Bloomberg - - The Crown won the best drama series at the Emmy Awards Sunday night, giving the streaming industry leader the top prize on the TV industry s biggest night for the first time.
A lush period piece about the British royal family, The Crown won best drama series in its fourth season, which depicted Prince Charles's romance with Princess Diana as well as his affairs with Camilla Parker-Bowles, his future wife. The show won the awards for best acting and writing of a drama series as well as all four acting awards. Netflix's The Queen s Gambit, about a chess legend, won best limited series.
The Emmy Awards were a reminder of how much the industry has changed since Netflix released Lilyhammer, its first original series, in 2012. Apple, which makes most of its money selling smartphones and tablets, won more awards than any major broadcast company. Disney a streaming service that is less than two years old, won more than ABC, once the flagship of their owner the Walt Disney Co.
This breakthrough for streaming perpetuated Hollywood s ongoing failure to diversify its ranks of actors and writers, directors and musicians. Almost all of the winner were white and no person of color spoke as a winner until nearly two hours into the show when Ru Paul took home an award for outstanding competition program. In the next few hours, Paul was followed by Debbie Allen, who won the governors' award.
The Emmy Awards received by the Television Academy are considered to be the highest honor in the TV business industry. The show isn t watched by as many people as the Oscars or the Grammy Awards, and awards programs in general have been losing viewers in recent years. Since House of Cards received universal acclaim, Netflix has spent millions of dollars chasing awards. It has plastered Los Angeles with billboards, held public events and mailed stacks of DVDs to voters.
The company has won more than 100 nominations in the past four years and competed with HBO to earn the most wins. Yet it had never won the top prize in any category, which many Hollywood executives took as a sign of the industry s reluctance to embrace the streaming outsider.
Peter Morgan's show about the British royal family was nominated for the best drama series for its first three seasons. Produced by Sony Pictures and Left Bank Pictures, the series is one of the most expensive productions on television, costing upwards of $10 million an episode. The money is evident in ornate costumes and sets on the screen.
The Crown edged out Disney's The Mandalorian as well as another Netflix show, the romance drama Bridgerton. While The Mandalorian failed to win any of the top Emmys, it did fare well at the Creative Arts Emmys which took place last weekend. The show won prizes for musical composition, stunts and visual effects.
Apple Inc. started the night as a big winner with Ted Lasso, its comedy about the U.S. coach of a British soccer club. The show won comedy series of the year and named four of the seven best comedy awards. Star Brett Goldstein won the prize for best actor and co-stars Hannah Waddingham and Jason Sudeikis earned best supporting actress and actor.
The show was nominated for 20 Emmys, the most recent in comedy at first year. It is Apple s first big break in terms of top plaudits, social media conversation and industry prestige, and the wins Sunday night should drive more customers to Apple TV, the iPhone maker's paid streaming service.
Produced by Warner Bros. TV studio, Ted Lasso just concluded its second season and has been renewed for at least one more.
Many Hollywood figures have expressed skepticism about Apple's foray into entertainment. It has not acquired a catalog of series to fill out its library for Apple TV and it has been wary of igniting controversy with its programs. Yet the company dominated only one category at the big annual television broadcast less than two years after introducing the service.
Tonight s toughest competition to come from HBO and HBO Max was Netflix. The limited series Mare of Easttown won three acting awards, including best actress for Kate Winslet. She played the titular Mare, a detective investigating a series of murders in rural Pennsylvania. Co-stars Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson won supporting roles.
It was this global moment and gave people something to talk about other than a cultural pandemic, Winslet said during her acceptance speech.
HBO also won for Last Week Tonight, its topical news show, and I May Destroy You, a limited series about a woman struggling to process her sexual assault.
Last year the academy held a smaller ceremony, presenting the statuettes to winners at their homes.
They said this was outdoors; it s not, actor Seth Rogen joked in presenting the first prize The glee is more important than we make sure we kill Eugene Levy.