What you are looking at is pure, unadulterated joy. The image accompanying this story finds Lena Waithe dancing her ass off at Netflix‘s post-Emmy party in Hollywood. She was at the center of the dance floor. Throwing her Emmy up in the air to cheers from everyone in the room. And if you were in her shoes you would have been just as euphoric. Waithe became the first African-American woman to win a Comedy Series writing Emmy for her now classic episode “Thanksgiving” from “Master of None.”
Throw in the two wins for “Black Mirror: San Junipero” (including an unexpected writing trophy) and it didn’t matter that “Stranger Things” was shut out or only John Lithgow took home a statue for “The Crown.” Netflix topper Ted Sarandos and stars such as Jeffrey Tambor, Dave Chappelle, James Corden as well as some familiar Netflix faces made sure the party was as lit as the HBO ceremony five miles away. Sometimes you just need to celebrate.
The morning after, however, you could view the season from a slightly different perspective. The 69th Emmy Awards telecast landed with a ratings whimper (the third year in a row with less than 12 million viewers overall) and it ended a season that saw FYC spending skyrocket to record totals (that’s the unofficial assumption). And there is still controversy over Sean Spicer‘s appearance and Sterling K. Brown being played off while Nicole Kidman was not. That being said, the night produced arguably one of the most progressive winner’s circles in the show’s history.
Keeping that in mind, some thoughts on the 2017 season and what’s next.
HBO had a golden night but danger lurks around the corner
Simply put, it was an incredible telecast for the brand formerly know as Home Box Office. The network took home 29 Emmys this year up from 22 in 2016, but still down from the incredible 43 in 2015. That’s also nine more than its now largest competitor, Netflix, who won 20. But, HBO needs to be slightly concerned in some respects. Sure, last year’s Drama Series winner, “Game of Thrones,” wasn’t eligible, but the past season wasn’t necessarily a critical wonder and even fans started to see through the cracks signalling that a Drama Series nomination shouldn’t be considered a lock. Let’s look beyond that though. “Big Little Lies,” “The Night Of” and “Veep” accounted for 18 of those 29 wins. “Veep” has one more year, thankfully, but “Westworld’s” five wins were all below the line in the Creative Emmy categories. HBO has had a strong pipeline of shows and it’s possible the second season of “Insecure,” a return of “True Detective,” Adam McKay’s “Succession,” “Sharp Objects” with Amy Adams and the inaugural season of “The Deuce” could fill the void, but with so much competition, its stranglehold on Emmy might not last that much longer.
Netflix’s strategy worked…to an extent
If you’re Netflix you have to take the long view. Their Emmy #FYCSee campaign which included a month long installation/pop up full of screenings, Q&A’s and cocktail receptions was both ingenious and effective. The network earned 91 nominations coming dangerously close to taking HBO’s crown (the longtime champ had 111 nods). But at the end of the Emmy telecast the streaming service came away with just three wins with the other 17 statues having been awarded in the Creative Arts categories including four for Ava Duvernay’s “13th” which was originally an Oscar nominated film. “Stranger Things” won five but missed out on the biggest prize of all, Outstanding Drama Series and the other four were all Creative Emmys. “The Crown” won three including a Primetime win for John Lithgow, but he only appeared in the show’s inaugural season. Can it duplicate or grow on its success next year? The good news is that Netflix has so much strong content it can generate a monstrous amount of nominations. The question is whether it can take the next step and really dominate the winner’s circle like HBO and FX have done in the past.
Hulu broke through with a transcendent show but…breathe people
In no way is this meant to rain on Hulu’s parade, but let’s take “Handmaid’s” success in context. Hulu ran an incredible campaign for a Peabody-worthy show that uniquely captures the nervous zeitgeist of a good deal of the civilized world. The fact they dominated the Drama Series categories was incredibly impressive considering you would run into many industry people who would tell you they couldn’t watch “Handmaid’s” because it was simply “too real” (deja vu for “12 Years a Slave”). That made some of us wonder if the nominations were the win and the larger TV Academy would bypass it when voting for the final awards were up. Instead, “Handmaid’s” dominated the night with even Ann Dowd surprising in Supporting Actress (more on that later). “Handmaid’s” has absolutely put Hulu on the map, but they are going to need another two or three masterworks if they want to remain an awards season staple. Case in point, Amazon had some initial success with “Transparent” and two acting wins for Jeffrey Tambor. This year they spent a significant amount of money putting on a smaller version of Netflix’s pop up for Emmy voters and only won two statues overall (that includes Primetime and Creative Arts). Clearly, you can lose momentum quickly in this fractured content environment. And if Hulu doesn’t lock down the next “Handmaid’s” or “Stranger Things” or “Big Little Lies” it may find itself in the non-“Transparent” malaise Amazon is fighting to get out of.
The Television Academy is almost the future liberals want
If you believe in popular content reflecting our society, that all aspects of your community should be represented in popular media, then Sunday night’s ceremony was a bright light in a year of disturbing public discord. Riz Ahmed became the first actor of Asian descent ever to win an acting Emmy. Waithe is the now the first black woman to win a Comedy Series Writing Emmy. Donald Glover is the first African-American to win a Comedy Series Directing Emmy. Reed Morano is the first woman to win a Drama Series Directing Emmy since Mimi Leder 22 years ago. Sterling K. Brown became the first African-American to win Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series since Andre Braugher in 1998 (something he brought up before he was incredulously cut off). There were two out gay winners and “San Junipero,” a futuristic lesbian love story, triumphed with two Primetime wins. Is the battle for diversity won? Obviously not as some of these historical figures are embarrassing, but when you look at the overall nominations and wins, it’s hard to say that progress isn’t being made.