Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Hell-raisers: The Boys season 3 shakes up prestige TV with superhero debauchery

      Hell-raisers: The Boys season 3 shakes up prestige TV with superhero debauchery

      Just because they're Emmy nominated doesn't mean The Boys are pulling their punches. Here, the team dives into what might be "the most insane season of TV ever filmed." Read More
    • Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      From Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Weeknd, here are all the artists who can't wait to get on the road again. Read More
    • Ready for takeoff! We drank 3 rounds with the hotshot cast of Top Gun: Maverick

      Ready for takeoff! We drank 3 rounds with the hotshot cast of Top Gun: Maverick

      The actors playing the next generation of pilots in the action sequel felt the need for lots of cocktails. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. Emmys 2016: The Best Moments

Emmys 2016: The Best Moments

By Mary Sollosi Updated September 19, 2016 at 03:30 AM EDT
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Jimmy Kimmel Opens the Show

Jimmy Kimmel Opens the Show
Credit: ABC

This year’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, opened the night with a monologue that called out annual no-show Maggie Smith (“She’s Downton absent is what she is”) and poked fun at Hollywood’s diversity problem (“Here in Hollywood, the only thing we value more than diversity is congratulating ourselves on how much we value diversity”) — but he had to make it to the show first. Before he took the stage of the Microsoft Theater and kicked off the ceremony, we saw a pre-taped sequence in which Kimmel traveled to the show by hitching a ride with Modern Family’s Dunphys, Veep’s Selina Meyer’s presidential motorcade (chauffeured by none other than Jeb Bush), and James Corden, who belted “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” with Kimmel before kicking the Emmy host out of his car as punishment for his unforgivably bad carpool karaoke-ing. After Kimmel said a prayer to the great TV goddess (Oprah), Game of Thrones’ Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryen swooped down on one of her dragons and transported him the rest of the way (but not before scorching Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet).

 

1 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Kate McKinnon's Emotional Win

Kate McKinnon's Emotional Win
Credit: Image Group LA/ABC via Getty Images

Saturday Night Live star and Ghostbusters breakout Kate McKinnon won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her various hilarious roles on SNL. An emotional McKinnon, in a bright red dress, shook as she accepted the award: “I am really crying,” she said, “I’m not making it up.” She thanked Ellen DeGeneres and Hillary Clinton (both of whom she impersonates on SNL), and the Democratic presidential nominee tweeted her congratulations. “On a personal note, thank you to my beautiful and hilarious mother and sister,” McKinnon concluded, “and to my father, who’s not with us anymore, but he made me start watching SNL when I was 12. I miss you, Pop.”

 

2 of 12

3 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Continues Her Hot Streak

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Continues Her Hot Streak
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

To no one’s surprise, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the fifth year in a row — yes, you read that right, she has won five consecutive Emmys for her hilarious work on Veep. Louis-Dreyfus thanked the Academy, HBO, and the various people who work on the show — many of whom she says she “tricked” into it. “I’d also like to take this opportunity to personally apologize for the current political climate,” she added. “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 like a sobering documentary. So I certainly do promise to rebuild that wall — and make Mexico pay for it.” Then the actress dedicated the award to her father, who passed away on Friday. “I’m so glad that he liked Veep,” she said, visibly emotional, “because his opinion was the one that really mattered.”

 

3 of 12

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Jill Soloway's Powerful Speech

Jill Soloway, Best Directing for a Comedy, Transparent
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Transparent creator Jill Soloway won the Emmy for Directing a Comedy Series for the second year in a row, and delivered a powerful acceptance speech that ended with the rallying cry to “topple the patriarchy!” She called her career as a director “a privilege, and it also creates privilege when you take women, people of color, trans people, queer people and you put them at the center of a story, the subjects instead of the objects. You change the world, we found out.” She thanked the trans community “for your lived lives,” and called for an end to violence against trans women. After Soloway had left the stage, Kimmel came back out and mused, “I’m trying to figure out if ‘topple the patriarchy’ is a good thing for me or not…I don’t think it is.”

 

4 of 12

Advertisement

5 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Jeffrey Tambor's Important Message

Jeffrey Tambor's Important Message
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

For the second year in a row, Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor took home the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy for his performance as Maura Pfefferman on the Amazon series. “May I be very, very clear about something?” the two-time winner began. “There is no best actor.” He thanked creator (and fellow Emmy winner) Jill Soloway, telling her, “You changed my life, you changed my career, and you changed everything.” Then he echoed some of Soloway’s sentiments from her passionate speech that celebrated the trans community. “Please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their stories,” he said, concluding, “I would be happy if I were the last cisgender male to play a transgender female.”

 

5 of 12

6 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

A Special Delivery From the Stranger Things Kids

A Special Delivery From the Stranger Things Kids
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel sees your Oscars pizza and raises you homemade sandwiches with sweet notes. Kimmel Skyped in his mom, who told him she had made 7,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the audience. Assisted by the kids from Stranger Things, Kimmel passed them out in brown paper bags. “Raise your hand if you have a gluten allergy!” Kimmel said as he distributed the PB&Js. “I just want America to see which of their favorite celebrities are the most annoying.” Later, he followed up by handing out juice boxes, pausing at The People v. O.J. Simpson star David Schwimmer’s seat to offer him multiples — “David? Juice? Juice? Juice?” — and revealed that there were personal messages in some of the bags. Kimmel’s mom loved Cuba Gooding Jr. in Snow Dogs (didn’t we all?) and Amy Schumer got the rave: “Dear Amy, You’re the funniest woman on television. I wish you were hosting the Emmys this year. I’m your #1 fan. Bring back Parks and Rec.” Oops! Wrong Amy, Mrs. Kimmel.

 

6 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Sarah Paulson Nabs Her First Emmy

Sarah Paulson, Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Credit: Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

Six-time nominee Sarah Paulson took home her first Emmy for her performance as Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Taking the stage after an enthusiastic standing ovation, Paulson thanked her castmates and the People v. O.J. Simpson crew, but gave special recognition to the real Marcia Clark, whom Paulson had brought with her to the ceremony. "The responsibility of playing a real person is an enormous one. You want to get it right, not for you but for them," she began. Addressing Clark, she said, “I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment, and I’m here today to tell you: I’m sorry.” Before leaving the stage, she thanked Ryan Murphy, telling the TV auteur, “I owe you everything,” and gave a shoutout to her partner Holland Taylor, saying, “Holland Taylor, I love you.”

 

7 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Leslie Jones' Revenge

Leslie Jones' Revenge
Credit: Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

The Emmys subverted our expectations this year by making the presentation of the Ernst & Young accountants, historically the most boring part of the show, one of its liveliest moments. Leslie Jones joined the accountants this year, and the Ghostbusters star and noted Olympic tweeter turned lemons into sweet Emmy lemonade with self-deprecating jokes about getting hacked and harassed on social media. “Since you’re good at keeping things safe, I got a job for you: My Twitter account!” the actress said. “Y’all over here using your skills to protect Best Voiceover in a French Sitcom,” she joked. “Meanwhile, I’m butt-naked on CNN! I just wanted to feel beautiful, y’all! Can’t a sister feel beautiful?”

 

8 of 12

Advertisement

9 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Matt Damon Takes His Feud With Jimmy Kimmel to the Emmys Stage

Matt Damon Takes His Feud With Jimmy Kimmel to the Emmys Stage
Credit: Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

Immediately after John Oliver won the Emmy for Variety Talk Series, for which Jimmy Kimmel was also nominated, Kimmel took the stage to resume hosting duties and was soon joined by his arch-nemesis, Matt Damon, who strolled onstage munching on an apple. “I missed the last category,” Damon said. “Did you win?” Upon learning that Kimmel had, in fact, lost, he gloated, “It makes a lot of sense, but you must be really bummed out. So you’re not going to get a trophy?” Then, realizing how awkward poor Kimmel must have felt, Damon proved what a nice guy he is: “This is so humiliating, I’m sorry,” he said. “You lost, and now you gotta stand out here for the rest of the night when you probably just want to go home and curl up and cry.” As he walked offstage, Damon turned around, holding up the apple he’d been eating, and said to Kimmel, “Tell your mom I like them apples!”

 

9 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Rami Malek's Stunned Acceptance

Rami Malek's Stunned Acceptance
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

First-time nominee Rami Malek took home the gold for his revelatory turn in the first season of USA Network’s Mr. Robot. Shocked, Malek paused at the microphone before saying, “Please tell me you’re seeing this too.” He thanked his family, his co-stars, and Mr. Robot’s “pure visionary” showrunner Sam Esmail, finishing his speech with a shoutout to the character who made his win possible. “I play a young man who I think, like so many of us, is profoundly alienated,” Malek said. “And the unfortunate thing is, I’m not so sure how many of us would want to hang out with a guy like Elliot. But I want to honor all the Elliots, because there’s a little bit of Elliot in all of us, isn’t there?”

 

10 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Tatiana Maslany Finally Gets Gold

Tatiana Maslany Finally Gets Gold
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

After going unrecognized for the first two seasons of Orphan Black, in which she plays a whole cast of clones, Tatiana Maslany picked up her first Emmy nomination for her work on the show last year — and finally took home the gold for Best Actress in a Drama at this year’s show. In a short but sweet acceptance speech, she thanked the Academy and the Orphan Black cast and crew, finally adding, “I feel so lucky to be on a show that puts women at the center.”

 

11 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 12

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Veep and Game of Thrones Win Big

Veep and Game of Thrones Win Big
Credit: Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images; Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The biggest winners of the night were Outstanding Comedy Series Veep and Drama Series Game of Thrones, both of which picked up other awards and led nomination count for their respective genres. Accepting the award for Veep for the second consecutive year, executive producer and showrunner David Mandel said “Holy crap. I have a 9:30 a.m. library shift for my son’s school tomorrow morning — if anyone is willing to trade with me, email me,” to a big laugh. Game of Thrones’ drama series win was the last award of the night, and the prize that pushed the HBO drama into history-making territory: With its three trophies this year, Thrones now has more Emmys than any other show in television history.

 

12 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

  • By Mary Sollosi @missollosi

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 12 Jimmy Kimmel Opens the Show
    2 of 12 Kate McKinnon's Emotional Win
    3 of 12 Julia Louis-Dreyfus Continues Her Hot Streak
    4 of 12 Jill Soloway's Powerful Speech
    5 of 12 Jeffrey Tambor's Important Message
    6 of 12 A Special Delivery From the Stranger Things Kids
    7 of 12 Sarah Paulson Nabs Her First Emmy
    8 of 12 Leslie Jones' Revenge
    9 of 12 Matt Damon Takes His Feud With Jimmy Kimmel to the Emmys Stage
    10 of 12 Rami Malek's Stunned Acceptance
    11 of 12 Tatiana Maslany Finally Gets Gold
    12 of 12 Veep and Game of Thrones Win Big

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    Emmys 2016: The Best Moments
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.