Maggie Smith accepts Emmy award, responds to Kimmel’s jokes

“It’s called the Maggie Smith Rule”, Kimmel joked, in a bit that became a running gag during the awards show.

Kimmel enlisted the help of his mother to make bagged snacks for the audience. The night also saw a few big upsets in the supporting actors drama category, as Ben Mendelsohn won for Bloodline and Maggie Smith won for the final season of Downton Abbey.

When Smith was later awarded the title for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama – increasing her award count to four – Kimmel grabbed her Emmy and said, “No, no, no!”

The Emmy’s band got in some hot water when cutting some speeches short, including playing in the middle of “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” producer Nina Jacobson’s speech. Her home is in the United Kingdom, and she seems to be a genuinely quiet private person who doesn’t fancy the spotlight altogether much.

“There are days when things we think of pale in comparison to that madman threatening Hillary Clinton not once but twice”, Mandel said.

Interestingly, half-hour to half-hour last night’s show better than in past years, when Fox and CBS had National Football League lead-ins and when ABC last had the Emmys back in 2012 – but still that competition hurt.

Of the 27 awards handed out in prime time, six apiece went to HBO and FX.

Rami Malek won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role in Mr Robot, while Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black won Outstanding Leading Actress. Acting victor Vance, who sweetly thanked his wife onstage, said he’s ready to hand over his trophy to her.

“I’d like to dedicate this to my father, William Louis-Dreyfus, who passed away on Friday”, the actress said while shaking and trying to hold back tears. “I have not always been a good man but I play one hell of a woman”.

He also challenged her to “get (her) Dowager Count-ass over here”.

While it would have been cool for him to win in his first Emmy nomination, this isn’t the last time that he’s going to be up for the award.

When the victor was called for outstanding supporting actress drama series the audience let out a bout of laughter to learn it was Smith. That sharpened the selection process and might have affected past winners who managed to collect enough second-place votes to overcome the competition.