2021 Emmy Awards: One Palace Revolution Is Not Enough

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"The Crown" is the most awarded series at the 2021 Emmy Awards

Photo: Des Willie / dpa

"The Crown", "The Ladies' Gambit" and "Ted Lasso" are very different series, since Sunday night they have been awarded the US Emmy television award in the categories of best drama series, best miniseries and best comedy series.

So far, so unsurprisingly, all three were considered favorites in their respective categories.

And yet the award ceremony can be described as historic, because the three winners have something in common: All three were produced by streaming companies.

And for the first time, they won the most prizes at the Emmy Awards.

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Most important television award: "The Crown" wins Emmy for best drama series

For the first time, Netflix managed to overtake HBO's pay-TV competition, the sure winner of the past few years. The streamers from California won 44 prizes, which is not only the most this year, but also a record that Netflix is ​​now sharing with CBS. The transmitter installed it 47 years ago, that was a long time ago. This year, the classic TV channels looked even more like a species that was becoming extinct. Only one award went to one of the former big four: Saturday Night Live (NBC) was named the best sketch series. There was no trophy for CBS, Fox and ABC.

Of course, it is also true that streaming services currently only account for 25 percent of the American television market, as Netflix boss Reed Hastings admits in a recent SPIEGEL conversation. So you shouldn't write off the classic channels too early. However, they are increasingly focused on news and sports, while the Emmy Awards once again clearly showed that they are out of the running when it comes to quality series and entertainment. In addition to Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney +, only HBO plays an important role there. This is a palace revolution that could not have been imagined just a few years ago.

So the golden age of series continues. And the Emmy judges are once again faced with the problem of coping with the bulk of the offer. This was particularly evident in the miniseries category, which is the crown jewel of the series genre anyway. Five productions were nominated there, all of which would have been entitled to a prize without any compromises. In the end, "The Queen's Gambit" won, Kate Winslet was named best actress for her role in "Mare of Easttown". You could just as well have thrown the two prizes the other way around, then the famous Anya Taylor-Joy would have won for her performance as the best chess player in "The Queen's Gambit".

On the other hand, it seems downright absurd that the racism study “The Underground Railroad”, a visually powerful, deeply touching and socially highly relevant work, one of the most important miniseries went completely empty.

While the no less radical series "I May Destroy You", which also tells the story of a black woman, had to be satisfied with the award for the best screenplay.

Criticism of the event is already being voiced on the Internet under the hashtag »#EmmysSoWhite«, claiming that it once again refused People of Color the artistic recognition they deserved.

Although more creative people from different cultural groups were nominated than ever before, it was again mostly those with white skin who won.

Further palace revolutions are sorely needed.