Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Atlanta and Stranger Things win at PGA Awards
By Hector Cruz
John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, Stranger Things and Atlanta joined La La Land in winning at Saturday’s Producers Guild Awards.
La La Land was the big winner at the PGA Awards, which took place over the weekend at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, taking home the prize for the best film of 2016. But there were several other winners in both the TV and film categories. Among them were HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for best talk show, Stranger Things for best drama series and FX’s Atlanta for best comedy.
Oliver, who won the award along with fellow producers Tim Carvell and Liz Stanton for the second year in a row, beat out Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Real Time with Bill Maher and Saturday Night Live. This adds to what is already a growing list of accolades for the weekly show following several wins at last year’s Emmy Awards, including continuing the tradition of the main award for late-night programs going to a politically minded series, following in the footsteps of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which dominated the category for over a decade. It did, however, lose to The Late Late Show at the Critics’ Choice Awards late last year, but it is also nominated at the Writers Guild Awards next month.
Last Week Tonight has been on hiatus since the election, but is slated to return for Season 4 on Sunday, Feb. 12th. HBO teased the new season in a promo which also showcased some of the stars from their other (more popular) comedies.
New series Atlanta and Stranger Things are also starting to receive plenty of awards recognition. The former dominated at the Golden Globes earlier this month, winning for best comedy series and best lead actor in a comedy for Donald Glover, while the latter followed up its PGA win by taking home the top prize for a drama series at Sunday’s SAG Awards. The reaction to the win by the cast of the 80’s-set Netflix show went viral thanks to actor David Harbour’s impassioned speech against President Trump’s so-called Muslim ban, star Winona Ryder’s bewildering facial expressions, and the kids’ overenthusiastic response to winning their first major award. Both shows will compete at the WGAs in the new series category in February.
Like the SAG Awards, the untelevised PGA ceremony was punctuated by references to Trump’s controversial executive order banning entry to the U.S. to citizens from seven majority Muslim countries, including a strong condemnation by John Legend as he introduced La La Land, stating: “Our America is big, it is free, and it is open to dreamers of all races, all countries, all religions. Our vision of America is directly antithetical to that of President Trump. I want to specifically, tonight, reject his vision and affirm America has to be better than that.”
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According to BuzzFeed, there was also an awkward moment when The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett took the stage to a smattering of boos after accepting the award for best reality series for The Voice. Other big winners of the night included Zootopia, OJ: Made in America, The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and Making a Murderer.