HBO’s international hit fantasy/action series Game of Thrones was once again the big winner at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, coming away with a total of 10 statuettes from the two-night event at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Already the biggest Emmy winner for a drama series in Television Academy history, Game of Thrones also stands to add to its total of 80, counting its latest awards, at next week’s 68th annual Primetime Emmys where the show is nominated in 23 categories.
In second with five Emmys was The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, the six-episode re-creation of the famous murder trial shown on the FX channel.
Grease, a live broadcast on Fox of the Broadway musical, and Netflix’s true-crime documentary series Making of a Murderer, about the overturned conviction of a man after 18-years in prison, won four Emmys each. Another musical performed live, The Wiz, won one Emmy.
Bragging rights among the networks, cable channels and streaming services for most Emmys overall for their shows went to HBO with 17, followed by FX with 12.
Netflix hauled in six, followed by PBS and Fox with five, and Amazon with four.
It should be noted that Netflix and Amazon, two relatively new streaming operations that have invested bigtime financing their own productions, got more awards than the original Big Three networks, CBS, NBC and ABC. They won three Emmys apiece.
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards are primarily about honoring work in technical below-the-line categories such as cinematography, production design, editing and costumes. They are a prelude to the Primetime Emmys that hand out kudos to actors, directors, writers and producers.
The Primetime Emmys will be held this coming Saturday, September 18, and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. The show will be broadcast on ABC and streamed over the internet. The more star-studded event gets far higher audience interest and more viewers.
This year the ceremonies for technical achievement were spread over two nights for the first time, in order to accommodate the 84 categories.
An edited version of both nights will be shown on September 17 on FXX, a day before the Primetime Emmys.
Emmys were also handed out in several acting and reality show categories. RuPaul Charles won for best Host of a Reality Program for RuPaul’s Drag Race. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey shared the Best Actress Emmy for separate appearances on Saturday Night Live.
The Comedy Guest Actor Emmy was won by Peter Scolari for an appearance on an episode of Girls. Drama Guest Actor and Drama Guest Actress Emmys went respectively to Hank Azaria for a one-off on Ray Donovan, and Margo Martindale for her appearance on The Americans.
Born This Way on A&E featuring seven young adults with Downs syndrome won the Emmy for Best Unstructured Reality Program, a thrill for its newly-famous stars.
Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane won for best voiceover performance, receiving his first Emmy since 2002 when he got two, also for Family Guy.
American Idol, the pioneering music competition show, which just wound up its final season, received the 2016 Governors’ Award for its “game-changing impact on the medium.”
Idol creator Simon Fuller accepted the award on behalf of the Fox Network and producer FremantleMedia North America.
A footnote: What was for years known as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was streamlined this year to simply the Television Academy — certainly more 21st Century.