Succession Takes Home Emmy For Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series
Succession has succeeded at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards.
At the ceremony, which aired on Fox on Sunday, September 22, Succession creator-writer Jesse Armstrong took home the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Specifically, the creative scored the Emmy for his work on the season 1 finale "Nobody Is Ever Missing," which debuted on HBO on August 5, 2018.
The series has been captivating audiences since it first dropped on HBO in June 2018. A little over a year after its premiere episode, Succession has become one of the most critically acclaimed dramas in recent memory. Earlier this year, Succession executive producer and director Adam McKay won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series at the Directors Guild of America Awards. The series also scored the Best International Programme BAFTA in May. Additionally, Succession's Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Emmy win follows after the show's composer, Nicholas Britell, won a Creative Arts Emmy award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.
Succession chronicles the, well, succession of mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) through his children and members of his family. Vying for the top spot at media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar Royco are Logan's sons Romulus "Roman" Roy (Kieran Culkin) and Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), and his daughter Siobhan "Shiv" Roy (Sarah Snook).
While accepting his Emmy, Armstrong thanked the "extraordinary" Succession cast and admitted that he was "quite overwhelmed" being up on stage.
Succession beat out five heavy-hitting nominees to win Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: AMC's Better Call Saul, Netflix's Bodyguard, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, BBC America's Killing Eve, and the show everyone thought would win this particular Emmy, HBO's Game of Thrones.
Why didn't Game of Thrones win Outstanding Writing at the 2019 Emmys?
Many had placed bets on Game of Thrones scooping up the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series instead of Succession at the 2019 event. But why didn't Thrones actually land the illustrious Emmy? Well, it's likely because the episode for which Succession was nominated (its season 1 finale) has been regarded as a tightly-paced hour of television, while the episode for which Game of Thrones was nominated (its series finale) caused a massive uproar amongst fans and sparked millions of people to sign a petition begging HBO to remake the series with "competent writers" other than showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. (You can see where we're going with this.)
Despite the Game of Thrones finale being contentious as all get-out, a ton of people were convinced it would still take home the award considering the show is an Emmy Awards favorite. As we now know, that didn't end up happening — proving just because a series has won a ton of awards in the past doesn't mean it's a shoo-in for future Emmys.