Kamau Bell, Samantha Bee, Bobs Burgers Win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards

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In one week, Stephen Colbert will host the Primetime Emmy Awards where the most talked about awards will be announced to celebrate excellence in television. But this weekend, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is honoring the people who are every bit as gifted and innovative as the people nominated in the major categories. Saturday night and Sunday night are all about the 2017 Creative Arts Emmy Awards.This separate ceremony held over two nights and as the precursor to the Primetime Emmys, was taped over the weekend and will be broadcast in one edited special airing next Saturday evening on FXX.

There were plenty of Creative Arts Emmys to go around, after all it does take two nights to award them all, and so comedy programming picked up a lot of trophies named Emmy.

In fact, the first award of the weekend went to Late Late Show host James Corden. However, it wasn’t for his post-midnight talk show and his couch full of celebrities. This went to his Late Late Show spin-off “Carpool Karaoke“. The primetime special featuring Corden’s vehicular singing segment. “Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2017” won for Outstanding Variety Special. “Carpool Karaoke” was in one of the more competitive categories and it beat out fellow nominees, “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” from Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night special on Showtime and two comedy specials, Louis C.K. 2017 and Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust.

In the animation categories, FOX has to be happy with how the weekend was going. Seth MacFarlane was recognized with an Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for “Family Guy“, while the network’s cartoon sitcom, “Bob’s Burgers” won the Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. “Bob’s Burgers” faced stiff animated competition from other nominated cartoons series including, “Archer“, “Elena and the Secret of Avalor“, “The Simpsons” and “South Park“.

As some may have expected, Saturday Night Live was a multiple winner at the Creative Arts Emmys for its banner year covering the 2016 Presidential Election and the Trump administration which followed. SNL took home three Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday night including Outstanding Production Design for a Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Series, Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series for the episode hosted by Jimmy Fallon and featuring his huge David Bowie, “Let’s Dance” opening number, and the Emmy for Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special (Non-Prosthetic) which was awarded to the SNL episode hosted by Alec Baldwin where the show’s makeup artists not only transformed Alec Baldwin into President Trump, but Leslie Jones as well.

Samantha Bee and her writing staff won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for her alternative to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Presents Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner”. She was up against competition from “Louis C.K. 2017“, “Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust“, “Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night” and the “70th Annual Tony Awards“.

“Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver took home a pair of Emmys on Saturday night, winning Outstanding Picture Editing for a Variety Program for his critically acclaimed episode featuring his “Fuck 2016” segment (perhaps the first Emmy awarded to something with the word “Fuck” in its title), and for Outstanding Interactive Program against comedy heavyweights, “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Online“, “The Late Late Show with James Corden“, “Saturday Night Live Multiplatform Experience” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon“.

In other awards going to comedy series, CNN’s “United Shades Of America: With W. Kamau Bell” won Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. And if you like your comedy wearing dresses, giant wigs and outlandish makeup, comedy drag and its queen RuPaul and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won three big awards Saturday night including Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming, Outstanding Reality Picture Editing (Structured/Competition) and the highly coveted Outstanding Host for a Reality/Reality-Competition Program for RuPaul herself.

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards continue Sunday evening and will air all in one special from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 16th at 8pm on FXX.

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper