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John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice join the EGOT club

Their triumph came when NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert” won five awards at the Creative Arts Emmys, including best live variety special.

With their victories, the three men join 12 other EGOT winners including Audrey Hepburn, Whoopi Goldberg and Mel Brooks.

Awards were distributed over nearly 100 categories at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in two ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles, leading up to next week’s 70th Primetime Emmy Awards.

As usual, when it is eligible, “Game of Thrones” leads the way so far, along with another perennial Emmy heavyweight, “Saturday Night Live.” The HBO hit and NBC late night show each took home seven awards this weekend, giving them the Emmy lead going into next week’s prime time awards telecast.

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The Creative Emmys represent a sort of Emmys pregame show, with awards given out for categories like technical categories, guest acting appearances and variety specials.

And though Hollywood awards programs have been besieged in recent years with accusations of racial bias, including #OscarsSoWhite, the Emmys hit a landmark for diversity this weekend. All four guest acting categories over the weekend were awarded to African-American actors.

Tiffany Haddish won for best guest actress in a comedy for her hosting duties on “Saturday Night Live,” the third consecutive year the NBC late night show has captured that award. Katt Williams, who played an eccentric owner of an alligator in a critically-lauded episode of “Atlanta,” won best guest actor in a comedy. Ron Cephas Jones won for best guest acting for his role in “This Is Us” and Samira Wiley won the guest acting actress category for “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The Creative Emmys also provide an early boost for network bragging rights. HBO currently leads the way with 17 Emmy wins, followed closely by Netflix’s 16. In July, when the Emmy nominations were announced, Netflix snapped HBO’s 17-year streak of most Emmy nominations among a television network. But if HBO can prevail through the main ceremony next Monday, it will extend its run of earning the most Emmys among all TV networks to 17 consecutive years, a feat that will help soften the blow from earlier this summer.

If the best drama category next week is expected to be a battle between two-time best drama winner “Game of Thrones” versus last year’s winner “The Handmaid’s Tale” (with FX’s “The Americans” as a possible sleeper pick), the Creative Emmys helped push another entrant into the mix. Netflix’s “The Crown,” the period piece about Queen Elizabeth II, won best casting in a drama over the weekend. Four of the past eight best drama winners also won for best cast, making “The Crown” a plausible upset contender.

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Netflix’s “Queer Eye” took home the Emmy for best structured reality show, 14 years after “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy” took home the same award. And CNN’s “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” won for best informational series, just three months after the show’s star died of suicide.

On Sept. 17th, the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on NBC and hosted by the “Saturday Night Live” duo Colin Jost and Michael Che. Lorne Michaels, the veteran NBC late night executive, will produce the event for the first time in 30 years. There will be 26 Emmys given out, including best drama, comedy, limited series, variety talk show and all of the major acting categories.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

John Koblin © 2018 The New York Times

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