By Julianna Mauriello
Staff Reporter
On Sunday, Sept. 18, televisions biggest stars joined host Jimmy Kimmel at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles for ABC’s 68 annual Emmy Awards.
The award show highlights and recognizes excellence in the television industry.
The red carpet was star studded and the competition in each category of the night was tough to watch.
“I was really nervous to see if past Emmy winners would hold their titles for another consecutive year,” said junior Manuela Contreras.
Though there were a few categories taken over by newcomer-nominees, a few winning streaks remained. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her fifth consecutive best actress award for her role on “Veep,” which also took the title of best comedy over “Modern Family” for the second year in a row.
Throughout the night there were a lot of political and current events topics brought up, such as diversity and the election. Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at presidential candidate Donald Trump and our attempts at diversity throughout the night.
“Kimmel mentioned that ‘the only thing we value more than diversity is congratulating ourselves on how much we value diversity,’” said senior Andrew Lawlor. “I thought it was a great idea for him to use his celebrity platform to bring that ideal forward.”
Though Kimmel was more direct in his political mockery, other celebrities incorporated their thoughts on the election during their acceptance speeches in a joking manner.
When Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her best comedy actress award, she mentioned in her speech that she “would like to apologize for the current state of American politics. I think that ‘Veep’ has torn down the wall between comedy and politics.” She finished her speech by also poking fun at presidential candidate Trump, “I plan to rebuild that wall and make Mexico pay for it.”
Winner and actor for the Netflix Series “Master of None,” Aziz Ansari, also contributed to the Trump ridicule during his speech by mocking the proposed muslim immigrant ban.
“I understand that this election is very heated, but also very crucial for our country. I just don’t think it should have been incorporated that much into an awards show,” said Contreras.
Though some of the speakers joined Jimmy Kimmel in getting sidetracked by politics, other nominees were celebrating their first Emmy win in history.
Kate McKinnon took home an Emmy for best supporting actress for comedy, beating out Allison Janney who had won the award seven consecutive times leading up to this year. In addition to McKinnon, Louie Anderson took home his first Emmy for best supporting comedy category for his role in FX’s “Baskets,” and Tatiana Maslany won best actress in drama for her role in BBC America’s “Orphan Black.”
“Knowing how popular ‘Game of Thrones’ is, I was not at all surprised that it blew the competition away and also broke the record for most wins for a fictional series,” said senior Nicholas Quaid.
The HBO fantasy drama triumphed at the ceremony with their total number of awards standing at 38.
“I think fans of ‘Game of Thrones’ will be a little upset to hear that they aren’t eligible for Emmys next year since Season 7 of the series premieres was so late,” said Lawlor.
With or without “Game of Thrones” being eligible at next year’s Emmy Awards, television is only improving in quality, which means Emmy categories are only improving in competition.
The night ended in celebration for both the winners and the other award nominees for all the accomplishments this year’s television had attained.
