The Handmaid’s Tale gave Hulu its first ever best drama win at the Emmys on a night where new shows had the edge over old favorites, and political barbs – mostly aimed at Donald Trump – punctuated proceedings.
Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel fought off competition from other front-runners including The Crown, Stranger Things and This Is Us to make history by becoming the first show produced by a streaming site to take the evening’s most-coveted award.
Politics were at the forefront at an evening, which featured a surprise appearance from former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Host Stephen Colbert set the tone with an opening monologue, that repeatedly made fun of the president’s long-running annoyance over not winning an Emmy during his time hosting The Apprentice.
“Unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote,” goaded Colbert, who also brought out Spicer to confirm the audience watching the event was the biggest ever, a reference to the former press secretary’s disastrous first press conference where he exaggerated the number of people in attendance at Trump’s inauguration.
Other political targets were Ted Cruz, who was embarrassed when an aide “liked” some soft porn on his official Twitter feed recently. “These days everyone loves streaming video,” said Colbert. “Just ask Ted Cruz.”
There were some surprises in the acting categories with Sterling K Brown taking home best actor in a drama series for his role in This Is Us. The outstanding lead actress in a drama went to Elisabeth Moss for her portrayal of Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale, which had a brilliant night with Ann Dowd also winning supporting actress in a drama series. The show also had wins for guest actress in a drama series (Alexis Bledel) and writing (Bruce Miller) and directing (Reed Morano).
Big Little Lies was one of the night’s other big winners, and helped HBO fill the void left by Game of Thrones not being eligible this year.
Laura Dern managed her first win at the Emmys for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie for her performance in Big Little Lies. The show had a strong showing with other winners coming in the form of Nicole Kidman in best actress in a limited series or movie, Jean-Marc Vallee, for directing, and Alexander Skarsgård, who won outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie.
The absence of Game of Thrones in the best drama category ensured another show would take an award the HBO show has won for two years in a row, but in the best comedy award business continued as usual. Julia Louis-Dreyfus won lead actress in a comedy for the fifth year running, and Veep won best comedy for the third successive year.
Elsewhere in comedy, Saturday Night Live converted its newfound popularity in the age of Trump into Emmy wins. It took eight televised awards with wins for cast members Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon, as well as best variety sketch show and nods for guest appearances from Melissa McCarthy and Dave Chappelle.
There was a diverse group of winners this year, with Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, Riz Ahmed, Chappelle and Lena Waithe all winning, with Glover taking victories in lead actor in a comedy and directing in a comedy series for his surreal comedy Atlanta.
It was a good night for British talent as well, with John Oliver dominating the talk show categories, while elsewhere Charlie Brooker won two awards for the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror (best writing and best limited series, movie or drama), and Riz Ahmed won outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie for his role in The Night Of.
The Crown and Westworld were two of the night’s most overlooked shows with only John Lithgow winning for The Crown when he took home the first award of the evening for supporting actor in a drama series.
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