or Movie: Merritt Wever, “Godless”
Writing, Limited Series: William Bridges and Charlie Brooker, “USS Callister (Black Mirror)”
Directing, Limited Series: Ryan Murphy, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Writing, Variety Special: John Mulaney, “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City”
Directing, Variety Special: Glenn Weiss, “The Oscars”
Variety Sketch Series: “Saturday Night Live”
Variety Talk Series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”
Reality-Competition Program: “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
16 May 2024
23 May 2024
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