Norman Lear becomes oldest Emmy winner at 97

Los Angeles: Norman Lear made history by becoming the oldest Emmy winner at the age of 97. The television icon registered a win at the Creative Arts Emmys in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category for “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family And The Jeffersons”.

He accepted the award with fellow executive producer Jimmy Kimmel. “Thank you, thank you, and holy sh*t,” laughed Lear, who executive produced and wrote the special. “I got a great reaction, saying that when opening a Christmas present when I was seven years old. It’s 90 years later, and I feel much the same,” he said, as quoted by the Hollywood Reporter.

Lear called the show “one of the greatest things that ever happened to me” and gave much of the credit for the victory to Kimmel.

“It was all Jimmy Kimmel’s idea,” he said. The nonagenarian also thanked “all the farmers and the ranchers across the globe that have nourished me for all these years, and gotten me here tonight”.