The first round of winners has been announced for the 2017 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which were presented September 9 and 10 in Los Angeles.
The night’s big winners included Meryl Streep, Common, Dancing With The Stars and director Ava Duvernay. The Primetime Emmy Awards will be held Sept. 17 with host Stephen Colbert, also at the Microsoft Theater.
The Emmy race has begun
The two-night event took on Los Angeles and was held at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday and Sunday night.
The event was hosted by Bill Nye, who revealed he had stepped in to host in place of Hank Azaria, because the actor had gone to Florida to help move his mother to safety out of the path of Hurricane Irma. On Saturday, the evening’s awards focused on reality, documentary and animated programs.
The awards on Sunday evening mainly include scripted programming, picture editing, costuming, hairstyling, makeup, and sound, but also guest acting. Meryl Streep, Seth MacFarlane, and Common were among the big winners at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Streep was selected as outstanding narrator for her work in the Netflix documentary ‘Five Came Back’ on the wartime contributions of five prominent movie directors during World War II. However, she was not present for the ceremony at the Microsoft Theater Saturday
The Emmy was Streep’s third, following the 1978 outstanding lead actress in a drama or comedy special award for the NBC miniseries ‘Holocaust’ and outstanding leading actress in a miniseries or a movie in 2004 for HBO’s ‘Angels in America.’
Seth MacFarlane won for outstanding character voice-over performance for the second consecutive year and third time overall for his work on the Fox animated comedy he created, ‘Family Guy.’
A Netflix Documentary won!
The hip-hop recording artist ‘Common’ was part of the three-man team who won for outstanding music and lyrics for ’13th,’ the Netflix documentary on the intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States.
The victory leaves Common a Tony short of becoming the 13th person to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony in competition, popularly known as an EGOT. Backstage, Common reiterated his desire to work on Broadway.
“Theater is something I really love, I always wanted to be a part of plays. I was actually in a play in school, but my mother said my friend was a better actor than me so I quit acting, but now I’m back at it,” Common said.
“The EGOT is something I would love to achieve. That would be a honor … a blessing.”
Consecutive year winner and most awarded reality show
RuPaul Charles of VH1’s ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ won for outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition program for a second consecutive year.
Unfortunately, RuPaul wasn’t present at the Emmys to accept his second award, as he’s rather busy taking over the Javits Center in New York with RuPaul’s Drag Con. However, he did give this statement:
“I am beyond grateful to the Television Academy for giving love to our show again this year. Providing an international platform for 113 outrageous, courageous and talented queens has been the greatest reward of all,” it read.
Other winners
Director Ava DuVernay’s documentary ’13th’ was the biggest winner of the night, taking home four prizes for documentary special, writing, motion design, and original music and lyrics for ‘The Letter to the Free’ by Common, Robert Glasper, and Karriem Riggins.
Winners also included Glenn Weiss, a frequent director of the Tony telecast, who won for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, for this year’s Academy Awards. Veteran Broadway scenic designer Eugene Lee—the longtime head designer for Saturday Night Live since its 1975 premiere—took home his second Emmy.
Saturday night also delivered a tie for the most awarded reality competition show in history.
‘The Amazing Race’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars‘ both had 15 trophies, and both had nominations this year. However, ‘The Amazing Race’ didn’t win any Creative Arts prizes, while ‘DWTS’ claimed two, so that gives ‘DWTS’ the lead with 17 total victories.
The tie-breaking 16th victory for ‘DWTS’ came early in the night when it claimed Best Variety Series Lighting Design for ‘Cirque Du Soleil Night.
Source: E!