The Television Academy’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards have been spread out over two nights this year, a decision that makes perfect sense given that 47 Emmys were awarded on Saturday alone. An additional 41 Creative Arts awards will be given on Sunday, but the main awards show—27 more categories—won’t happen until Sunday, Sept. 18. That’s 115 Emmys and 115 Emmy acceptance speeches, versus only 38 (including Governors Awards and Scientific & Technical Awards) given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year. The Creative Arts awards cover technical categories, everything from sound mixing to hairstyling.
Saturday night’s awards were dominated by Game of Thrones, which took home nine awards honoring the show’s casting, visual effects, sound mixing, stunt coordination, costumes, production design, and makeup—both prosthetic and nonprosthetic. With one win each for Veep and Girls, that meant HBO racked up 11 Emmys, more than any other network. Second place went to FX, with four awards for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story as well as other shows including The Americans, Fargo, and American Horror Story: Hotel. But the night’s biggest winner was undoubtedly Amy Poehler, who finally won her first Emmy—the 17th she’s been nominated for. She shares the award with Tina Fey; the two women won the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series award jointly for the excellent Saturday Night Live episode they co-hosted in December. It’s the first time an Emmy in any acting category has been shared by more than one person.
Peter Scolari also scored an unlikely victory, by winning an Emmy he wasn’t even originally nominated for. He won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Girls, a nomination he picked up only after Veep’s Peter MacNicol was disqualified for appearing in too many of the show’s episodes to qualify as a guest actor.* Slate’s Heather Schwedel made the case that Scolari deserved the nomination; now he’s got the award as well. The night’s other acting awards, for guest appearances on drama series, went to Hank Azaria for Ray Donovan and Margo Martindale for The Americans. Sunday night’s awards will focus on documentary and unscripted television. An edited version of both nights of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards will air on FXX on Saturday, Sept. 17 before the main award show airs live on ABC on Sunday, Sept. 18. A complete list of the night’s winners is here.
Correction, Sept. 10: This post originally misspelled Peter MacNicol’s name.
