ABC Is Top Winner at Saturday Night Creative Arts Emmys with Seven Awards

ABC led the way at the Saturday-night installment of the 2017 Creative Arts Emmys with seven awards, including two for the long-running reality-competition program Dancing with the Stars.

Among other companies with multiple wins, NBC was a close second with six, and Netflix took five. Adult Swim and Fox followed with four each, and four networks — A&E, CBS, HBO and VH1 — won three each. Rounding out those with more than once victory were BBC America, ESPN, Hulu and National Geographic, all of which scored two Emmys.

The Saturday-night show was the first of two Creative Arts Emmys shows this year — the second will be held on Sunday night — a bifurcation introduced successfully last year by the Television Academy’s Board of Governors. Once again, the two ceremonies will be held at the Microsoft Theater at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles.

In a reversal of last year’s genre focus, Saturday night was devoted primarily to unscripted, variety and documentary programming. Scripted programming will be celebrated on Sunday.

More than 40 awards were given in a range of disciplines, including honors for choreography, cinematography, costumes, directing, editing, hairstyling, lighting design, makeup, picture editing, production design, sound mixing, technical direction and writing.

Other categories included awards for animation, documentary/nonfiction, informational, interactive, structured and unstructured reality, short form and special class programs. Individual honors included outstanding host for a reality-competition program, character voice-over performance and narrator. There was also a new category, casting for a reality program, which was introduced this year.

The ceremony included one special honor, the Television Academy’s Governors Award, which is bestowed by the Academy’s board of governors in honor of individual or organizational achievement in the television arts and sciences that is so exceptional and universal in nature, it goes beyond the scope of annual Emmy Awards recognition.

This year, the Governors Award was given to ITVS, the leading documentary film funder, co-producer and distributor for public media outlets such as PBS, and the guiding force behind more than 1,400 documentaries for television. Its long list of docs devoted to social and political topics includes many for such PBS series as American Experience, American Masters, Frontline, Independent Lens and POV, and ITVS projects have won numerous awards, including Emmys, Oscars and Peabodys.

Television Academy chairman and CEO Hayma Washington presented the Governors Award to Sally Jo Fifer, president and CEO of ITVS. In his introductory remarks, Washington praised ITVS as a company that “shines a light on hard truths and tells stories the world needs to hear.”

Upon receiving the prestigious honor, Fifer thanked the numerous filmmakers they have worked with, who “give us the guts to speak out when sometimes it’s dangerous to be brave.” Receiving the Governors Award, Fifer said, “reaffirms our vision of an industry in which inclusion and diversity [are] core to being American and what makes us strong.”

Get the complete list of Creative Arts Emmy Award winners. See photo galleries from the red carpet, the show, and the Creative Arts Ball.

The two of ABC’s seven Emmys that went to Dancing with the Stars included one for Mandy Moore, for her choreography, and for Simon Miles, Matthew Cotter, Suzanne Cotelo and Matt McAdam, in the category of lighting design/lighting direction for a variety series. Also a winner was Shark Tank, which was named outstanding structured reality series for the fourth year in a row. In addition, Glenn Weiss (also an executive producer of this year’s Emmys telecast), won for directing the Oscars; Rickey Minor nabbed his first career Emmy for his music direction of the special Taking The Stage: African American Music and Stories That Changed America; The Oscars: All Access, won for creative achievement in interactive media within an unscripted program; and the David Blaine special Beyond Magic received a juried award for motion design.

NBC took three Emmys for Hairspray Live! — hairstyling, production design and technical direction/camera work/video control — and three for Saturday Night Live — makeup, production design and technical direction/camera work/video control.

Four of the five for Netflix went to 13th, filmmaker Ava DuVernay's acclaimed documentary about the American prison system and what it reveals about our nation's racial history — outstanding documentary or nonfiction special, writing for a nonfiction program (shared by DuVernay and Spencer Averick), outstanding music and lyrics (music by Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins, lyrics by Common) and a juried prize for motion design. The streaming service also captured the Emmy for outstanding narrator, which was given to Meryl Streep for the documentary Five Came Back, about five major Hollywood directors — Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens and William Wyler — and their work on behalf of America's World War II effort.

All four of Adult Swim’s awards were won by the animated series Samurai Jack, in the category of outstanding individual achievement in animation: storyboard artist Brian Andrews, production designer Scott Wills, character designer Craig Kellman and background designer Lou Romano.

The four for Fox included Bob’s Burgers, which prevailed as outstanding animated series; Seth MacFarlane, who took the character voice-over Emmy for his work on the animated comedy Family Guy; a choreography award to Travis Wall for his work on So You Think You Can Dance; and a lighting design/lighting direction win for the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show with Lady Gaga.

All three of VH1’s Emmys went to the reality program RuPaul’s Drag Race, including a win by RuPaul Charles as outstanding reality host, and awards for costumes and picture editing.

The three for A&E included two for Born This Way (casting and cinematography) the reality series that follows the lives of a group of young adults born with Down syndrome, and one for Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (outstanding informational series or special).

CBS won two of its three awards for programs hosted by James Corden — Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special 2017 (outstanding variety special), the 70th Tony Awards (outstanding special class program) and an additional prize for the 59th Grammy Awards (sound mixing).

HBO, meanwhile, grabbed two for Last Week with John Oliver (interactive program and picture editing) and one other, for the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (sound mixing).

The dazzling nature series Planet Earth II won two for BBC America (outstanding documentary or nonfiction series and cinematography for a nonfiction series), and the engrossing seven-hour opus O.J.: Made in America won two for ESPN (directing by Ezra Edelman and picture editing by Bret Granado, Maya Mumma and Ben Sozanski).

Hulu’s two went to The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years (sound mixing and sound editing).

In addition, National Geographic won two — exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking, which went to L.A. ’92, about the events leading up to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict, and picture editing for an unstructured reality program, won by Life Below Zero, the net's nonfiction series about the challenges of survival in the bone-chilling climes of Alaska.

In addition to these, other Emmys included:

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special — Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Presents Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner

Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program Program — United Shades of America (CNN)

Outstanding Short Form Animated Program — Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)

Outstanding Short Form Reality Series — The Daily Show — Between the Scenes

Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series — Viceland at the Women's March (Viceland)

Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Programming — Pearl (Google Spotlight Stories)

The In Memoriam video segment was accompanied by the song “One More Light,” by the band Linkin Park, whose lead singer, Chester Bennington, died in July.

This year’s Creative Arts In Memoriam included individuals who achieved distinction as casting directors, costume designers, cinematographers, composers, art directors, picture editors, Foley artists, sound mixers and other crafts, as well as performers, writers, directors, producers and executives. Among those honored were three former Television Academy governors: composer Ron Grant, sound mixer Ed Greene and executive Sabrina Fair Thomas.

The evening's presenters and performers included Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), W. Kamau Bell (United Shades of America), T Bone Burnett (American Epic), Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons), Common (13th), Ava DuVernay (13th), Jessie Graff (American Ninja Warriors), Lori Grenier (Shark Tank), Derek Hough (World of Dance, Dancing with the Stars), Julianne Hough (Grease: Live!), Lisa Kudrow (Who Do You Think You Are?), LL Cool J (Lip Sync Battle), Meagan Martin (American Ninja Warriors), Mandy Moore (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance), Bill Nye (Bill Nye Saves the World), Rachel Osterbach (Born This Way), Kristen Schaal (Last Man on Earth), Chris Sullivan (This Is Us), Fred Tallaksen (The Real O’Neals), Jenna Dewan Tatum (World of Dance), Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live), John Tucker (Born This Way), Neil deGrasse Tyson (StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson), Travis Wall (So You Think You Can Dance) and Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us).

Bob Bain was executive producer of the Creative Arts Emmys for the third consecutive year. The other executive producers were Jonathan Murray, chair of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Committee, and vice-chair Bob Bergen.

The other members of the Creative Arts Committee are Eva Basler, Janet Dimon, Peter Golden, CSA, Monte C. Haught, Kieran Healy, John D. O’Brien, Mark Scott Spatny and Ann Leslie Uzvadinis.

FXX will air an edited version, with highlights from both shows, on Saturday, September 16, at 8:00 p.m (ET/PT), with a repeat showing at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

After Sunday night's show, the remaining Emmys will be announced at the 69th Emmy Awards telecast on Sunday, September 17. Hosted by Stephen Colbert, the show will air live coast-to-coast on CBS from the Microsoft Theater L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. The executive producers are Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment.