Emmys: ‘Veep’ Wins Best Comedy Series

Veep won the Emmy for best comedy series for the second consecutive year on Sunday night.

“I have a 9:30 a.m. library shift at my son’s school tomorrow morning, if anybody is willing to trade with me you can just email me,” joked showrunner and executive producer David Mandel as he accepted the award from presenter Larry David. “This is for chubby Jews from the Upper West Side,” he concluded after thanking star and executive producer Julia Louis-Dreyfus, show creator Armando Iannucci and the rest of the cast, holding his trophy overhead.

The HBO comedy was nominated for 17 total Emmys this year and earned Louis-Dreyfus her record sixth consecutive win for best lead actress in a comedy. The star tearfully dedicated her win to her late father, who died just two days before Sunday’s awards.

The show beat out Amazon’s Transparent, HBO’s Silicon Valley, ABC’s Modern Family, Netflix’s Master of None, Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and ABC’s Black-ish.

The cast and producers stopped backstage, where showrunner Mandel spoke on behalf of the Veep team. The conversation naturally turned to the 2016 presidential election. “It’s a nightmare, this campaign,” said Mandel, who added that it’s more difficult than ever to come up with comedic ideas that aren’t actual real world occurrences. “I find the level of discourse in this campaign horrific.”

Mandel later said that there are days that the writers think of stories that they believe are too over the top to include in the series, but then they go on to take place in the current election. “I’m very happy now that Selina is ex-president of the United States,” said the producer, who dodged a question from a reporter about whether Louis-Dreyfus‘ character could ever become president again.

On stage, he also emphasized the need for young people to get out and vote — but not for third party candidates. “The last time a third party candidate got a lot of votes, we got George W. Bush as a president. [Millennials,] vote for one of the candidates of the two parties and let’s make sure we avoid some white supremacists,” he said.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards, which aired live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

A complete list of winners can be found here. The winners for the Creative Arts Emmys, which were handed out last weekend over two nights, can be found here.