Game of Thrones breaks Emmy Records

‘Game of Thrones’ is a programme that has taken the world by storm in the past couple of years – it’s the show that everyone has been talking about. In case you are still somehow yet to find out what it’s about, in short, it tells the story of nine families who fight for the control of a mysterious land, Westeros. While it is set in a medieval time period, there are endless references to sex and debauchery, alongside extreme gore and murder. It is nothing like any other modern day series, particularly due to the time period it is set in and the level of adult content included.

This is likely to be the reason as to why ‘Game of Thrones’ has broken the Emmy record this year, with an outstanding 12 wins. One of the biggest achievements for the show was winning the award for best drama, after being unsuccessful in the past four years of its airing. Some of the other successes of the evening included ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series’, given to Peter Dinklage and ‘Writing for a Drama Series’, awarded to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Other big wins on the night included ‘Veep’, which was named ‘Outstanding Writing – Comedy Series’, as well as Julia Louis-Dreyfus winning the award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress’, and others. In addition, Viola Davis was the first black actress to have ever won an Emmy for a leading role in a drama series. This led on to her delivering an inspiring speech, in which she discussed diversity in modern day roles. Other winners, Jeffrey Tambor and Jill Soloway, instead took this opportunity to discuss transgender rights. Tambor has been waiting 23 years to receive an award and finally had this opportunity after playing the character Maura Pfefferman in ‘Transparent’, a programme about a retired professor who opens up about identifying as a woman.

It seems that the decision to have a change in the voting process for this year’s awards was a positive one, allowing more mainstream shows, such as ‘Game of Thrones’ to be successful. Instead of the final decision making being left down to a small panel of members, this year it was open to all Academy members. Let’s hope that this continues in the future ceremonies.