Jane Lynch was among the early winners Sunday as the two-night Creative Arts Emmy Awards concluded at the Microsoft Theater with awards for scripted programming.
Lynch won for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for her portrayal of popular but dislikable comic Sophie Lennon on two episodes of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
The field also consisted of two actresses nominated for hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Emma Thompson and Sandra Oh; Fiona Shaw and Kristin Scott Thomas, who were both nominated for appearances on the BBC Three comedy “Fleabag,” which is streamed in the United States by Amazon Prime Video; and Maya Rudolph, who portrays the all-knowing judge found in the Neutral Zone between the Bad Place and the Good Place on NBC’s “The Good Place.”
“Saturday Night Live” hosts had won each of the past three years.
The Emmy is the fifth for Lynch. Her first was in 2010 for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for portraying cheerleading coach teacher Sue Sylvester on Fox’s “Glee.”
Lynch won in 2014 and 2015 for outstanding host for a reality or reality-competition program for NBC’s “Hollywood Game Night” and in 2017 for outstanding actress in a short form comedy or drama series for her portrayal of new executive producer Olivia Vanderstein on the streaming soap opera parody “Dropping the Soap.”
Thompson was among four Oscar winners among Sunday’s nominees along with Robert De Niro, Matt Damon and Jessica Lange.
Although the awards are mainly for obscure technical categories, such as picture editing, costuming, hairstyling, makeup and sound, there are also awards for guest acting.
De Niro and Damon are nominated for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for hosting NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
The remainder of the field includes two other “Saturday Night Live” hosts, Adam Sandler and John Mulaney, along with two actors who appeared on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, Luke Kirby and Rufus Sewell, and Peter MacNicol from HBO’s “Veep.” “Saturday Night Live” hosts have won in the category a record five times, most recently Dave Chappelle in 2017.
Lange was nominated for outstanding guest actress in a drama for reprising the role of Constance Langdon in the FX anthology “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.” Lange received an outstanding supporting actress in a miniseries or a movie in 2012 for the role in “American Horror Story: Murder House.”
To be eligible for a guest acting Emmy, an actor can appear in no more than 50 percent of a series episodes that season.
Norman Lear became the oldest Emmy winner at age 97 Saturday on the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, winning as an executive producer of ABC’s re-creation of original episodes of two of his 1970s hit CBS comedies, “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s `All in the Family’ and `The Jeffersons,”’ which won for outstanding live variety special.
“The fact of the matter is I don’t think about it a lot,” Lear said backstage at the Microsoft Theater. “I confess I’m thinking about it more now. I like waking up in the morning. I think that has a lot to do with it.”
Lear broke the record set earlier in the evening by 93-year-old Sir David Attenborough when he won for best narrator for the second consecutive year. Attenborough also held the record entering Saturday’s ceremony for winning in the category last year when he was 92.
Seth MacFarlane won his third outstanding character voice-over performance Emmy for his work on the Fox animated comedy “Family Guy.”
MacFarlane also won in the category in 2016 and 2017 and received an Emmy in 2000 for outstanding voice-over performance, a juried award where there would be multiple or no recipients in one year.
The category received its current title in 2014 when the Emmy for outstanding narrator was created. Previously, actors supplying voices for animated programming competed with narrators of live-action programming.
MacFarlane has 10 nominations for his voice-over work, nine for “Family Guy” and one for “American Dad.”
This is the sixth consecutive year a voice-over performer from a Fox series has won in the category and fourth consecutive year one from “Family Guy” has won. Alex Borstein won last year.
Borstein was also among this year’s nominees, as was another past winner, Hank Azaria, who has won four Emmys for providing voices on the Fox animated comedy “The Simpsons.”
Attenborough won for his work on the Netflix nature documentary “Our Planet.” The field for best narrator also included Liv Schreiber, who has been nominated in the category four times, and Anthony Mendez, a three-time nominee. Neither has won. Schreiber also has four acting nominations, but never won.
Attenborough won in 2018 for narrating the nature documentary “Blue Planet II,” which aired in the U.S. on the cable network BBC America.
RuPaul won for host of a reality or competition program for the fourth consecutive year.
The host of VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won in a field that also consisted of Ellen DeGeneres (“Ellen’s Game Of Games”), Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman (“Making It”), James Corden (“The World’s Best”) and Marie Kondo (“Tidying Up With Marie Kondo”).
Corden won two Emmys as a producer Saturday, for “Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” the winner for outstanding short form variety series, and outstanding pre-recorded variety special, “Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool.”
Anthony Bourdain won two Emmys posthumously for the second consecutive year for CNN’s “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” which won for outstanding information series or special. In addition to winning as an executive producer he also won for outstanding writing for a nonfiction program.
The series and Bourdain won the same awards last year. Bourdain committed suicide on June 8, 2018 while on location in France for the series. He was 61.
The National Geographic biographical documentary “Free Solo” on Sacramento-raised rock climber Alex Honnold was the night’s top winner with seven Emmys, including for outstanding directing for a documentary/nonfiction program and outstanding cinematography for a nonfiction program.
The Netflix adult animated science fiction anthology series “Love, Death & Robots” was second with five Emmys, including four in the juried category, outstanding individual achievement in animation.
The Netflix makeover series “Queer Eye,” won four awards, including its second consecutive Emmy for outstanding structured reality series.
Netflix was the top winner among networks and streaming services with 15. National Geographic was second with eight, followed by CNN and NBC with five each and Fox, HBO and YouTube with four each.
Categories primarily related to reality, variety, animation and documentary programming were presented Saturday.
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards honor programming that initially aired between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. from June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2019.
Awards in the top 27 categories in comedy, drama, competition, limited and variety sketch and talk series will be presented at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 22.