69th Primetime Emmy Awards


The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2016 until May 31, 2017, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 17, 2017 at the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, and was broadcast in the U.S. by CBS. The ceremony was hosted by Stephen Colbert. The 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards were held on September 9 and 10, and was broadcast by FXX on September 16.
The nominations were announced by Anna Chlumsky and Shemar Moore on July 13, 2017. Channelwise, the freshman HBO science fiction western drama Westworld and NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live were the most nominated programs, each with 22 nominations.
Host Stephen Colbert opened the ceremony with a song-and-dance number and a monologue that lampooned the state of the world under President Donald Trump, which The New York Times said set an anti-Trump tone for the rest of the event. Many of the further presentations and host commentary continued jokes aimed towards Trump, along with winners' speeches criticizing the President and standing behind diversity in the television field. Sean Spicer, Trump's former White House Press Secretary, made an appearance in which he parodied himself. RuPaul played a living Emmy statue in a comedic interview segment with Colbert during the ceremony.
Original programming web television services—Netflix and Hulu—upended traditional broadcast television series in several categories. Netflix series earned a total of 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, following only HBO with 29 and leading NBC with 15. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale became the first web series to win Outstanding Drama Series. Additionally, web television also won their first awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Television Movie, and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.
In addition, the night saw several other historic firsts: Donald Glover became the first African-American to win Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Atlanta. Riz Ahmed, with his win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Night Of, became the first Asian to win that category as well as the first Asian male to win an acting award and first South Asian to win a lead acting award. Moreover, Ahmed and Dave Chappelle also became the first Muslims to win acting awards, with Ahmed being the first Muslim to win a lead acting award and Chappelle the first to win for a guest role for Saturday Night Live. With Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe winning Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Master of None, Waithe became the first African-American female to win that award. Finally, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her record sixth consecutive award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the same category for the same role in a single series as Selina Meyer on Veep; she is now tied with Cloris Leachman for the most wins as a performer.
The awards ceremony drew 11.4 million viewers, on par with the previous awards ceremony, but one of the lowest viewerships for the Primetime Emmy Awards overall. Analysts attribute this to younger audiences preferring to watch clips or summaries than the entire event and to Florida markets being affected by Hurricane Irma.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.
, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series winner
, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series winner
, Outstanding Lead Actor in Drama Series winner
, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series winner
, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie winner
, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie winner
, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie winner

Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

;By network
;By program
;By network
;By program
The awards were presented by the following:

Presenters

Performers

''In Memoriam''

Broadway actor Christopher Jackson performed Stevie Wonder's "As" as images of television personalities who died in the past year were shown in the following order.