Emmys 2018: An Aussie win, a proposal and history-making moments
When the first Emmy awards were held in 1949, historians like to note that fewer than 9 per cent of Americans owned a television set.
Seven decades later, on a fractured digital landscape of both content flood and content famine, of $US8 billion ($11 billion) Netflix budgets and hundreds of scripted series, fewer than 9 per cent of the audience would have seen all the nominated programs.
In that sense, the Emmys are a metaphor for the overwhelmed television viewer, with more channels and streaming platforms to choose from than ever before, yet seemingly adrift in the schedule looking for something to watch.
Australia's sole nominee at the "prime time" Emmys, Yvonne Strahovski, came away empty-handed, losing to Westworld actress Thandie Newton.
And despite the avalanche of awards and acceptance speeches, it was the least of categories which ultimately stole the show.
Glenn Weiss, who won for directing a TV variety special, took his stage moment to propose to his girlfriend Jan Svendsen, sending the room to its feet, applauding. (Mercifully, she said yes.)
Weiss also made one of the most heartfelt speeches of the night, acknowledging the loss of his mother, who had always encouraged him to "find the sunshine", just two weeks ago. "Part of my heart is broken," he said.
Close behind Weiss in show-stealing terms was Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, who presented the directing for television drama Emmy and managed, in less than one minute, to be funnier than most of the scripted patter that came before and after.
In the night's two key categories, Game of Thrones won outstanding drama and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won best comedy; the former arguably the world's biggest cable drama and the latter watched by a comparatively tiny audience on the streaming platform Amazon.
The Americans' Matthew Rhys taking lead actor in a drama was surely the most deserved win of the night; the star of a show which was overlooked for almost all of its broadcast life and is only now enjoying a brief burst of awards love on its final go-round.
Rhys's co-star Keri Russell was not so lucky, losing to The Crown's Claire Foy.
Notable for its absence is the hit reboot of Roseanne, which was cancelled in a storm of controversy after its star Roseanne Barr made a series of offensive comments on social media only to be reborn as the still-unseen, Roseanne-less The Connors.
Though it would have been a likely nominee, the US network ABC withdrew Roseanne from contention.
The telecast's "In Memoriam" segment, set to a recording of Amazing Grace performed by the late Aretha Franklin, noted the passing of actors Bill Daily, Burt Reynolds, Jim Nabors and Robert Guillame, singer David Cassidy, writer Neil Simon, producers Steven Bochco, Craig Zadan and presenter/chef Anthony Bourdain.
The segment notably included recently deceased US Senator, John McCain.
For the past 18 years America's annual television awards have been dominated by the American cable channel HBO; this year for the first time in almost two decades Netflix displaced HBO with 112 nominations to 108.
In brand terms it was a coup, despite the slim margin of just four nominations.
As with the Grammys, there are almost too many Emmy categories to count; there are so many they are handed out across three nights.
The first two nights focus on "creative arts" categories including production design, casting, cinematography, costumes, makeup and hairstyling and picture editing; the third, the "prime time" Emmys, focuses on key program genres and performance by actors.
Australia entered the competition with three nominees: Strahovski, production designer Deborah Riley, nominated for her work on Game of Thrones, and main title designer Patrick Clair, nominated for his work on Westworld.
Riley won her category - scooping up her fourth Emmy - at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys.
This year's awards were ground-breaking in terms of diversity, and a marked contrast to the Oscars which have struggled very publicly with their inability to bring diversity to their awards.
American stunt co-ordinator Shauna Duggins (Glow) this year became the first woman to win the Emmy award for stunt co-ordination and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) was the first Asian-American woman to be nominated for lead actress in a drama series.
In addition, all four guest-acting Emmys were awarded to African-American actors: Tiffany Haddish (Saturday Night Live), Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us), Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Katt Williams (Atlanta).
Perhaps the most interesting gamble, in an era where overseas sale is considered key to television industry accounting, was the decision to hand hosting duties to American comedians Colin Jost and Michael Che, familiar to US audiences from the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
The behind-the-scenes logic is self-evident - SNL's producer Lorne Michaels is executive producer of the Emmy telecast - but the move will cost the telecast in terms of international audience volume as Jost and Che have virtually no profile outside the US.
To give the value of international sale some context, consider this: the Academy Awards, with similar challenges of declining audience and cable versus broadcast relevancy, announced plans this year to controversially dump categories from the live telecast to appease foreign broadcaster frustrations.
Even in the US, the Emmy telecast is - along with most other awards nights - battling an audience decline. Last year's telecast drew 11.4 million viewers in the US, a fraction up from the 11.3 million who watched the telecast in 2016.
Those numbers sit in dramatic contrast to larger audiences of 13.5 million in 2010 and 21.8 million back in 2000.
The 70th annual Primetime Emmy Awards acknowledge excellence in US programming broadcast between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018; the winners are selected via ballot by members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Emmys 2018: The Winners
Outstanding drama series: Game of Thrones
Outstanding comedy series: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding limited series: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Outstanding lead actor in a drama series: Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Outstanding lead actress in a drama series: Claire Foy, The Crown
Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series: Bill Hader, Barry
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series: Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or a television movie: Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or a television movie: Regina King, Seven Seconds
Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series: Thandie Newton, Westworld
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series: Henry Winkler, Barry
Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series: Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or a television movie: Jeff Daniels, Godless
Outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or a television movie: Merritt Wever, Godless
Outstanding reality/competition program: RuPaul's Drag Race
Outstanding variety sketch series: Saturday Night Live
Outstanding variety talk series: Last Week Tonight
Outstanding writing for a drama series: Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for The Americans
Outstanding writing for a comedy series: Amy Sherman-Palladino for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding writing for a limited series, movie or dramatic special: William Bridges and Charlie Brooker for USS Callister (Black Mirror)
Outstanding writing for a variety special: John Mulaney for John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
Outstanding directing for a drama series: Stephen Daldry for The Crown
Outstanding directing for a comedy series: Amy Sherman-Palladino for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Outstanding directing for a limited series, movie or dramatic special: Ryan Murphy for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Outstanding directing for a variety special: Glenn Weiss for The Oscars
Michael Idato is a Senior Writer based in Los Angeles for The Sydney Morning Herald.
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