‘Succession’ Goes Out on Top With Another Best Drama Series Emmy: ‘This Wasn’t Necessarily an Easy Show to Commission’

“Succession” went out on top for its fourth and final season, ending up with six Emmys Monday night including the top prize. The HBO series took home the prize for outstanding drama series for the second consecutive year and third consecutive season. It joins other three-peaters like “The Defenders,” “Dragnet,” “Playhouse 90” and “Upstairs, Downstairs.”

While accepting the prize, series creator Jesse Armstrong said, “We want to thank HBO. This wasn’t necessarily an easy show to commission right at the very beginning.”

He went on to say hello to “Jeremy Strong, who’s making a movie and Lucy, who’s made a baby. We send our love to both of them.”

Armstrong then grimly joked, “This is a show about family, but it’s also about when partisan politics and news coverage gets intertwined with divisive right-wing politics. After four seasons of satire, that’s a problem I understand we have now fixed.”

“Succession” beat out fellow nominees “Andor,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Crown,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus” and “Yellowjackets. Only three shows have won for their final seasons before: “Game of Thrones” (2019), “Breaking Bad” (2014) and “The Sopranos” (2007).

This is the ninth time that HBO took home the drama prize, now joining broadcaster ABC as the third-most awarded television network in history following CBS’ 18 and NBC’s 21. Max led the nominations this year for all networks with 127, also becoming the first to get four drama series nominated since NBC at the 1992 ceremony.

“Succession” topped the competition this year with 27 Emmy nominations, including a record-setting three entries in lead drama actor for Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong. During its tenure, “Succession” has collectively amassed an impressive 75 total Emmy nominations.

This past season, which began airing last spring, followed the wealthy Roy family and the negotiated sale of their Waystar Royco media empire to Lukas Mattson,