All good things come in four: After years of rather moderate success, the fourth season of the royal story series “The Crown” has now won big at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

The drama about the life of the British Queen Elizabeth II won the most important television award in the world in seven important categories on Sunday evening (local time).

In addition to awards for screenwriting, directing and in all four actor categories, “The Crown” also won the main prize for the best drama series of the year - it was the first ever win for the streaming provider Netflix in this category.

In total, “The Crown”, along with prizes in secondary categories, came to eleven of more than 110 awards.

Most of them were received by the team via video control at their own party early Monday morning (local time) in London.

As best drama actress, Olivia Colman was also honored with an Emmy for her portrayal of the Queen.

The British actress described the award as a “wonderful end to an extraordinary trip with this wonderful family”.

Her co-star Josh O'Connor, who plays Prince Charles in the series, received the Emmy for best male actor in a drama series. "Filming 'The Crown' has been the most rewarding two years of my life," said O'Connor at the award ceremony.

In the comedy categories, the crowd favorite “Ted Lasso”, also playing in Great Britain, was the big winner of the evening, even if he was denied the big march.

The series running on Apple TV + about a US football coach who asserts himself with a lot of heart in British professional football won the award for best comedy series.

Jason Sudeikis also received an Emmy for his performance in the title lead role, as did Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein in the supporting roles.

In terms of direction, script and the best female leading role, "Ted Lasso", which has won a total of seven times, had to admit defeat to the HBO Max series "Hacks".

Standing ovations

There was standing applause for the 70-year-old Jean Smart, who plays an aging entertainer in Las Vegas in "Hacks" with great timing and a lot of vulnerability.

In her acceptance speech, Smart remembered her husband, who had died six months earlier, and said: "I wouldn't be here if he hadn't put his career on hold so that I could take my chances."

“Hacks” was one of the few smaller productions on Sunday that received awards.

With a total of almost 30 prizes for “The Crown”, “Ted Lasso” and “The Ladies' Gambit”, three series celebrated great successes that were extremely well received by both critics and audiences during the corona pandemic - the Emmys have always been in the past once again been criticized for awarding rarely seen series.

There is no sign of equality

The symbol that many hoped for for more equality for minorities in Hollywood did not materialize this year either - without exception, all twelve Emmys for leading and supporting roles went to whites.

Black, indigenous and Latino stars were mainly present on stage at the gala evening on Sunday.

An exception was producer, actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, whose victory was already certain before the show.

Allen, once known as the dance teacher Lydia Grant in "Fame - The Path to Fame", was the first black woman to receive the "Governors Award" for her life's work.

“I share this honor with so many people, with all the nomads,” she said.

But it took more than two hours until Michaela Coel was the first black woman to be awarded in one of the regular categories. The 33-year-old British woman won the award for the best screenplay in a miniseries for the excellently reviewed “I May Destroy You”. Coel also plays the main character Arabella, a writer who deals with the consequences of abuse. "Write the story that scares you, that makes you uncomfortable," she advised in her speech, which received a standing ovation. "I dedicate this award to all sexual abuse survivors," Coel said.

For the Emmy as best miniseries it was not enough for her series, instead “The Queen's Gambit” won the main prize. In his acceptance speech, producer Scott Horberg praised leading actress Anya Taylor-Joy for “making chess sexy again”. Before that, director Scott Frank had already received a lot of criticism online for an overly long acceptance speech in which he prevailed three times against softly played music from the tape.

Because of the corona pandemic, only around 600 people in Los Angeles were allowed to watch in a tent next to the Microsoft Theater, which is otherwise used as an event location. But because the tent was covered, actor Seth Rogen did not take the precautionary measure. "Let me start by saying that there are way too many people in one room," he said at the beginning of the show. “We were told the ceremony was out. It is not! ”Rogen said with laughter. “Why is there a roof here? If I had known, I would not have come. "