Primetime Emmy Awards 2021: The Crown, Ted Lasso win top honours

The Crown reigned supreme at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards as the Netflix series won seven awards, including drama series and outstanding actress in a drama series for Olivia Colman's outgoing stint as Queen Elizabeth II. Apple TV Plus show Ted Lasso, featuring Jason Sudeikis in the main role, emerged the second biggest winner of the premiere television event on Sunday night with four wins, following closely by Kate Winslet-starrer Mare of Easttown and Jean Smart-starrer Hacks, both HBO series.

After a virtual event last year, the 2021 ceremony was held in downtown Los Angeles outdoors at L A Live entertainment complex and was broadcast in a live telecast on CBS and on Paramount+. Cedric the Entertainer hosted the show that ran for over three hours. The Crown also claimed trophies for writing and directing honours in a drama series for Peter Morgan & Co and swept the entire acting awards in the category with wins for Gillian Anderson (supporting actress), Tobias Menzies (supporting actor) and Josh O'Connor (best actor).

For playing the eponymous character of Ted Lasso, an idealistic all-American football coach, who despite having no soccer coaching experience at all, is hired to manage an English football club, Sudeikis won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series. The show, which has been renewed for a third season, was also named the outstanding comedy series. Its second season premiered in July. Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein brought laurels to Ted Lasso in the supporting acting categories in the comedy series segment.

Mare of Easttown, a police procedural crime drama, picked up three acting Emmys for its actors, including series lead Winslet in the outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie. Winslet, primarily known as the star of films like Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Reader, won her second Emmy for playing the role of Detective Mare Sheehan at the helm of solving a murder in a small town near Philadelphia. Thanking show's creator Brad Ingelsby for writing "a middle aged, imperfect, flawed mother", the actor said the show gave a chance for people to collectively talk about something other than the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"'Mare of Easttown' seems, I don't know, it is this cultural moment and it brought people together and gave them something to talk about other than a global pandemic and I want to thank everyone for watching our show," Winslet, who also serves as executive producer on the series, said. The actor last won an Emmy for 2011's Mildred Pierce, another HBO show in which she starred in the title role.

Julianne Nicholson, who plays Mare's best friend and confidant Lori in the show, was named the outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie. Nicholson dedicated her win to co-star Winslet and "all the ladies out there in Philadelphia, in Kabul, in Texas or anywhere". "(To those women) who are struggling sometimes, finding it hard to be happy sometimes, understanding that life can be a lot sometimes but never stopping, never losing hope, never giving up," she said in reference to the show, the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and the anti-abortion law in Texas.

For his turn as Detective Colin Zabel, the star-struck yet level-headed county detective called in to assist Mare, Evan Peters won the Emmy in the outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie category. Smart, a Hollywood veteran who took home her career fourth Emmy, was recognised as the outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for Hacks. She was also nominated in the outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie category for Mare of Easttown, in which she essayed the role of Helen, Mare's sharp tongued yet perceptive mother who is often at the loggerheads with her daughter.

In Hacks, Smart plays Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas stand-up comic who needs to stay relevant in the showbiz. In her acceptance speech, the veteran paid tributes to her late husband and fellow actor Richard Gilliland, who passed away six months ago. "I would not be here without him, without his putting his career on the back burner so that I could take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities that I've had -- and my two incredible, unselfish children, Connor and Forrest, who are both very courageous individuals in their own right -- they put up with mommy commuting to Philadelphia and back," Smart said. Hacks also scored two more wins in writing and directing (for a comedy series) for Lucia Aniello.

The Queen's Gambit is another entry in the winners' list, with the Netflix show bagging two Emmys of outstanding limited series and outstanding directing for a limited or anthology series or movie for Scott Frank.

Actor-writer Michaela Coel scored an Emmy award in the outstanding writing for a limited series category for her hit and critically-acclaimed series I May Destroy You. In the HBO show based on her personal experience, Coel starred as Arabella, a young woman who seeks to rebuild her life after she recalls being drugged and raped at a local nightclub.

Ewan McGregor was adjudged the outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie for his titular role in Halston. RuPaul's Drag Race won its fourth award in a row in the category, it marks host-creator RuPaul's 11th trophy to create the record. While RuPaul became the most awarded person of colour in Emmy history after his show Drag Race won a trophy for outstanding competition program, it must also be brought to notice that all acting awards across categories went to white actors despite record nominee line-up.