Golden Globes: FX, AMC Clean Up at Globes

UPDATED: FX was the big winner at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, picking up a pair of trophies apiece for The People v. OJ and Atlanta.

AMC, too made repeated trips to the stage, with BBC co-production The Night Manager getting awards for best actor, best supporting actress and best supporting actor.

Netflix’s The Crown scored twice, including best drama.

HBO, nominated 14 times, did not win.

PHOTOS: 2017 Golden Globes TV Winners

Jimmy Fallon kicked off the 74th annual Golden Globes with a musical number featuring character cameos from, among others, the likes of Westworld, Mr. Robot, This is Us and Stranger Things, the latter featuring Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, rapping about the event.

Like Jimmy Kimmel’s cold open at the 2016 Emmys, Fallon’s opening bit featured car trouble en route to the show, and a gag involving OJ Simpson’s infamous white Bronco.

Upon taking the stage, Fallon claimed some teleprompter trouble, causing him to improvise while the monitor was replaced. "This is what happens at the Golden Globes," he joked.

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The first of the TV awards went to Billy Bob Thornton, for best actor in a drama. He plays a down and out lawyer in Amazon’s Goliath. Thornton, sporting shades, said he was particularly happy to beat Bob Odenkirk. “There ya go, bud,” he said with a shake of his new trophy in the Better Call Saul star’s direction.

Tracee Ellis Ross was the winner for best TV comedy actress based on her work on ABC’s black-ish. She noted that it was her first time at the event. “This is for all the women, women of color and colorful people,” said Ross, adding that their “thoughts are not always considered worthy and valid and important.”

Best TV comedy went to FX’s rookie hit Atlanta. Donald Glover, creator and star, stepped to the stage. “This is incredible,” said an emotional Glover, who thanked the city of Atlanta, and its black community, “for being amazing people.”

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“We didn’t think anybody was gonna like the show,” said Glover.

Best actress in a limited series went to Sarah Paulson for The People v. OJ Simpson, her first win in three tries. The FX series picked up many awards at the Emmys in September.  She thanked “the inimitable” John Landgraf, FX Networks chief, Fox Television Group co-heads Dana Walden and Gary Newman, and uber-producer Ryan Murphy, among others. She also called Marcia Clark, who she played in the limited series, a paragon of integrity and an inspiration.

Best limited series went to The People v. OJ Simpson, giving FX three wins in a row.

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AMC limited series The Night Manager had its turn to shine, with Hugh Laurie awarded for best supporting actor in a drama, the veteran actor accepting "on behalf of psychotic billionaires everywhere." Then Olivia Colman scored for best supporting actress in a drama for her work in Night Manager. Colman was not in attendance.

Tom Hiddleston won best actor in a limited series, his first win and first nomination, giving the cast from AMC’s The Night Manager its third trophy of the night. The show is a BBC-AMC co-production with an international cast. Hiddleston told a story about doing charity work in South Sudan, where he learned that relief workers there binged on The Night Manager to escape the violence and poverty in that nation. The recognition made him “immensely proud,” said Hiddleston.

Claire Foy won best drama actress for The Crown, getting Netflix on the board. She thanked Netflix and Left Bank Pictures for “just letting us get on with it.”

The Crown then took best drama, beating out Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, This Is Us and Westworld.  

Best actor in a TV comedy went to Glover of Atlanta, capping off a huge night for the show’s creator and star. Glover singled out Atlanta director/producer Paul Simms and FX Networks chief John Landgraf for “being ahead of their time.”

Glover also thanked his father, for telling him, as a boy, that he could do anything he wanted, and Glover's son and son’s mother for “making me believe in people again."

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.