The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in US prime time television programming from June 1, 2015 until May 31, 2016, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at the Microsoft TheaterinDowntown Los Angeles, California, and was broadcast in the U.S. by ABC. The ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.[1][2] It was preceded by the 68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which took place over two nights, September 10 and 11, at the Microsoft Theater.[1][3]
| 68th Primetime Emmy Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Date |
(Creative Arts Awards) | |||
| Location | Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Presented by | Academy of Television Arts and Sciences | |||
| Hosted by | Jimmy Kimmel | |||
| Highlights | ||||
| Most awards | The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (5) | |||
| Most nominations | The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (13) | |||
| Outstanding Comedy Series | Veep | |||
| Outstanding Drama Series | Game of Thrones | |||
| Outstanding Limited Series | The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story | |||
| Website | http://www.emmys.com/  | |||
| Television/radio coverage | ||||
| Network | ABC[1] | |||
| Produced by | Don Mischer | |||
| Directed by | Glenn Weiss | |||
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The nominations were announced by Anthony Anderson and Lauren Graham on July 14, 2016.[4][5] The crime anthology limited series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story was the most nominated program at the ceremony with 13, and 22 overall,[6] although Game of Thrones received the most overall nominations that year with 23 as the most nominated drama series.[7]
With five awards, The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story won the most awards of the night, while the fantasy drama series Game of Thrones won three, including Outstanding Drama Series and surpassed Frasier (37) as the fictional television program with the most Primetime Emmy Awards with 38 wins in six seasons.[8] Game of Thrones' win was also the second time a sixth season of any show had won the Outstanding Drama Series award after fellow HBO show, The Sopranos' Sixth season had won it in 2007.
Additionally, the political satire series Veep won Outstanding Comedy Series for the second time in a row, while its producer and lead star Julia Louis-Dreyfus established a new record of wins for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series; it was her fifth consecutive win for the series, sixth overall in the category and her seventh overall win as an actor.[9]
For the first time, none of the nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series were from the four major American broadcasting TV networks. In addition, Ben Mendelsohn became the first actor to win Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for a series from a streaming service network; he won for Bloodline from Netflix.
This is the first and, as of 2020, the only ceremony where no network received more than one nomination in the Drama Series category. That feat occurred for the first in the Comedy Series category in 2023.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[10][11][a] For simplicity, producers who received nominations for program awards have been omitted.
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Outstanding Variety Sketch Series
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Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
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| Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|
| HBO | 40 |
| FX | 28 |
| Netflix | 17 |
| ABC | 12 |
| AMC | 9 |
| Showtime | 8 |
| Amazon | 6 |
| CBS | |
| NBC | |
| PBS | |
| Comedy Central | 5 |
| Fox | 4 |
| BBC America | 3 |
| Lifetime | |
| USA |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|---|---|
| The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story | Limited | FX | 13 |
| Veep | Comedy | HBO | 10 |
| Game of Thrones | Drama | 9 | |
| Fargo | Limited | FX | 8 |
| The Night Manager | AMC | 6 | |
| Silicon Valley | Comedy | HBO | |
| Transparent | Amazon | 5 | |
| All the Way | Movie | HBO | 4 |
| American Crime | Limited | ABC | |
| The Americans | Drama | FX | |
| Downton Abbey | PBS | ||
| House of Cards | Netflix | ||
| Master of None | Comedy | ||
| Better Call Saul | Drama | AMC | 3 |
| Black-ish | Comedy | ABC | |
| Homeland | Drama | Showtime | |
| Mr. Robot | USA | ||
| Ray Donovan | Showtime | ||
| Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Comedy | Netflix | |
| American Horror Story: Hotel | Limited | FX | 2 |
| Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo | Variety Special | HBO | |
| Bloodline | Drama | Netflix | |
| Confirmation | Movie | HBO | |
| Getting On | Comedy | ||
| Inside Amy Schumer | Variety Sketch | Comedy Central | |
| Key & Peele | |||
| Luther | Movie | BBC America | |
| Modern Family | Comedy | ABC | |
| Saturday Night Live | Variety Sketch | NBC | |
| Sherlock: The Abominable Bride | Movie | PBS | |
| UnREAL | Drama | Lifetime |
| Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|
| FX | 6 |
| HBO | |
| Netflix | 3 |
| Amazon | 2 |
| NBC | |
| PBS |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story | Limited | FX | 5 |
| Game of Thrones | Drama | HBO | 3 |
| Transparent | Comedy | Amazon | 2 |
| Veep | HBO |
The awards were presented by the following:[12]
| Name(s) | Performed |
|---|---|
| Tori Kelly | "Hallelujah" |
Very early on in the show, Jeffrey Tambor paid tribute to Garry Shandling. Later, before introducing the segment, Henry Winkler paid tribute to producer, actor and director Garry Marshall. Singer-songwriter Tori Kelly sang "Hallelujah" as photos were shown of television industry personalities who had died in the past year.[13]