By Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Columnist
Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 2016 Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 18. He may not have won an award himself, but the host was sure to continue his famous banter with actor Matt Damon onstage. The biggest star of the night was HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which became the most awarded show in TV history after winning three more awards at this year’s Emmys.
Following his breakup from Taylor Swift, Tom Hiddleston appeared solo at the award show. He presented with actress Priyanka Chopra — even taking her for a twirl on their way out to the podium. Leslie Jones later crashed the stage when the Emmy accountants made their usual speech about protecting the awards. Jones interrupted to tell them they should be protecting her Twitter account from hackers instead. Jones’s Twitter account was hacked in August after her tweets became heavily looked at during her Olympic coverage. The hacker exposed the comedian’s private photos, so she joked that she doesn’t want her nudes appearing on CNN again.
Her co-star, Kate McKinnon, took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on “Saturday Night Live.” Holding back tears, McKinnon thanked Ellen DeGeneres, Hillary Clinton and her comedic mother and sister. She also thanked her late father for making her watch the show at 12 years old.
Sterling K. Brown took home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
“A lot of you may not have known who I was, but you checked the box anyway and that makes me very, very happy,” Brown said.
After dedicating the award to his late father, Brown also thanked his co-star Sarah Paulson, who took home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role in the same series.
Paulson brought Marcia Clark, the O.J. Simpson prosecutor whom she portrays on TV, as her Emmy date. In her acceptance speech, Paulson thanked Clark and also apologized for rushing to judge her during the O.J. trial.
“The responsibility of playing a real person is an enormous one,” Paulson said. “You want to get it right — not for you, but for them.”
Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for their show “Master of None.” The comedic pair co-wrote the episode “Parents,” which won the award. Yang took the microphone first to thank the show’s cast and crew, but by the time he finished, the cue music began playing, and Ansari didn’t have any time to speak. When the producers cut the music so Ansari could give his own speech, Ansari ran off stage instead. Later in the night, Ansari was presenting an award and took a moment to thank his parents, who inspired the award-winning episode.
“Game of Thrones” was awarded three Emmys, leaving it with a record-breaking total of 38 awards. The show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, made sure to mention that the cast was leaving right after the award ceremony to begin filming season seven.
