Netflix made Emmy history Monday, as its Korean-language breakaway hit Squid Game won Primetime Emmy awards for drama lead acting and directing — a first for a non-English-language program. Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae won for lead actor in a drama series, and Hwang Dong-hyuk won the award for outstanding directing of a drama series.
Until this year, non-English projects have never won or even been nominated in a major category at the Primetime Emmy awards.
Scoring Emmys doesn’t necessarily unlock rewards for a service other than bragging rights. But with competition continuing to intensify between services vying for your eyeballs and subscription dollars, unprecedented Emmy wins like Netflix’s can grab attention toward one service as a go-to place for decorated programming.
Squid Game, as a global phenomenon, was already unprecedented. The South Korean thriller about a dystopian survival competition ignited as an unexpected worldwide hit late last year. Netflix counts it as the most-watch program it has ever released, with more than 1.65 billion hours of the show streamed in its first four weeks.
Netflix’s programming was first nominated in 2013, and last year it won the most awards of any network or service.
