At the 72nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards this year, some of the main highlights included HBO’s ability to surpass every other platform with 30 total wins, limited series “Watchmen” taking home 11 statuettes, the most awards out of any other show nominated. As predicted by Kimmel, the awards reached all-time low ratings, dropping 14% in viewers and 33% among adults 18-49 from the previous all-time low of last year.
HBO topped all other platforms with 30 total wins. The service’s fan-favorite drama “Succession,” won best drama, drama actor Jeremy Strong, writing for a drama and directing for a drama. Its Regina Kinda-led limited series “Watchmen” took home 11 statuettes, the most of any show nominated this year. Netflix received 21 wins, and Pop TV won third place with 10 golden ladies, nine of which went to the final season of Dan Levy and Eugene Levy’s “Schitt’s Creek,” making that show the second-biggest winner of the night among programs. Other networks and streaming services near the top of the winners' list were Disney+ and NBC, which tied at No. 4 with 8 wins apiece. In fifth place was VH1 with six statuettes, followed by a tie for sixth between ABC and National Geographic, with both channels picking up five wins.
All four of Schitt’s Creek’s nominated cast won their categories, with Dan Levy and Annie Murphy winning lead actor and actress in a comedy and Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara winning supporting actor and actress in a comedy. The younger Levy also won for directing and writing and Schitt’s Creek took the trophy for outstanding comedy, bringing its total Emmy haul to nine. Following “Watchmen” and runner-up “Schitt’s Creek” was Disney+’s live-action “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” and HBO’s media empire drama “Succession” with seven awards each, VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” with six, and four for both HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Out of the 19 performer categories, including the guest, short-form, and voice-over categories from last week’s Creative Arts Emmys, 10 went to Black actors. In addition to King and Zendaya, other winners included “Mrs. America’s” Uzo Aduba, King’s co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, “Saturday Night Live” guests Maya Rudolph (a double winner for voice acting on Netflix’s “Big Mouth”), and Eddie Murphy, and two of the stars from Quibi’s “#FreeRayshawn,” Laurence Fishburne and Jasmine Cephas Jones. Zendaya serves as the youngest person to win the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award, as well as the only second Black actress to claim the title after Viola Davis for “How to Get Away With Murder.” Rudolph’s two wins this year marked the first of her career.
Though the awards received massive attention for nominated several minority actors, it still went under scrutiny for lack of Latino nominees. Nonwhite performers made up 49 out of the 118 acting nominees this year, with Black actors making up the largest portion. “The Handmaid’s Tale” actress Alexis Bledel was the sole Latinx actor to score a nomination, drawing condemnation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a boycott from actor John Leguizamo. Emmys presenter Anthony Anderson also made reference to the fact that the awards show’s record number of nominations for Black actors, unfortunately, came in a year when nominees could not celebrate in person. “This isn’t what it should have been,” Anderson said. “But I’m still rooting for everybody Black, because Black stories, Black performances, and Black lives matter.”
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