'The Crown' leads Gold Derby TV Awards with six wins

I'm taking a break from the Emmy Awards nominees to blog about the winning shows and performers in shows about politics and government at the Gold Derby Awards. Watch 18th Annual Gold Derby TV Awards Winners Ceremony; Over 20 of 30 winners will join to give speeches.

Watch the 18th annual Gold Derby TV Awards winners ceremony honoring the best achievements in television. This year's special event will offer a first-ever: more than 20 of our 30 winners for the 2021 awards will be joining us to accept their prizes. As always, nominees and winners will have their accomplishments featured on their IMDb awards pages. Each winner receives a lovely certificate suitable for framing.

Over 2,000 television fans worldwide have been voting for their top choices over the past few weeks.Nominees for Best Drama Series are "The Alienist: Angel of Darkness," "Bridgerton," "The Boys," "The Crown," "The Handmaid's Tale," "Lovecraft Country," "The Mandalorian" and "Pose." Nominees for Best Comedy Series are "Cobra Kai," "The Flight Attendant," "Girls5eva," "Hacks," "Love, Victor," "PEN15," "Ted Lasso" and "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist." Limited Series nominees are "The Haunting of Bly Manor," "I May Destroy You," "It's a Sin," "Mare of Easttown," "The Queen's Gambit" and "WandaVision."

As Gold Derby itself noted, the show that took home the most awards was "The Crown" with six trophies, Drama Series, Drama Actor for Josh O'Connor, Drama Actress for Emma Corrin, Drama Supporting Actress for Gillian Anderson, Drama Guest Actor for Charles Dance, and Ensemble of the Year. Add Breakthrough Performer of the Year for Corrin, and the show could claim it actually won seven. I'm not going to dispute that. Netflix's dramatization of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II can add these awards to its Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards and the Emmy Awards it will win.*

"Saturday Night Live" won four awards, Variety Sketch Series, Comedy Supporting Actor for Bowen Yang, Comedy Guest Actor for Dan Levy, and Comedy Guest Actress for Maya Rudolph, to rank second. Considering that my pick for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy, Dave Chappelle, didn't even earn a nomination here, these would have been my choices should I have voted. Next year. Congratulations and good luck at the Emmy Awards to all the winners from "SNL," who are also nominated at the Emmys.

Two series tied with three awards, "Ted Lasso" and "WandaVision." "Ted Lasso" won Comedy Series, Comedy Actor, and Supporting Comedy Actress. "WandaVision" earned wins for Limited Series, Limited Series/Movie Actor for Paul Bettany, and Limited Series/Movie Supporting Actress for Kathryn Hahn. Neither have politics as a focus, but "WandaVision" does have a fictional governmental agency, S.W.O.R.D., the successor to S.H.I.E.L.D., playing an secondary role, so it qualifies as a show about fantastic and futuristic politics and government. All three winners for both shows have nominations at the Emmy Awards, so congratulations and good luck to them, too.

Speaking of fantastic and futuristic politics and government, "The Mandalorian," one of the co-winners of that category at the 2019-2020 Golden Coffee Cups for Television, earned two awards for Drama Episode and Best Drama Guest Actress for Rosario Dawson. On the one hand, congratulations! On the other, it certainly won't win the equivalent awards at the Emmy Awards for no other reason than, as the panel at the end of the video noted, Dawson wasn't even nominated for her performance at the Emmys. This is her big award for the role. The next might just be next year's Saturn Awards. As for "The Jedi" winning, a different episode of "The Mandalorian" is nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, while it is one of two episodes nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. I'm not sure The Force is with "The Mandalorian" in these categories, even though the fans were at the Gold Derby Awards. As I point out when I write about awards shows, electorates matter.

"Mare of Easttown" also won two awards, Limited Series/Movie Actress for Kate Winslet and Limited Series/Movie Supporting Actress for Evan Peters, playing two police detectives. Like "The Crown," it could claim a third award for "Performer of the Year" except that Jean Smart herself recognized that was more for her performance in "Hacks" than for "Mare of Easttown." I plan on writing more about this limited series, which explores family dynamics inside a crime drama, next month. Remember, law enforcement is a function of government. In the meantime, congratulations and good luck at the Emmy Awards!

"RuPaul's Drag Race" won two awards as well, but I'm planning on getting to it very soon in my Emmy nominations series, so I'm skipping ahead to two shows with political themes that won one award each, "Lovecraft Country" and "Conan." I'll recycle what I wrote about the first show from the Critics Choice Awards.

"Lovecraft Country"...is very political, being the second speculative fiction program about America's history of racism to use the Tulsa Massacre as a pivotal event after "Watchmen," and encompasses not only horror but science fiction and fantasy as well. "Lovecraft Country" certainly is ambitious!

Michael K. Williams gave an excellent performance in "Lovecraft Country," so I don't begrudge him his win even though I think he has an uphill path to an Emmy Award. On the other hand, I think "Conan" got a boost from the fans for his show ending. I still think "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" is a better show and will win at the Emmy Awards. Again, electorates matter.

That's it for this week's Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned for short posts through at least Thursday, as I'm in the middle of grading final exams. After that, I'll resume the series for the Emmy nominees and the Golden Coffee Cups shortlists.

*I just noticed that IMDB has demoted the Golden Globes from being the first awards listed for television shows to being listed in alphabetical order below Gold Derby, while the Emmy Awards are now first. Considering the controversy over the Golden Globes' lack of diversity and suspect practices, I shouldn't be surprised.