Shōgun conquers Emmys with record-breaking Outstanding Drama Series win

Shōgun capped off its explosive first season with a big cauldron of Emmys, and using a cauldron for Emmys is better than learning if boiling people alive elicits an interesting last word, after all. Taking home the Emmy for Oustanding Series, Shōgun won 18 Emmys tonight, the most any show has ever won in a single year, passing Game Of Thrones 12 wins in 2015.

Showrunner Justin Marks thanked FX for greenlighting a “very expensive, subtitled, Japanese period piece whose climax revolves around a poetry contest—I have no idea why you did that, but thank you so much.” Marks gave the Emmy-winning star Hiroyuki Sanada, who spoke in Japanese as Marks translated.

“We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the crew, directors, and masters who have supported our samurai period dramas up until now,” Sanada said in his speech. “The passion and dreams that we have inhereted from you have crossed oceans and borders.”

Shōgun seemed almost absent from the show early in the night as the Emmys went through the Comedy categories. Though, we were distracted by The Bear, which we mistook for a drama. But then Shōgun took home the statue for Best Directing, and the dam broke. Shōgun took home Emmys for Best Actor for Hiroyuki Sanada and Best Actress for Anna Sawai, adding another four Emmys to the 14 or so it entered the show with. Strangely, Baby Reindeer did not thank Shōgun for reclassifying itself as a Drama Series and opening the door to Reindeer‘s big night while also preventing The Morning Show from winning even more of these damn trophies. We salute you, Shōgun, the most outstanding show of the year.