Emmy Awards 2018: The 8 best moments (and 1 that didn't happen)

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Monday's Emmy Awards had its fair share of unexpected moments, emotional reactions and impassioned speeches. And some revelations about the destiny of Game of Thrones.

1. She said yes!

Media caption,

Glenn Weiss popped the question to Jan Svendsen

It started off like any other slightly dull acceptance speech but ended up putting all the gathered superstars in the shade.

Glenn Weiss thanked his children and the people he worked with on the Oscars, for which he won best directing for a variety special. Then he paid tribute to his mother, who died two weeks ago.

Then, seemingly inspired by her passing, he to seized the moment and he told his girlfriend Jan he wanted to make her his wife.

An overwhelmed Jan made her way up to the stage and Glenn, as an award show director himself, knew how to avoid being played off by the orchestra. He told Emmys director Hamish Hamilton: "Hamish, I'm going to be a moment."

He put his mother's wedding ring on Jan's finger and dropped down on one knee, to ecstatic applause.

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If he hadn't won, he told reporters he might have popped the question at In 'N' Out Burger afterwards instead.

2. Betty White gets due respect at 96

Betty White made her first TV appearance a full decade before the very first Emmys were handed out in 1949.

Now, at the age of 96, the Golden Girls star was moved by a standing ovation as she accepted a special honour at the 70th annual ceremony.

"Oh my goodness," she repeated as she took to the stage. "I'm just gonna quit while I'm ahead."

She continued: "It's incredible that I am still in this business and that you are still putting up with me." After more applause, she added: "No, believe me, I'm thanking you."

3. RuPaul makes history

The Drag Race host became the first person to win the reality competition category and outstanding host for a reality or reality competition programme in the same year, according to The Hollywood Reporter, external.

He gave a typically impassioned acceptance speech, telling "all of the dreamers out there - if you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else?"

Holding the statuette aloft, he called: "Can I get an amen up in here?"

4. Leslie Jones is more excited about Regina King than Regina King

Normally the winner is more overjoyed than the presenter.

But when Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones announced Regina King as the winner of best actress in a limited series or movie for Seven Seconds, Leslie's eyes almost popped out of her head, while King sat impassively, seemingly in shock.

Leslie kept screaming in elation as a still stony-faced King eventually made her way to the stage.

Some viewers pointed out that King was the night's first non-white winner - which had been a long time coming.

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5. Teddy Perkins turned up

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Donald Glover submitted the Atlanta episode Teddy Perkins - in which he spent most of the time dressed as the creepy alter-ego of the same name - to voters of the best actor in a comedy category.

So it was perhaps fitting that Teddy himself turned up to the Emmys when that award was announced.

But alas we missed out on Teddy's acceptance speech because in one of the night's biggest upsets, Bill Hader beat Glover to the award.

Hader - who won for Barry - even hugged "Teddy" on his way up to the stage.

However, this photo suggests it wasn't Donald himself who was dressed as Teddy.

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6. Game of Thrones is back - but it could have lasted longer

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Game of Thrones picked up best drama series again, after a year off in 2017 when it wasn't eligible.

Its forthcoming eighth season will be its last. Author George RR Martin revealed on the red carpet that he wanted it to go on for longer, but that showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss refused.

"We could have gone to 11, 12, 13 seasons but I guess they wanted a life," he told Variety, external.

"But that's fine, we've got five prequels in development that are based on other periods in the history of Westeros, some of them just 100 years before Game of Thrones, some of them 5,000 years before Game of Thrones."

7. 'A country that allows hatred to grow unfettered and unchecked'

One of the strongest messages came from director Ryan Murphy, accepting best limited series for The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

He told the ceremony the show was "about a lot of things".

He said: "It's about homophobia, internalised and externalised, it's about a country that allows hatred to grow unfettered and unchecked. One out of every four LGBTQ people in this country will be a victim of a hate crime.

"We dedicate this award to them. We dedicate this award to awareness, to stricter hate crime laws, and mostly, this is for the memory of Jeff and David and Gianni and for all of those taken too soon."

Jeff is Jeffrey Trail and David is David Madson - both also victims of Versace's killer Andrew Cunanan.

8. When in doubt, thank your horse

At the end of his acceptance speech for best supporting actor in a limited series for Godless, after a slightly (very) dull list of thank-yous including his riding trainer and horse wrangler - Jeff Daniels was sure not to forget the most important thank you of all.

"I'd finally like to thank my horse Apollo. He was Jeff Bridges' horse on True Grit and I felt he was making unfair comparisons."

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At least he didn't go so far as to propose to it.

And one moment that didn't happen

"Those who were waiting for a #MeToo moment during Monday night's Emmy Awards just kept waiting," wrote the New York Times, external.

"Unlike at previous awards shows this year, emblems of the movement weren't pinned to lapels or sequined gowns.

"#MeToo was mostly absent from acceptance speeches and even from the monologue - except for fleeting jokes by the hosts, Michael Che and Colin Jost."

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