Generally, it’s not very easy to tell what the overall theme of an Emmy Awards ceremony is going to be until after Game Of Thrones or Modern Family start pulling in every award, but a specific theme started to take shape early on that then turned into a rallying cry when Transparent’s Jill Soloway won a directing Emmy and shouted “topple the patriarchy.” Women won awards, Jeffrey Tambor made a passionate speech about giving trans actors a shot, Leslie Jones yelled at the Ernst And Young guys for not protecting her Twitter account, and throughout the whole thing it was clear that this wasn’t just about white guys for once. Oh sure, white men still won plenty of awards, but even host Jimmy Kimmel made some jokes about how the open acceptance of diversity wasn’t necessarily “good” for him.
Speaking of the awards, Game Of Thrones did end up taking home a bunch of them (including Best Drama Series), with “Battle Of The Bastards” being honored presumably for how expensive it was and for how satisfying it was to finally see Ramsay Bolton get ripped apart by hungry dogs. In fact, Game Of Thrones won so many Emmys that it has now broken the record for most-awarded scripted drama series ever. The People V. O.J. Simpson also cleaned up pretty well, virtually dominating the various Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special categories. Elsewhere, Tatiana Maslany won Best Actress In A Drama, even though she probably deserves a dozen more Emmys for the work she does on Orphan Black. Also, Rami Malek won Best Lead Actor In A Drama Series for Mr. Robot, suggesting that some of these awards were actually picked by people who know what they’re doing.
The broadcast also covered the Creative Arts Emmys a little bit, which are like the real Emmys but way cooler and more underground. You can read about those here.
The full list of winners is below.
Drama series
Comedy series
Lead actress in a drama series
- Tatiana Maslany as many different characters in Orphan Black.
Lead actor in a drama series
- Rami Malek as Elliot in Mr. Robot.
Supporting actor in a drama
- Ben Mendelsohn as Danny Rayburn in Bloodline.
Director for a dramatic series
- Miguel Sapochnik for “Battle Of The Bastards,” Game Of Thrones.
Supporting actress in a drama series
- Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Countess Of Grantham in Downton Abbey.
Writing for a drama series
- David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for “Battle Of The Bastards,” Game Of Thrones
Outstanding variety sketch series
Directing for a variety special
- Thomas Kail and Alex Rudzinski, Grease Live
Outstanding variety talk series
Outstanding writing for a comedy special
Best limited series
Outstanding television movie
Lead actor in a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, The People V. O.J Simpson.
Lead actress in a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, The People V. O.J Simpson.
Supporting actor in a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden, The People V. O.J Simpson.
Outstanding director for a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- Susanne Bier, The Night Manager.
Supporting actress in a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- Regina King as Terri LaCroix in American Crime.
Outstanding writing in a limited series, movie, or dramatic special
- D.V. DeVincentis, The People V. O.J Simpson
Outstanding reality competition
- The Voice
Lead actor in a comedy series
- Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman in Transparent.
Lead actress in a comedy series
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer in Veep.
Directing for a comedy series
- Jill Soloway for Transparent.
Supporting actress in a comedy
- Kate McKinnon, for her various characters in Saturday Night Live.
Outstanding writing for a comedy series
- Aziz Ansari for the episode “Parents” of Master Of None.
Supporting actor in a comedy series
- Louie Anderson as Christine Baskets in Baskets.