TV’s 2016 Emmy Awards
September 20, 2016
Kit Harington stars as Jon Snow in the sixth season of the medieval fantasy television series, “Game of Thrones.” The show won a record 12 Emmy Awards for the second consecutive year in 2016.
Credit: © HBO
On Sunday, September 18, the 68th Emmy Awards were presented at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The awards recognized excellence in primetime programming and individual achievement for the 2015-2016 television season. Primetime refers to the evening hours, when television draws the most viewers. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presents the awards. The live telecast on ABC featured awards in 26 categories. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the awards for the second time.
The Television Academy spread the awards among a dozen networks and streaming services, illustrating the variety of sources offering quality television programming. Including the Emmy Creative Arts Awards presented earlier in September, HBO’s epic medieval fantasy series, “Game of Thrones,” won a record 12 awards for a fictional series for the second consecutive year, including best drama, best directing, and best writing for a drama series. The series, which began airing in 2011, has won 38 total Emmy Awards, the most for a fictional television program to date. The comedy show “Frasier” (1993-2004) held the previous record of 37.
FX’s crime anthology, The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, won five awards. The miniseries chronicled the infamous 1994-1995 O. J. Simpson murder trial and was based on Jeffrey Toobin’s book The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson (1997). The miniseries won best limited series and best writing for a limited series. Sarah Paulson won best lead actress for her portrayal of prosecuting attorney Marcia Clark; Courtney B. Vance won best lead actor for his portrayal of defense attorney Johnnie Cochran; and Sterling K. Brown won best supporting actor for his portrayal of prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden.
HBO’s political satire “Veep” won best comedy series for the second year in a row. Julia Louis-Dreyfus made history by winning her fifth consecutive Emmy for her role as a vice president of the United States who becomes president. Jeffrey Tambor repeated as best actor in a comedy for Amazon’s “Transparent,” about a middle-aged father who decides to live his life as a transgender woman. In his acceptance speech, Tambor encouraged the television industry to offer more opportunities to the transgender community. The show also won for best directing for a comedy series.
Rami Malek won best lead actor in a drama for the USA Network psychological thriller,”Mr. Robot.” Tatiana Maslany won best lead actress in a drama for the BBC America science-fiction series, “Orphan Black.” Maggie Smith won her third Emmy for her portrayal of Violet Crawley, the dowager-countess of Grantham, in the British television series “Downton Abbey” (2010-2015). HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” won best variety talk series and Comedy Central’s “Key & Peele” won best variety sketch series.
In contrast to the lack of diversity among nominees at the Academy Awards earlier this year, 25 percent of this year’s Emmy nominations went to people of color.
Other Behind the Headlines posts
- A History-Making Primetime Emmy Awards Night (Sept. 22, 2015)
- Megastar Monday: The 88th Academy Awards (Feb. 29, 2016)
