LOS ANGELES _ The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards bent the knee to HBO's fantasy epic "Game of Thrones," which closed out Sunday night's ceremony by nabbing the prize for best drama series. HBO also had the most wins of the night, with 9, to Amazon's 7 and Netflix's 4.
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff's series, based on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, ended its eighth and final season in May with a divisive finale and tepid reviews, but still managed to become the most-watched program in the premium cable network's history, with 19.3 million viewers.
And Emmy voters followed suit.
Despite its polarizing farewell run, the blockbuster series racked up a record 32 Emmy nominations this year. Last weekend, it took 10 prizes at the Creative Arts Emmys.
A significant number of the series' nominations came from its cast, which after years of struggling to make a major impression on the acting categories _ with the exception of multiple winner and eight-time nominee Peter Dinklage _ fielded nine nominees: Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, nominated in the lead actress and actor categories, respectively; supporting actors Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Alfie Allen; and supporting actresses Maisie Williams, Lena Headey, Gwendoline Christie, and Sophie Turner.
The show, which wasn't always an Emmy frontrunner, amassed 160 nominations during its run from 2011 to 2019.
