Game of Thrones has done it again, winning a menagerie of Emmy awards for its sixth season. Considering the show’s unprecedented popularity, the stellar special FX and talented cast, HBO’s fantasy series has become an ever growing juggernaut that was bound to begin breaking records for awards recognition as a reflection of its massive success.
This year’s awards brings Game of Thrones Emmy total up to an impressive 38 wins. Until last weekend, the record number of wins for a fictional series was held by the acclaimed ’90s sitcom Frasier, which earned 37 Emmys over its eleven-season run. Meaning Game Of Thrones has reached this milestone in an even more impressive amount of time.
Along with an array of casting, writing, directing, costume and special FX wins (as reported by BBC News), the show was awarded the coveted Outstanding Drama Series award for the second year running. The series beat a range of nominated shows, including Downton Abbey, House of Cards and the relatively new Mr. Robot. Game of Thrones was nominated for 24 categories this year, half of which were wins and 9 of which were earned at the newly separated Creative Arts Emmy ceremony a week before.
The notable season 6 episode that was recognized with Emmy glory, was unsurprisingly the show’s penultimate episode “Battle Of The Bastards”. This episode featured Game of Thrones most ambitious battle scene attempted so far, and has earned showrunners Dan Weiss and Dave Benioff the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and the episode’s director, Miguel Sapochnik the accolade for Outstanding Directing.
Although Game of Thrones has dominated many of the categories for 2016, one category was surprisingly unsuccessful despite several nominations - none of the cast members performances earned awards. Instead, Mr Robot’s Rami Malek and Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany won for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress awards in drama, and The People v. OJ Simpson’s Sarah Paulson and Bloodline’s Ben Mendelsohn won for supporting roles. Many of the cast gave arguably remarkable performances in season 6 - but with competition for these categories being incredibly high this year and the vast number of Game of Thrones cast members lowering potential individual screen time, this result is not unanticipated.
For the show’s awards competitors, next year’s Emmy winners could be a very different picture. As the release of season 7 has been delayed until summer 2017, Game of Thrones will be not be eligible for nominations, giving other drama shows a break from the Seven Kingdom’s Emmy supremacy for a year. It will be interesting to see which series rise to the occasion.
Game of Thrones season 7 is expected to air Summer 2017.
Source: BBC News
