The People v OJ Simpson triumphed at the 68th Primetime Emmys, winning five awards including best limited series, while fantasy drama Game of Thrones was honoured as the best drama for the second consecutive year.
Veep was named best comedy series and its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, won a record-breaking fifth Emmy as best comedy actress.
The People v OJ Simpson , which is the dramatic retelling of the infamous O J Simpson’s murder trial, was honoured for its writing and captured several acting awards.
Courtney B Vance bagged best actor in limited series or movie, Sarah Paulson won best actress and the best supporting actor honour to Sterling K Brown. “Obama out, Hillary in,” Vance said as he wrapped his victory speech.
HBO series Game of Thrones , the fantasy saga based on George RR Martin’s novels, made Emmy history, pushing its lifetime total number of awards to 38 — one more than Frasier , the previous all-time record holder.
Besides best drama, GOT won David Benioff and DB Weiss the best writing in a drama series honour and best directing in a drama series for Miguel Sapochnik. The series already became the most-honoured drama series after picking up nine Emmys at the Creative Arts ceremony last weekend. Overall it won 12 Emmys this year, out of 23 total nominations.
This year, however, the series lost in the drama acting categories, which were far from predictable. Rami Malek of Mr Robot and Orphan Black actress Tatiana Maslany overcame heavyweight competition to be named best actor and best actress, respectively.
“Oh, my God. Please tell me you’re seeing this too,” Malek, who plays an emotionally troubled engineer caught up in a dangerous hacking conspiracy, said after winning the honour.
The Emmys also did not shy from honouring minority talents as Indian-origin actor-writer-director Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang received the best writing for a comedy series honour for Master of None .
Louis-Dreyfus used her victory at the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted ceremony, which was witnessed several starts making sharp political jabs, to take a dig at GOP contender Donald Trump. “I’d also like to take this opportunity to personally apologise for the current political climate. I think that Veep has torn down the wall between comedy and politics. Our show started out as a political satire but it now feels more like a sobering documentary,” she said. She promised to “rebuild that wall and make Mexico pay for it.”