Kate McKinnon nabbed an honor Sunday that eluded Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Eddie Murphy and Bill Hader: a performance Emmy for “Saturday Night Live.”
McKinnon scored a major upset by winning the Comedy Supporting Actress category, besting such Emmy stalwarts as Allison Janney of the CBS sitcom “Mom.”
Poehler, Wiig and McKinnon herself had all previously been nominated in the category without winning. Hader lost in the Comedy Supporting Actor category in 2012 and 2013, while Eddie Murphy failed to win in 1983.
However, McKinnon is not the first “SNL” actor to win an Emmy for NBC’s sketch series.
In the early days of “SNL” back in the 1970s, the performers were nominated in a different category, for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. Chevy Chase won in that category in 1976, for his work on the first season of “SNL.” And Gilda Radner won two years later.
In her speech onstage, McKinnon thanked “SNL” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels.
“I am really crying,” McKinnon told the crowd. “I’m not making it up… Thank you to the academy so much — good sentence… this is really crazy.
“Thank you, Ellen DeGeneres, thank you Hillary Clinton,” she added. “Just on a personal note, thank you to my beautiful and hilarious mother and sister, and to my father who’s not with us anymore, but he made me start watching ‘SNL’ when I was 12.”