‘The Crown’ Wins Best Drama Series at the Primetime Emmys

“The Crown” has long been a favorite of awards season voters since it premiered on Netflix in 2016, but the show achieved a new milestone on Sunday evening when Television Academy voters awarded the show the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

“The Crown” beat out Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys,” HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Disney+’s “The Mandalorian,” FX’s “Pose,” NBC’s “This Is Us,” and fellow Netflix title “Bridgerton” for the Emmy. Though the show’s Drama Series win marks the first time that “The Crown” has secured the Emmy in that category, the Netflix series is no stranger to Emmy Awards; “The Crown” previously won 14 Emmys, including four wins at the 2021 Creative Arts Emmy Awards last weekend.

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Per Netflix, Season 4 of the drama series centers on Queen Elizabeth and her family as they aim to safeguard the line of succession by securing an appropriate bride for Prince Charles. As the nation begins to feel the impact of divisive policies introduced by Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), tensions arise between her and the Queen which only grow worse as Thatcher leads the country into the Falklands War, generating conflict within the Commonwealth.

“The Crown” has been a consistently popular show among television critics since the series premiered in 2016. In her IndieWire review for the show’s fourth season in November 2020, Ann Donahue lauded the show’s handling of its characters and praised the acting of its leads in her grade A review.

“With the addition of Thatcher, played to gritty, galling Iron Lady perfection by Gillian Anderson, and Diana, a near-impossible role that Emma Corrin makes look effortless without descending into hagiography, ‘The Crown’ gives a riveting look at a decade that codified callous excess in the characters’ public and private lives,” Donahue said in her review.

The 73rd Primetime Emmys aired Sunday, September 19 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The three-hour event was hosted by Cedric the Entertainer and, for the first time, available to stream on Paramount+. Follow IndieWire on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest Emmys news, including live updates, as the virtual awards ceremony airs Sunday night.