Cathy Applefeld Olson

At the Emmys

Host Stephen Colbert recounted in his irreverent, politically charged opener for the 69th Primetime Emmys that Donald Trump once accused the Emmys of being fixed because he didn’t get an award for The Apprentice. Colbert then quipped that Trump didn’t win “because, unlike the Presidency, the Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote.”

Chuckles aside, they actually don’t. In TV land, the popular vote would necessitate using ratings as the primary metric. The elusive numbers for some current platforms would make the task an impossibility; but even so, the Emmys, as always, are voted on solely by members of the Television Academy. And some years, many winners couldn’t be further removed from viewership trends.

Let 2017 go down in the books as the first year in some time where many statuettes were in sync with what the people are watching on their sundry screens. But on the main telecast, just five networks split the goodies: HBO (10), NBC (6), Hulu (5), Netflix (4) and FX (2). 

And the winners are…

Thanks to NBC, broadcast television was in the house in a big way. While the crown jewel of the network’s winning 2016-17 season, This Is Us, ceded the best drama statuette to Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, it did bring home a best drama actor statuette for Sterling K. Brown for a second year in a row, and The Voice scored for best reality-competition show. The last time a broadcast series took home the win for best drama was in 2006, when Fox’s 24 was the victor.

But the big NBC love was for the Lorne Michaels-created Saturday Night Live, which soared with four trophies, including for best variety sketch series. Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin also won for best actress and actor, respectively, and Don Roy King scored for best variety series directing. Its 42nd season saw the series land in the top 10 among the A18-49 audience for regularly scheduled entertainment series with an average audience more than 3.5, behind only a handful of other shows including This Is Us, CBS’ The Big Bang Theory and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

And while SNL mocked the political climate via Baldwin’s Trump, McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton and Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer (who made a brief, unevenly received appearance on stage), one of the night’s biggest winners, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, brought Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel to the small screen with massive critical acclaim and heightened political interest. The series is the most watched debut on Hulu (which does not release numbers), and took home first best drama series for a streaming service.

While there was no shortage of digs at the current administration, another recurring theme of the night was the oppression of women, thanks to the prominence of The Handmaid’s Tale and Big Little Lies. In her acceptance speech for best actress in a limited series, Big Little Lies’ Nicole Kidman said of domestic abuse, “It is a complicated, insidious disease. It exists far more than we allow ourselves to know. It is filled with shame and secrecy. And by you acknowledging me with this award, it shines a light on it even more.” The reunited 9 to 5 trio of Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin managed to combine politics and women’s issues, with Tomlin saying that all these years after their 1980 film, they still refuse to be controlled “by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”

The night’s top trophy-taker reminded us of an old TV adage: Don’t count out HBO for long, even in a non-Game of Thrones year. After being shut out last year from the limited series/movie categories, the network came roaring back with five wins for Big Little Lies, including best limited series and lead actress and one for The Night Of (best movie/limited series actor) for Riz Ahmed. HBO also scored two for Veep, including best comedy series and best comedy actress (Julia Louis Dreyfus), and two for Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.

In significant firsts, Lena Waithe was the first African-American woman to win for writing a comedy series (she shared the honor with Master of None’s Aziz Ansari), and Reed Morano broke that barrier as best director for The Handmaid’s Tale. Double winner Donald Glover was the first African American to win best director, and second to win best actor, for Atlanta.

Netflix, which drew 92 total nominations this year, brought home three primetime Emmys: two for Black Mirror, and one for The Crown. A complete list of this year’s winners follows. Cynopsis extends our congratulations to all:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
Veep

BEST COMEDY LEAD ACTRESS
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)

BEST COMEDY LEAD ACTOR
Donald Glover (Atlanta)

BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live)

BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alec Baldwin (Saturday Night Live)

BEST COMEDY DIRECTING
Donald Glover, “B.A.N.” (Atlanta)

BEST COMEDY WRITING
Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe, “Thanksgiving” (Master of None)

BEST DRAMA SERIES
The Handmaid’s Tale

BEST DRAMA LEAD ACTRESS
Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale)

BEST DRAMA LEAD ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us)

BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale)

BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR
John Lithgow (The Crown)

BEST DRAMA DIRECTING
Reed Morano, “Offred (Pilot)”(The Handmaid’s Tale)

BEST DRAMA WRITING
Bruce Miller, “Offred (Pilot)” (The Handmaid’s Tale)

BEST LIMITED SERIES
Big Little Lies

BEST TV MOVIE
Black Mirror: San Junipero

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES LEAD ACTRESS
Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”)

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES LEAD ACTOR
Riz Ahmed (The Night Of)

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laura Dern (Big Little Lies)

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies)

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES DIRECTING
Jean-Marc Vallee, Big Little Lies

BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SERIES WRITING
Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror: San Junipero

BEST REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Voice

BEST VARIETY TALK SERIES
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

BEST VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
Saturday Night Live

BEST VARIETY SERIES DIRECTING
Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live

BEST VARIETY SERIES WRITING
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver