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SNL’s Kate McKinnon, Alec Baldwin win at Critics’ Choice Awards 2016

By Hector Cruz

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 17: Comedian Kate McKinnon and actor Alec Baldwin attends the American Museum of Natural History's 2016 Museum Gala at American Museum of Natural History on November 17, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 17: Comedian Kate McKinnon and actor Alec Baldwin attends the American Museum of Natural History's 2016 Museum Gala at American Museum of Natural History on November 17, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) /
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Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin won for playing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on SNL at Sunday’s Critics’ Choice Awards.

The awards season is officially underway, with the 22nd annual Critics’ Choice Awards taking place Sunday night in Los Angeles. During the three-hour ceremony broadcast live on A&E, awards were given out to the best of the year’s TV and film. There were several wins for late-night programming, including two for Saturday Night Live by Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin, who expertly portrayed the 2016 presidential nominees in a series of debate sketches.

McKinnon — fresh off an Emmy win after three consecutive nominations — took home the trophy for Best Actress in a Comedy, beating out veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Veep), Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish), Constance Wu (Fresh Off the Boat) and English actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). Unlike at the Emmys, the comedic actress was placed in the main category rather than a supporting role. The victory comes days after it was reported that McKinnon has landed her first lead role in a movie, after giving a stellar performance in this year’s Ghostbusters, for which she also received a Critics’ Choice Awards nod, losing to Meryl Streep for Florence Foster Jenkins.

As for Baldwin, he earned his first accolade for his portrayal of Trump, which has consistently drawn the ire of the president-elect, as best guest performer in a comedy series. He won over Larry David, who hosted SNL last February after playing Bernie Sanders throughout the primaries, as well as Christine Baranski (The Big Bang Theory), Lisa Kudrow (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Liam Neeson (Inside Amy Schumer). The actor, who’s hosted Saturday Night Live a record 16 times, joined the show earlier this year to impersonate the Republican candidate, but has already appeared twice since the election.

Baldwin had a subdued response to the honor, tweeting:

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Unfortunately, neither performer was on hand to receive their award. McKinnon was conspicuously absent from the ceremony, while Baldwin’s prize was not given out during the broadcast of the awards show. But there were some jokes made at Trump’s expense by host TJ Miller, who was arrested over the weekend for allegedly hitting his Uber driver in the head after getting into a heated discussion about the soon-to-president.

He said: “Trolls did well this year. Not the movie, the ones on the internet. One got elected president.”

Baldwin was missing from this week’s episode of SNL, instead leaving Bryan Cranston and John Cena to fill in the gap with their own Trump-related humor. Meanwhile, McKinnon has managed to reprise her role as Clinton twice since she lost the election, including for a moving tribute to Leonard Cohen, and in a reality show parody where investigators hunted for the former secretary of state deep in the Chappaqua woods. She’s also made several appearances as Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.

Next: Tina Fey, David Letterman discuss Trump’s SNL feud with Alec Baldwin

The Critics’ Choice Awards took place a day before the Golden Globe nominations are to be revealed, providing some clues as to what we might see early Monday morning. As for SNL, it airs its last episode of the year next Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:30 p.m., with host Casey Affleck and musical guest Chance the Rapper.

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