Emmys preview delivers history
Black actors sweep the drama, comedy categories. John Legend, two others join EGOT club.
Black actors sweep the drama and comedy categories at the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy awards ceremony, held in advance of Monday’s Emmy Awards.
The 2018 Creative Arts Emmys made history over the weekend while also offering an intriguing sneak preview of next Monday’s Primetime Emmy Awards.
For the first time in Emmy history, all four of the guest-acting statues went to black actors.
Ron Cephas Jones was recognized in the guest actor in a drama series category for his role as William Hill on NBC’s “This Is Us,” while Samira Wiley won the guest actress in a drama series award for her role as Moira on Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Katt Williams took home prizes in the guest actress and guest actor in a comedy series categories. Haddish won for her “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig, and Williams for his role as Willy in FX’s “Atlanta” episode “Alligator Man.”
The stars were all firsttime Emmy winners, with Haddish making history two-fold: Her “SNL” appearance in November marked the first time a black female stand-up comic hosted the show since its start in 1975.
Other big winners on Night 1 of the Creative Emmys included the “Black Mirror” episode “USS Callister,” which took home three statuettes, including TV movie. It’s the second TV movie win for the Netflix anthology series, following last year’s award for the episode “San Junipero.” Meanwhile, “Rick and Morty” won in the animated series category.
Chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain and Oscars producer Craig Zadan were honored with posthumous Emmys at Sunday’s continuation of the ceremony.
Bourdain, who died June 8 at age 61, won two awards for his CNN travel and food series “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” specifically for writing for a nonfiction program and for informational series or special. The series also collected awards for picture editing for a nonfiction program, short-form nonfiction or reality series, sound mixing for a nonfiction program and sound editing for a nonfiction program.
Bourdain had previously won four Emmys.
Zadan, who died Aug. 20 at age 69, won his first Emmy as part of the producing team behind NBC’s live production of “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” which was named variety music or comedy special.
John Legend, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber also won big as executive producers on “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which helped them each graduate to the exclusive EGOT club. The trio became the 13th, 14th and 15th people to join the prestigious club, which denotes those who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
Other major winners of the second night of the Creative Arts Emmys were Netflix programs “Wild Wild Country,” which won for documentary or nonfiction series, and “Queer Eye,” which won for structured reality program. RuPaul took home the statue for host for a reality or reality-competition program for VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
A full list of winners can be found at latimes.com.
An edited version of Saturday and Sunday’s ceremonies will be shown on FXX on Saturday.