Netflix has waited a lifetime for a moment like this. Or eight years. The streaming giant at last took home its first series win at Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards — and it doubled up for good measure. “The Crown” won Best Drama Series and “The Queen’s Gambit” nabbed the final award of the night, Best Limited Series, minutes later.
While Netflix has previously won other program Emmys, like Best TV Movie for standalone episodes of “Black Mirror,” before this year, it had gone 0-30 across the comedy, drama and limited series categories. In 2013, it became the first streaming service to be nominated for a series award — Best Drama Series for “House of Cards” — but Netflix has had to wait diligently on the sidelines for a victory while other streamers ascended the stage first. Hulu won drama series with “The Handmaid’s Tale” in 2017, while Amazon scored back-to-back comedy series wins with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag” in 2018 and 2019.
Netflix couldn’t even be the third streaming service to win a series Emmy as Apple TV+ grabbed comedy series honors for “Ted Lasso” minutes before “The Crown” prevailed. However, Netflix is the first streaming service to win limited series.
There were Netflix shows nominated in all three series categories, but drama series and limited series were always its best shots at wins. “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” have been frontrunners since they dropped last fall and dominated the winter awards, with the latter doing a full sweep of the guild awards.
At the Creative Arts Awards last weekend, “The Crown” garnered four wins while “The Queen’s Gambit” snagged a staggering nine trophies. On Sunday, it was the reverse. “The Crown” swept all seven drama categories, becoming the first show to do so, to bring its total to 11. Its sweep came a year after “Schitt’s Creek” did it in comedy (“Angels in America” accomplished it in limited in 2004). “The Queen’s Gambit” took two, the other being directing, to bring its tally up to 11, two shy of “John Adams'” record of 13 in one year.
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