By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Handmaid’s Tale” and political comedy “Veep” won the top prizes at the Emmy awards on Sunday, where “Saturday Night Live” was also a big winner on a night dominated by jokes about U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the first major awards wins for streaming service Hulu, “Handmaid’s Tale” star Elisabeth Moss was also named best drama actress for playing a woman forced into sexual servitude. The show also won awards for writing, directing and for supporting actress Ann Dowd.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her sixth consecutive Emmy for playing an egotistical presidential candidate on HBO’s “Veep,” one of the few repeat winners this year.
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Sterling K. Brown won best dramatic actor for his role as an African-American who is adopted into a white family in heart-tugging NBC family drama “This Is Us.”
Donald Glover won best comedy actor for his hip-hop themed show “Atlanta.”
In a crowded limited series category, HBO’s female-driven murder mystery “Big Little Lies” came out on top, winning for best series, for actors Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard, as well as for writing and directing.
Britain’s Riz Ahmed won his first Emmy for his role as a man who falls foul of the U.S. judicial system in HBO’s crime limited series “The Night Of.”
Trump loomed over the ceremony as the target of multiple jokes.
“The biggest TV star of the past year is Donald Trump – and Alec Baldwin, obviously,” said Emmy host Stephen Colbert, who has relentlessly attacked Trump on his “The Late Show.”
Baldwin won the comedy supporting actor Emmy for his withering impersonations of Trump on Comcast Corp’s NBC’s satirical series “Saturday Night Live.”
“Saturday Night Live” was named best variety sketch series, and also brought wins for Kate McKinnon and Melissa McCarthy’s turn as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine and Piya Sinha-Roy Editing by Mary Milliken)
