By Robert Dolen
Despite many historic wins and inaugural firsts, political strife and President Trump kept an overbearing and strangle-like hold on the Primetime Emmy Awards this year.
CBS broadcasted the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy awards with Stephen Colbert as its host, injecting his usual politically fervor-fueled comedy into the experience.
The show began with Colbert’s happy-go-lucky musical number exclaiming how “everything is better on TV” While this may be true, the song highlighting the world’s issues didn’t seem to make the award show any more celebratory.
Of course, using the award ceremony as an opportunity to protest and highlight issues like climate change and racial discrimination is an interesting idea. The result that the viewer sees, however, is much more of a lingering anxiety permeated by the many monologues and speeches highlighting these issues.
It also didn’t help that Colbert proclaimed that Donald Trump was “the biggest TV star of the year,” going so far as to calling him out personally as a viewer from home. It’s also important to mention the fact that even Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary, showed up to make a joke at his own expense about the White House’s litany of press mishaps.
As edgy as Colbert was trying to be, he only exemplified the fact that politics would serve as the backdrop for a ceremony dedicated to celebrating art and entertainment.
Aside from the political discourse, this year’s Emmys featured the most diverse group of nominees to date; including Donald Glover (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, “Atlanta”), Riz Ahmed (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, “The Night Of”) and Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe (Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, “Master of None”).
Another interesting fact to note is that Netflix alone received 92 nominations for various shows in their library, including: “Master of None,” “House of Cards,” “Stranger Things” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
There were plenty of historic moments and broken records at the 69th Emmy Awards.
Glover won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for “Atlanta,” becoming the first African-American to win this award. Waithe, paired with Ansari, was also the first African American to win the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series with “Master of None.”
Seinfeld alumna Julia Louis-Dreyfus also made history for her sixth consecutive Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Selina Meyer on the HBO show “Veep.” Louis-Dreyfus now holds the record for most wins as a single character, surpassing Candice Bergen (“Murphy Brown”) and Don Knotts (“The Andy Griffith Show”).
For many of the popular categories for programs, such as Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Variety Sketch Series, there was stiff competition from some of the year’s best shows.
With the notable absence of “Game of Thrones” from this year’s Emmys due to ineligibility, Hulu took the spotlight with “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The show won multiple Emmy awards: Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Elisabeth Moss), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Bruce Miller), Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Reed Morano) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Ann Dowd).
“Big Little Lies” also took home almost all of the Emmys in its category because of the strong star power and production behind it, thanks to HBO. Other than Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special (“Black Mirror) and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Riz Ahmed), “Big Little Lies” won Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Nicole Kidman), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Alexander Skarsgård), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (Laura Dern) and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special (Jean-Marc Vallée).
“Saturday Night Live” actually had some pretty tough competition for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. Going up against popular series like “Documentary Now!,” “Drunk History” and “Portlandia,” SNL was able to edge them out for best variety sketch series with their various caricatures of this year’s election cycle.
Overall, this year’s Emmys was a revolutionary win for diversity in the entertainment industry, despite the overarching theme of political and societal turmoil.