68th Emmy Awards: Game of Thrones and Veep Repeat; Rami Malek, Tatiana Maslany Surprise

Erik Anderson September 18, 2016

**Game of Thrones, The People v O.J. Simpson, Rami Malek, Veep Top Emmy Awards**

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Game of Thrones and Veep repeated their series wins from last year and The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, coming in with 22 nominations, won the Limited Series Emmy. It also dominated the acting awards, winning three of four. In total, it won nine awards. Game of Thrones won the top three – Series, Directing and Writing on top of its previous nine wins at the Creative Arts Emmys, bringing its haul to 12. That brings its lifetime total to 38, besting the 37 Emmy earned by Fraiser and making it the most Emmy-awarded series, comedy or drama, in history. Veep faltered a bit, winning Comedy Series and Lead Actress but losing all of its other nominations; Supporting Actor, Writing and Directing.

Diversity played a huge part in many of tonight’s winners with most being non-white and/or non-heterosexual, creating the most diverse winners in Emmy history. Rami Malek, Courtney B. Vance, Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown, Kate McKinnon and Regina King were among those that helped define a year of incredibly diverse television.

The drama acting awards were full of shocks and surprises with first-time wins for Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) in Lead Actor, Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) winning. Only Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) was a former winner here.

Kate McKinnon is the first Saturday Night Live “Not Ready for Primetime” performer to win an Emmy since becoming eligible in the main comedy categories. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) has won this award five times in a row. She is now tied with Allison Janney in total wins, with seven. Second only to Cloris Leachman.

Jeffrey Tambor and Jill Soloway repeat their wins from last year, taking Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Directing for a Comedy Series, respectively, for Transparent.

Regina King won her second Emmy in a row for American Crime in the Supporting Actress in a Limited Series category.

The Voice won Reality-Competition Program for the second year in a row, third overall. The era of The Amazing Race seems to officially be over.

In the Limited Series/TV Movie categories the first award went to The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story in Writing (for “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”) but directing was a huge shock, going to Suzanne Bier for directing all episodes of The Night Manager. That might have been what put her over. Sarah Paulson, on her sixth nomination in five years, finally won the Emmy. This time in Lead for The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Her co-stars Sterling K. Brown won in Supporting and Courtney B. Vance won in Lead, dominating the acting categories. Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, however, surprised, winning Outstanding TV Movie, besting All the Way.

Key & Peele won Outstanding Variety Sketch Series in the second year of the category and in the show’s final season.

Here is the full list of Emmy winners from tonight’s show:

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Game of Thrones

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Veep

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Transparent (“Man on the Land”)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Game of Thrones (“Battle of the Bastards”)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Suzanne Bier, The Night Manager

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
Grease: Live

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OF MOVIE
Courtney B. Vance, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OF MOVIE
Sarah Paulson, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION
The Voice

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louie Anderson, Baskets

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodline

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OF MOVIE
Sterling K. Brown, The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OF MOVIE
Regina King, American Crime

OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

OUTSTANDING VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
Key & Peele

OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
Master of None (“Parents”)

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
Game of Thrones (“Battle of the Bastards”)

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”)

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
Patton Oswalt, Talking for Clappers

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.