Game of Thrones makes Emmy history

Game of Thrones has conquered the Emmy kingdom, honoured as top drama for the second consecutive year and becoming the most honoured TV series ever on a night of surprises.

Veep’ repeated as best comedy series and its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, won a record-breaking sixth Emmy as best comedy actress. Jeffrey Tambor’s trophy as top comedy actor for Transparent also was his second.

But the top drama acting trophies were far from predictable: Rami Malek of Mr. Robot and Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black were the winners, both overcoming heavyweight competition.

‘Oh, my God. Please tell me you’re seeing this too,’ said a stunned Malek, who plays an emotionally troubled engineer caught up in a dangerous hacking conspiracy.

Games of Thrones, the fantasy saga based on George R.R. Martin’s novels, received a total of 12 awards and at last weekend’s technical arts ceremony for a cumulative 38, beating Frasier by one to claim most prime-time series awards ever.

The Emmys proved more adroit than the Oscars at recognising and honouring diversity in Hollywood’s top ranks, with trophies going to minority actors and behind-the-scenes artists including writers Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang of Master of None.

But Viola Davis of How to Get Away with Murder failed to repeat her 2015 best drama actress win, the first for a woman of colour.

Tambor, who plays a transgender character on Transparent, called on Hollywood to make him the last non-transgender actor to get such a role.

A shaking Louis-Dreyfus ended her speech by dedicating the trophy to her father, who she said died on Friday. Before that, she honed in on GOP contender Donald Trump’s campaign.

‘I’d also like to take this opportunity to personally apologise for the current political climate,` she said. ‘I think that Veep has torn down the wall between comedy and politics. Our show started out as a political satire but it now feels more like a sobering documentary.’

She promised to ‘rebuild that wall and make Mexico pay for it.’

Her victory gave her six best comedy wins - five for Veep, one for The New Adventures of Old Christine - and broke her tie with Candice Bergen and Mary Tyler Moore.

Maggie Smith was honoured as best supporting actress in a drama series for the final season of Downton Abbey. It was her third win for playing the formidable dowager but she did not attend the awards.

Australia’s Ben Mendelsohn of Bloodline won as best supporting drama actor and also was a no-show.

John Oliver captured the top variety talk series award for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, beating competitors including Jerry Seinfeld and host Jimmy Kimmel - who received barbed consolation on stage from Matt Damon, his longtime faux nemesis. The loss ‘makes a lot of sense,’ Damon said.

The People v. O.J. Simpson, which earned the second-highest number of nominations, converted five to trophies.

Louie Anderson was honoured as best supporting actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of a loving but tough mum in Baskets.