As far as awards go, the Emmy is pretty prestigious. It’s no Teen Choice Award, sure, but not even a golden woman with wings holding up an atom is as radical as a full-size surfboard. Still, as nice as a normal Emmy is, there’s a special Emmy that’s reserved only for the most deserving professionals in all of television: The Creative Arts Emmy. Unlike the vanilla Emmy which mostly goes to famous people and famous Modern Family crew members, the Creative Arts Emmy goes to the hardworking behind-the-scenes folk who make all of those famous people look and talk so good when they’re on our televisions.
The Creative Arts Emmys were presented this weekend, and in an unsurprising twist that makes them a bit harder to distinguish from the normal Emmys, most of the awards went to HBO and Game Of Thrones (which got eight awards on its own). However, in what is actually a surprising twist, American Horror Story: Freak Show ended up taking home the second-highest number of Emmys with five. Game Of Thrones not only got awards for straightforward stuff like production design, visual effects, and casting, it also nabbed Emmys for its high-quality stunt coordination, sound mixing, sound editing, “single-camera picture editing,” and non-prosthetic makeup. Meanwhile, American Horror Story won for non-prosthetic makeup in a limited series, hair styling, costumes, “outstanding special visual effects in a supporting role,” and prosthetic makeup in a limited series. (You may now be noticing why The Creative Arts Emmys aren’t as much of a “big deal” to normal people, since most of these awards aren’t as exciting as Best Actor or whatever. But you care, right?)
Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns won for being the best live-action short-format program, Louis C.K. won Outstanding Writing For A Variety Special for his Live At The Comedy Store, and SNL 40 won Best Variety Special. The Americans, House Of Cards, Shameless, and Transparent also took home awards, and you can see the full list of winners and nominees (which is massive) at this Variety page.