Tonight, the Television Critics Association press tour takes a pause for the annual presentation of the TCA Awards, with the big winners including “Empire,” “The Americans,” “Inside Amy Schumer” and Jon Hamm.
“Empire” was named the Program of the Year, which is an award designed to encompass not only quality, but cultural impact.
“Inside Amy Schumer” won both the comedy series award and an individual award for Schumer herself. “The Americans” was named the best drama by critics, while Hamm won the individual achievement in drama award (his second TCA win) for the final season of “Mad Men.”
It was a share the wealth night, with Schumer being the only double winner. AMC’s “Better Call Saul” beat out a lot of impressive nominees (including “Empire”) to win the new program award, HBO won for both the movies & miniseries category with “The Jinx” and for news & information for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” ABC Family’s “The Foster” was a repeat winner for the youth programming category, while Starz’s “The Chair” won the reality programming award.
Legendary producer James L. Brooks (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Simpsons,” “Taxi,” et al) won the career achievement award, while the Heritage Award (a sort of career achievement for shows) went to the combination of “Late Night with David Letterman” and “Late Show with David Letterman.”
(Here’s the full list of nominees from back in June.)
The event’s not televised, but if anything particularly memorable happens in terms of speeches, I’ll try to write it up tomorrow morning.