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Game of Thrones takes top prize at Emmys

September 18, 2018

HBO's Game of Thrones and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel took home top honors at the 70th Emmy Awards. Despite having an ethnically diverse pool of nominees, people of color were largely snubbed.

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The cast of Game of Thrones at the 2018 Emmy Awards
Image: picture-alliance/Faye Sadou/MediaPunch

The fantasy series Game of Thrones took home television's top honor on Monday night, winning the best drama category at the 70th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. HBO's megahit took home a total of nine awards, the most out of all other nominated shows.

Amazon's sitcom about an unhappy housewife who performs stand-up comedy in the 1950s, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, took home the award for best comedy series, the best comedy actress for Rachel Brosnahan, as well as best supporting actress in a comedy for Alex Borstein.

It was the first time an online streaming service won the top award in the comedy category, with the show winning a total of eight awards throughout the night.

Claire Foy from Netflix's The Crown and Matthew Rhys of The Americans won the top awards for best drama acting.

In a landmark win, RuPaul's Drag Race took home the award for best reality competition. The show, which sees drag queens compete to become "America's next drag superstar," has garnered widespread praise for highlighting LGBT stories and drag culture.

Snubs to people of color

The night saw a series of upsets, but also several snubs to people of color despite having the most ethnically-diverse pool of nominees in the award show's history. 

Donald Glover's Atlanta had 16 nominations but went home empty-handed — although the show won two awards at the Creative Arts Emmys last week. Expectations were high for the show to become the first black-led comedy in 33 years to win the best comedy series since The Cosby Show in 1985.

Hopes were also high for Sandra Oh from Killing Eve to become the first actor of Asian descent to win the Emmys' top drama acting award, but she lost out to Foy

A surprise marriage proposal ended up stealing the show on Monday night. Director Glenn Weiss proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen, while accepting his Emmy for directing the Oscars award ceremony. She said yes.

rs/rg (AP, AFP, dpa)