Succession, Watchmen and Schitt’s Creek dominate Emmys

Despite the fact Game of Thrones wasn’t a contender, HBO shows still managed to sweep the Emmy Awards this year.

Not even a global pandemic could stop the 2020 Emmy Awards yesterday.

Though the show itself looked different — with celebrities making acceptance speeches via video calls from the safety of their own homes — one thing stayed very much the same this year: HBO came out on top.

Even without Game of Thrones, the 58-time Emmy winner that finished last year, HBO was still the big winner of the night, with its content airing locally on streaming service Binge, as well as Foxtel.

The premium network took home a grand total of 30 Emmy Awards, and 11 telecast Emmys, which was more than any other streaming service or network.

Watchmen took home the most wins for the network with 11 awards, followed by Succession with 7, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver with 4, and Euphoria with 3. (You can find the full list of Emmy 2020 winners here.)

HBO president Casey Bloys told Deadline he was “thrilled” with the network’s success at TV’s night of nights.

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Watchmen scored 11 awards and 26 nominations at the Emmys. Picture: Supplied/Foxtel

“It’s especially nice because there was a question how HBO would do. This is a pretty good way to answer that question,” Bloys said.

It also seems it may not be too long until Game of Thrones can dominate the Emmys yet again, with Bloys revealing the prequel House of the Dragon was still slated for a 2022 release as casting is underway.

Netflix didn’t fare quite as well at the Emmys this year as it has in years past, though still came in second, taking home two Telecast Emmys, and 21 total Emmys, continuing its downward trend over the last two years.

(The streamer won 4 Telecast Emmys and 27 total Emmys last year, and 7 Telecast Emmys and 23 total Emmys in 2018.)

The Viacom-owned Pop TV, thanks solely to a complete sweep of the comedy categories by Schitt’s Creek, came in third with a total of 10 awards.

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Succession took home 7 awards at the Emmys. Picture: HBO via AP

Newcomer Disney+ snuck into fourth place, thanks to its seven Creative Arts Emmy wins for The Mandalorian.

Amazon Prime slipped way down on the list without its big winner from last year, Fleabag, though still managed to win four Creative Arts Emmys for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Hulu came in last place among the streamers, with just one Creative Arts Emmy for The Handmaid’s Tale.

(Even Quibi won two Emmys for #FreeRayshawn.) And Apple TV scored its first major win thanks to The Morning Show’s Billy Crudup.

So even though it was an Emmys like we’ve never seen before, the winners were, essentially, what we’ve seen before: HBO dominating, and Netflix coming in second — though, notably, lagging a little further behind than it had in previous years.

Stream all the Emmy award winners including Succession and Watchmen on Binge. New to Binge? Get a 14 day free trial. Sign up at binge.com.au

But Disney+, considering it’s only had one big flagship original series since launching, made an impressive showing with its eight awards.

And you can’t deny that 2020 saw more streaming services competing at the Emmys than ever before. It’s sure to only increase next year.

This story originally appeared on Decider and has been reproduced here with permission