GAME OF THRONES took the top Emmy for best drama last night, but British comedy Fleabag was the surprise big winner of the night, dominating the comedy prizes at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
Game of Thrones finished with 12 awards overall for its final season.
“Thank you to the hardest working crews in show business – the dragons who shot for 70 nights straight in freezing Belfast rain, the wolves who shot all around the world – you are amazing, all of you,” said showrunner Dan Weiss.
Peter Dinklage won his fourth best supporting actor statuette for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.
But the show’s hopes of going out with a new record numbers of Emmys for a single season were dashed after it failed to cnvert nominations in directing, writing and the other acting categories.
The divisive final run enraged many fans – more than a million signed a petition for HBO to redo its conclusion.
But the 10 nominated cast members received a standing ovation as they gathered on stage.
“I think all of us agree how amazing the entire last season was for us,” said Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark.
Game of Thrones had already bagged 10 Emmys in lesser categories at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, including for the show’s special effects and elaborate costumes.
It ends its eight-season run with 59 Emmys, a record for a drama or comedy. Only variety sketch show Saturday Night Live has more.
‘Angry, messed-up woman’
In the night’s biggest shock, Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge bested eight-time acting winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) before the show itself won for best comedy series.
The BBC show – which has grown into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic after being acquired by Amazon – scooped six awards overall.
“It’s just really wonderful to know and reassuring that a dirty, pervy, angry, messed-up woman can make it to the Emmys,” said Waller-Bridge.
“This is just getting ridiculous,” she said upon winning the best comedy prize. “The journey has been absolutely mental.”
Fleabag was shunned by Emmy voters during its first run, failing to get a single nomination. But the Television Academy’s 24,000-plus voters changed their tune for its second season.
Waller-Bridge has ruled out a third season, saying the irreverent series about a self-absorbed young Londoner has come “to a natural end.”
‘We all have the right’
Billy Porter made history as the first openly gay black man to win the best drama actor prize for FX show Pose, which explores New York’s underground ballroom culture in the 1980s.
“I am so overwhelmed and so overjoyed to have lived long enough to see this day,” said Porter, who turned 50 on Saturday, in his acceptance speech.
“I have the right. You have the right. We all have the right,” he added.
Jason Bateman was the surprise winner for directing Netflix’s dark crime thriller “Ozark.” Co-star Julia Garner won best supporting actress.
Chernobyl – HBO’s drama about the 1986 nuclear catastrophe – won the Emmy for best limited series.
- © AFP 2019 with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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