Emmys 2015: the winners, speeches, and surprises

In a year that many expected Mad Men's final season to sweep the Emmys, it was HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones that defiantly owned the evening instead, racking up a stunning 12 wins — the most in Emmy history. Along with eight awards in technical categories presented during the Creative Arts Emmys last week, the show took home four different awards during tonight's televised show, including Outstanding Drama Series. With that win it beat out not just Mad Men but shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Downton Abbey, as well.

Peter Dinklage won Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Tyrion Lannister, winning out over favorite Jonathan Banks, while director David Nutter won for his work on the season finale "Mother's Mercy." Writers and show creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss also won for Outstanding Writing, marking the first time in the show's history that it's taken home the writing and directing awards.

HBO's Veep has just won the 2015 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, ending a five-year run on the award by perennial favorite Modern Family. The sharp political satire had been nominated for each of its first three seasons, and it picked up its first award in the category for its fourth. It won out over a highly competitive field that included the aforementioned Modern Family, Louie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Transparent, Parks and Recreation, and Silicon Valley.

Modern Family has had a stranglehold on this category this decade despite fierce competition. It won its fifth consecutive award at last year's ceremony, meaning each of its first five seasons had been named Outstanding Comedy Series — of course, that run has ended tonight. Veep also won awards for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Tony Hale), and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) earlier in the evening — receiving Outstanding Comedy Series is the golden cap on a fine evening for the show.

Viola Davis just won the Emmy for lead actress in a drama on How To Get Away With Murder, and it wasn't just a sign of the incredible success creator Shonda Rhimes continues to have — it was also the first win for an African-American woman in the category in the history of the Emmys. It followed Uzo Aduba's win for best supporting actress earlier in the evening.

Opening her speech with an evocative quote from Harriet Tubman, Davis quickly got to the point of why it's taken this long for a black woman to win the award. "Let me tell you something. The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity," she said. "You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there."

Jon Hamm has won the 2015 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work as Don Draper on AMC's Mad Men. Hamm has been a category mainstay for almost a decade — this was his eighth nomination for his role as the inscrutable, handsome ad man — but he's never won the top prize until now. Bryan Cranston won his fourth Emmy in this category last year for the final season of Breaking Bad, and held off Hamm for most of Mad Men's run; Kyle Chandler, Jeff Daniels, and Damian Lewis have all won in recent years for Friday Night Lights, The Newsroom, and Homeland, respectively.

Hamm's speech was gracious and muted, thanking "families who have chosen, for some reason, to take me in and be nice to me along this strange, strange road." The road might've been longer than expected, but it's finally led to an Emmy for Don Draper.

Uzo Aduba won her second straight Emmy for her work as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black at tonight's awards. (She won last year as a guest actress; she was upgraded to a supporting actress this year.) Her victory will be hard to forget: she delivered an incredible acceptance speech, one colored by jubilance, gratefulness, and raw emotion.

Aduba thanked her fellow cast members and crew, the show's corporate parents at Netflix, her personal team, and her family. She was racing to get through all of the names on her list, but it didn't sound like she was worried about playing off; instead, it was as if she was trying to get off the stage before being completely overcome. When she spoke to her sister watching from the crowd and thanked her for her friendship, it was a moment that resonated with anyone who's ever felt overwhelming love and pride in a sibling. If Aduba keeps giving speeches like this, viewers will be happy if she dominates this category for years to come.

This year a lot of late night shows were bidding farewell after historic runs, but it was Jon Stewart's Daily Show that beat everyone, winning the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series. It was the third win of the night for the show, with The Daily Show picking up the award for best variety show writing and directing earlier in the evening.

A bearded Stewart took the stage to accept the award and — in true Stewart fashion — riff, explaining that this was the first applause he'd heard in months. "To everybody on television, I just want to tell you: cling to it, as long as you can," he said, "Like death. Like in Titanic." Calling the regular world a "barren wasteland," Stewart described the tongue-in-cheek existential hell of his new, crafts service-free existence. "Out in the world, there are tables with food, but you can't take it. It costs money! Very little of it is gluten-free or vegan."

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series is a brand new Emmy category — the old Outstanding Variety Series was split into two categories for the first time this year — and now it has its first winner. Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer won out in a competitive category, beating Drunk History, Key & Peele, Portlandia, and Saturday Night Live.

The win is just the latest highlight of Schumer's annus mirabilis: she's become an internet comedy icon, a critical darling, and a box office winner thanks to Inside Amy Schumer and Trainwreck, and she has a new HBO stand-up special (Live at the Apollo) airing this October.

Transparent creator Jill Soloway just won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, and in a sign that 2015 has come to television awards season she name-checked none other than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos during her speech. "Thank you Goddess. I promised the Goddess I would thank her," Soloway said upon taking the stage. "And Amazon. Goddess first, Amazon second."

The award, which came for Soloway's work on the episode "Best New Girl," was the first win of the night for the Amazon show, which soon thereafter picked up the award for best comedic actor for Jeffrey Tambor. Soloway went on to thank Bezos directly for the creative freedom she's been afforded with the show, which stars Tambor as a transgender parent of three.