5 Biggest Jaw-Droppers at the 2015 Emmy Awards

From Andy Samberg's masterful—yes, masterful!—handling of the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards to the night's biggest winner...here lie the shocks

By Natalie Finn Sep 21, 2015 12:15 PMTags
Andy Samberg, Jane Lynch, Emmy Awards 2015, ShowPhil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

Winter is coming.

Really! Fall begins on Wednesday, so, you know...it's right around the corner.

But first, when autumn is upon us, you know that the Emmy Awards has taken place—in this case, just last night!

And we just witnessed some surprising things happen during the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (and some incredibly not surprising things—Allison Janney and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, much?), things so shocking that it made Veep knocking Modern Family off of the Outstanding Comedy Series throne after a five-year reign being the least exciting thing to happen to a throne all night.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Are you sensing a theme here? Here are five moments from the compact and thoroughly entertaining show that left us marveling more than usual:

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

1. A Song of Winning and Record Books: Game of Thrones didn't finally just break the fantasy-genre curse and overcome all comers to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, the night's biggest honor. No, it also made history, giving The West Wing's previous high of nine the Red Wedding treatment and winning a record 12 Emmys this year—eight technical categories at the Creative Arts Emmys, Peter Dinklage's supporting actor trophy, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' expletive-punctuated writing win, David Nutter's directing triump and, of course, the title of Overall Top Banana. The HBO hit had been overlooked year after year and, just when it seemed that critics may have had enough of Westeros' "shame"ful treatment of women and children (not to mention Mad Men was gunning for one last series win and Orange Is the New Black was finding its legs in the dramatic field)...

Boom! The big win! Respect for the drama with dragons!

Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

2. Namaste: Don Draper reached advertising nirvana—and Jon Hamm finally reached the winners' podium! Belly first! The eighth time proved to be the charm for the Mad Men star, who capitalized on what was going to be, win or lose, his final shot at an Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series for playing conflicted, charming, callous-yet-concerned, booze-and-cigarettes-fueled ad man Don Draper. First of all, can you believe that, out of all the great performances that series has hosted over the years (the slickly styled show really was the sum of its parts), none of its stars had won acting Emmys? So this was a first and, really, regardless of how you felt about the groundbreaking AMC series' final season, it was a well-deserved reward for a job inimitably done.

Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

3. Tracy Morgan Returns to Primetime: Spoiler alert: We knew just a little bit ahead of time that the comedian and former 30 Rock star was going to present the evening's final award, Outstanding Drama Series (because, you know, fancy showbiz types), but there was still that moment of tickled surprise when we found out—and then again when he walked out! Aside from TV interviews, this was Morgan's first major appearance since suffering a brain injury in a bus crash in June 2014. But despite his emotional thank-yous before presenting GoT with the big win, what really shocked us was what always shocked us about him—how he just goes there with the I'm-getting-a-bunch-of-women-pregnant-tonight jokes! Looks like he's getting back into fighting form ahead of his Oct. 17 Saturday Night Live hosting gig.

Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

4. Tina Phased Out?: We never expected a breakup to play out on camera. While just months ago we couldn't imagine a duo better suited to our perennial award-hosting pleasure than Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, could it be that there's a new Amy in town? And she's paired off with Amy Poehler?! The former Parks and Recreation star and none other than Amy Schumer were an unstoppable force last night when they joined forces as presenters—a bit that went so well, the twitterverse was calling for the Amys to host the Oscars together. "We are Amy," indeed.

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

5. Andy Samberg, Best Emmys Host... Ever?: We've got to give it to the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star. We were expecting perfectly fine and we got consistently hilarious, from the opening homage to binge-watching and Les Mis to his declaration that Justin Timberlake wouldn't be in attendance to him mimicking the most recent season of Girls when caught "having fun" with the backside of a statuesque piece of the set. (He sure made Jon Stewart laugh with that one.) But perhaps most importantly, this guy brought the show in at exactly three hours. Right. On. Time. And that never happens. We may hear later today that they skipped three bits because the show was "running long," but the last thing we expected was for our DVRs to not cut out when there were still three awards yet to be presented. Memo to whoever hosts the Oscars next (aka Amy & Amy): It can be done!

Watch: E!'s 2015 Emmys Fashion Round-Up

Don't miss the Fashion Police 2015 Emmys special tonight at 8 p.m., only on E!