FX’s freshman series Atlanta helped the network take home the most Writer’s Guild Awards of any television or streaming network during Sunday’s awards ceremonies.

FX won four WGA Awards, including two for Atlanta, which won for best comedy series and best new series. The network’s The Americans won best Drama Series and it’s the People V. O.J. Simpson won for best Adapted Long Form show, according to the WGA.

HBO, Netflix, NBC, PBS and CBS all won multiple WGA Awards during the event.

WGA Award Winners In The Television Category Are As Follows:

Drama Series

The Americans – FX

Comedy Series

Atlanta – FX

New Series

Atlanta – FX

Original Long Form

Confirmation – HBO

Adapted Long Form

The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story – FX

Animation

BoJack Horseman – Netflix (“Stop The Presses”)

Episodic Drama

 This Is us – NBC (“The Trip”)

Episodic Comedy

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – Netflix (“Kimmy Goes On A Playdate!”)

Comedy/Variety Talk Series

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver – HBO

Comedy/Variety Sketch Series

 Saturday Night Live – NBC

Comedy/Variety Specials

Triumph The Primary Election Special 2016 – Hulu

Quiz And Audience Participation

Hollywood Game Night – NBC

Daytime Drama

General Hospital – ABC

Children’s Episodic

Gortimer Gibbon’s Life On Normal Street – Amazon (“Mel vs. The Night Mare Of Normal Street”)

Children’s Long Form

Once Upon A Sesame Christmas – HBO

Documentary Script – Current Events

Frontline – PBS (“The Choice 2016”)

Frontline – PBS (“Inside Assad’s Syria”)

Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events

Jackie Robinson – PBS (Part 1)

TV News Script – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin or Breaking Report

48 Hours – CBS (“Muhammad Ali: Remembering A Legend”)

TV News Script – Analysis, Feature Or Commentary

CBS Sunday Morning – CBS (“CBS Sunday Morning Almanac”)

Delayed viewing was an even bigger factor for TV's most time-shifted shows in 2016, according to Nielsen.

AMC's Better Call Saul saw a 278.7% increase in viewers from time shifting, ranking it first in percentage change. A year ago, Better Call Saul got a 215.2% increase from time shifting, ranking it third. The top show in 2015 was Fargo, which registered a 240.3% increase.

FX's American Horror Story was No. 2 with a 245.5% increase, and The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, also on FX, was third at 238.6%.

Nielsen said three reality shows made the top 10, up from just one a year ago.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Cable and streaming services dominated the 2017 Golden Globe Awards nominations announced Monday morning by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

HBO topped all content distributors with 14 nominations, followed by FX with nine. Streaming services Netlfix and Amazon garnered five nominations along with AMC and broadcast network ABC, according to the organization.  

RELATED:FX, HBO dominate Critics Choice Awards for TV

Cable and streaming services all but swept both the best drama and best comedy categories. Netflix’s The Crown and Stranger Things along with HBO’s Game Of Thrones and Westworld will compete against NBC’s freshman hit This Is Us for best drama honors, while FX’s freshman series Atlanta will go head to head in the best comedy category with last year’s winner Mozart In The Jungle (Amazon) as well as Transparent (Amazon) and Veep (HBO). ABC's Black-ish is the lone broadcast network nominee in the category.

Overall, FX’s limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story led all shows with five nominations, followed by AMC’s The Night Manager with four, according to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The 2017 Golden Globes ceremony will air live on NBC on Sunday, Jan. 8. 

The Complete list of TV Golden Globe Nominations

Best Television Series – Drama

The Crown – Netflix

Game Of Thrones – HBO

Stranger Things – Netflix

This Is Us – NBC

Westworld – HBO

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) -- USA
Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) -- AMC
Matthew Rhys (The Americans) – FX
Liev Scrieibler (Ray Donovan) – Showtime
Billy Bob Thornton (Goliath) -- Amazon

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Caitriona Balfe (Outlander) -- Starz
Claire Foy (The Crown) – Netflix
Keri Russell (The Americans) – FX
Winona Ryder (Stranger Things) – Netflix
Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld) -- HBO

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Atlanta -- FX
Black-ish -- ABC
Mozart In The Jungle -- Amazon
Transparent -- Amazon
Veep – HBO

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Anthony Anderson (Black-ish) -- ABC
Gael Garcia Bernal (Mozart In The Jungle) -- Amazon
Donald Glover (Atlanta) -- FX
Nick Nolte (Graves) – Epix
Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) – Amazon

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Rachel Bloom – (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) -- CW
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) -- HBO
Sarah Jessica Parker (Divorce) – HBO
Issa Rae (Insecure) -- HBO
Gina Rodriguez – (Jane The Virgin) -- CW
Tracy Ellis-Ross (Black-ish) – ABC

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television

American Crime -- ABC

The Dresser -- Starz

The Night Manager -- AMC

The Night Of -- HBO

The People V. O.J. Simpson – FX

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Riz Ahmed (The Night Of) -- HBO
Bryan Cranston (All The Way) -- HBO
Tom Hiddleston (The Night Manager) -- AMC
John Turturro (The Night Of) -- AMC
Courtney B Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson) – FX

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Felicity Huffman (American Crime) – ABC

Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience) – Starz

Sarah Paulson (The People v. O.J. Simpson) – FX

Charlotte Rampling (London Spy) -- BBC America 

Kerry Washington (Confirmation) --  HBO

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In A Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television

Olivia Colman (The Night Manager) -- AMC
Lena Heady (Game of Thrones) – HBO
Chrissy Metz (This Is Us) -- NBC
Mandy Moore (This Is Us) – NBC
Thandie Newton (Westworld) – HBO

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Sterling K Brown (The People v. O.J. Simpson) -- FX
Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager) -- AMC
John Lithgow (The Crown) – Netflix
Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) – USA
John Travolta (The People v. O.J. Simpson) -- FX

Fx’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson capped a strong Emmys performance in the Limited Series category by winning Best Limited Series Sunday night.

Get more Emmys coverage.

The freshman series bested ABC’s American Crime, FX’s Fargo, AMC’s The Night Manager and History’s Roots in winning the award.

RELATED: Courtney B. Vance: Channeling Cochran: 20 Years Later

The show’s win follows victories by People V. O.J. Simpson's Courtney B. Vance for Best Actor in a Limited Series or movie, and Sterling K. Brown and Sarah Paulson for best actor and actress in supporting roles for limited series or movie.  

Comedy Central’s upfront presentation Thursday (March 31), during a busy week for those cable-network gatherings in New York, was definitely the one with the most F-bombs and references to male and female genitalia from onstage presenters.

Amy Schumer’s risqué standup act — referencing certain aspects of her own sex life that can’t be relayed here — set the tone. The Daily Show host Trevor Noah had a naughty take on the current political climate. Comedy Central Roasts host Jeff Ross did a profanity-filled parody of Donald Trump. Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson removed their clothes to reveal nude body suits as the event ended with the network’s on-air stars dressed in bathrobes.

Get more news about The Upfronts.

FX’s upfront gathering Wednesday began with a screening of the upcoming final episode of American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Attendees included series stars Courtney B. Vance and John Travolta. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf thanked the various FX and FXX stars and producers who came, saying, “We know that they can make great television … what we don’t know is if they can bowl.” That’s because the night continued with an FX Networks signature bowling party across town from the screening.

Crown Media Family Networks (the two Hallmark channels’ parent), in contrast, entertained about 200 in style Wednesday at the Rainbow Room. Helping Crown CEO Bill Abbott and ad-sales EVP Ed Georger as hosts were Hallmark original-movie stars Lori Loughlin and Candace Cameron Bure. Five for Fighting’s John Ondrasik performed.

When Discovery Communications pitched upcoming slates at a breakfast gathering Thursday, questioners zoomed in on why reality haven TLC had ordered a new Tyler Perry-produced scripted series, Too Close to Home, when those are usually the province of Discovery affiliate OWN. TLC chief Nancy Daniels called it “a big swing,” but said TLC’s audience watches scripted shows elsewhere, so why not on TLC? When a reporter asked if it was easier to control actors in a scripted show than characters in a reality series — TLC is home to such shows as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and 19 Kids and Counting — Discovery CEO David Zaslav observed that controlling people “is a problem in life in general.” The Wire definitely agrees.

— R. Thomas Umstead

Take Off (My Cable Bill), You Hoser

Barely a month into the Canadian government’s mandated skinny bundle experiment, legislators are warning potential customers that they’re on their own if they expect the new lighter video packages to result in lower pay TV bills.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Canadian consumers wrongly assumed the government was going to cut cable prices when the intention was to provide more choices. If consumers want lower bills, he said, they’re just going to have to haggle with their provider, as he did.

After delivering a speech on anti-spam legislation in Toronto, Blais told the newspaper he was able to slim down his monthly pay TV bill the direct way, by threatening to switch providers.

“Was it easy? No. … You have to keep going up the chain into [the] loyalty program. It requires eff ort,” he said.

“This will take time, and I’ll repeat it again: Canadians will have to do some work,” Blais stressed. “They will have to be ready to at least threaten to change providers.”

The skinny-bundle mandate in Canada took effect on March 1 and is being watched closely to see how popular the new sub-C$25 plans might be with consumers. Canadian providers complied with a variety of packages, but critics said they weren’t well publicized and contained sparsely-viewed channels.

Reports indicate the Canadian regulator had received about 600 complaints from consumers, including those from viewers who found the channels in the skinny packages weren’t compelling

— Mike Farrell

RELATED: Making History Into Television [subscription required] | Black History Month: What to Watch | Watch the Trailer for FX's 'The People v. O.J. Simpson'

Veteran actor Courtney B. Vance plays iconic lawyer Johnnie Cochran in FX’s new 10-part limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, based on the book written by Jeffrey Toobin. The 55-year-old Vance discussed the series with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead, and provided his perspective on how the sensational 1994 case altered the way Americans discuss race. An edited version of the interview follows.

MCN: How did you prepare for the role of playing Johnnie Cochran?

Courtney B. Vance: A lot of times, you have to look at these iconic roles and make a decision as to how are you going to get in, and how are you going to do this? Johnnie Cochran cut his teeth on police brutality cases for years before the O.J. Simpson case came up, and so I know I’m not him, and I wasn’t going to spend my time trying to be him. I spent my time researching and finding out as much as I could about his life and his journey.

And then I knew the scripts would be tremendous, so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. If I could just give the appearance and the semblance of Johnnie Cochran, the scripts would do the rest. And the audience would be able to enter into the world. That’s the main thing for me — that I get out of the way and people can enter into the world. If I do my job, then they don’t see me, they see Johnnie.

MCN: Why is now the best time for this project to happen, 20 years after the verdict was handed down?

CBV: Because we all started with watching the Bronco and ended with the verdict, with black people in one corner and white people in another corner, mad or happy, and nobody ends up learning anything. Everybody goes back to their corner knowing what they know. Yet two people were killed, and was justice really served? I don’t think so.

So I knew that we really needed to sit down and unearth this thing and look at it with 20 years’ perspective for people who were back there during that time and remember it.

Before, they were so emotional, but now, 20 years later, the emotion hopefully is not as prevalent, and so maybe some sense and some perspective can be gotten as we look at it with a 20-year telescope, and [we can] understand a couple of things and maybe have a conversation about it, whereas 20 years prior no conversation could be had.

It was a trial that had a little bit of everything in it for everybody. We put it on television, and the thing blew up.

MCN: Do you think that the show actually retries O.J.?

CBV: I think it’s looking at the trial from the perspective of the attorneys with background information about their lives and their histories, so you can get a better sense of why certain decisions were made — why a certain decision was made about the glove and about Mark Fuhrman and the tapes and all. Because we were so close to it, and because a lot of times we just saw the result of what happened, we don’t know exactly what happened with that.

We didn’t know about [prosecuting attorney] Marcia Clark and all the drama that ensued with her and her second husband. I don’t know how she survived that case. I don’t know how [prosecutor Christopher] Darden survived all the things he went through. I mean, it was so much in the history and the course of this case that was about so many things other than truth or innocence, as is every case.

Nothing is ever black and white — it’s all a series of shades of gray. We have the opportunity to actually look with perspective to see what happened, how it happened and, based on all of that, hopefully at the water coolers we can begin to [discuss it].

MCN: You were quoted as saying that you cheered the O.J. verdict. Explain to me what you were feeling then and why you felt that way?

CBV: I was in Toronto with Nathan Lane and Tony Goldwyn, doing a project for Hallmark called The Boys Next Door. And Tony and I were, I guess, in his trailer, watching the verdict. And if you talked to black people and you talked to white people, I think black people were not cheering for O.J. — it wasn’t about O.J. O.J. even himself says, “I’m not black, I’m O.J.”

But this case was about race. Race is one of those things that we don’t like to talk about, like religion and politics. I mean it is a deep, deep issue that you can’t ignore. And we ignored it. We ignored it to our peril.

So my fist went up pumping because I’m realizing that finally Johnnie Cochran … this case was the culmination of all of his work. That’s what we were celebrating — all those times in courtrooms, throughout the American landscape, the black man and woman ended up on the short end of the stick. And this time, in the largest venue, we ended up victorious. So that’s what I think black Americans were celebrating. We’re not celebrating because two people were killed — nobody celebrates that. We were celebrating that finally somebody worked the system.

And was justice served? I don’t know whether it was or not, but the system was worked for the first time on this large a scale. That’s what I think African-Americans were celebrating.

MCN: Having said that, are you surprised that there is so much buzz around this show and the trial 20 years later?

CBV: I think there’s buzz around the show, No. 1, because the show was good. If the show wasn’t good, there wouldn’t be buzz. They wouldn’t be talking about it because the fact of the matter is Fox spent a lot of time and a lot of money to make sure, to ensure, that this would be done well. As [executive producer and director] Ryan Murphy said, they spent a lot of money on lawyers, making sure that every line was well-researched and was correct from a legal standpoint. Time was paid, attention was paid and the fruits of all of that labor are what we’re seeing. There is no guarantee that it will be received well, but we gave it our best shot and spent a lot of time and effort making sure that our story, our 10-part story was told well. And that’s all you can hope for.

FX on Tuesday (Feb. 2) will premiere a new, scripted series focused a true-to-life, high-profile criminal trial with racial overtones: specifically, the case of an African-American man accused of murder amid the shadow of alleged police misconduct.

It’s a scenario that might have been ripped from today’s headlines, but FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story takes its cue from the trial of the former National Football League star, held more than 20 years ago.

As issues of race continue to influence the country’s discourse on politics, crime and punishment and entertainment — the recent flap over the lack of diversity in nominations in high-profile Oscar categories comes to mind — cable networks look to tap a growing interest in scripted content that reflects real-life African-American stories and people both past and present.

RELATED:Channeling Cochran, 20 Years Later: Courtney B. Vance on How Time Will Bring Perspective to ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’

UNDER-TOLD TALES

From the highly-anticipated People v. O.J. Simpson, to History’s upcoming remake of Roots to WGN America’s Underground, which depicts slaves escaping along the 19th century’s “Underground Railroad,” networks are offering true stories that most viewers will recognize, but haven’t been fully explored either on the small screen or in highschool history books.

In many cases, they feature common threads that tie into the complex issues of race facing the nation today.

“Black is the new black,” Stephen Hill, BET’s president of programming, said. “There’s a variety of stories being told on a lot of different platforms, so it’s an exciting time for this kind of television, and it makes everyone step their game up.”

Indeed, original series and movies featuring real-life African-American themes have recently garnered both ratings success and industry awards:

• HBO’s Bessie took home four 2015 Emmy Awards last September, including one for best television movie, and garnered Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for lead actress Queen Latifah’s portrayal of blues singer Bessie Smith.

• Lifetime’s Jan. 23 original movie Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart, a biography of the popular contemporary rhythm and blues singer, drew 3.6 million viewers and was the most-watched original cable movie among adults 25-54 and women 18-49 since Whitney, Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic, in January 2015.

• Book of Negroes, BET’s six-part miniseries airing in February 2015, drew more than 13 million viewers across multiple platforms during its run. It was also the most-watched miniseries by African- American audiences across key demos.

Another half-dozen cable original series, miniseries and movies based on true-life African-American stories are slated to debut later this year or are in development.

CRIME, PUNISHMENT, RACE

As entertainment projects featuring mainly African-American casts gain critical and audience success, there’s been more interest in shows with historical themes related to the black experience in America, executives said.

“If you look at the landscape today, TV shows like Empire to theatrical films like Creed and Straight Outta Compton have been huge commercial successes,” FX Networks and FX Productions CEO John Landgraf said. “I think there’s now a greater willingness to embrace more content with African-American themes and perspective.”

Shows such as The People v. O.J. Simpson appeal across audience demographics because they touch on hot-button issues of crime, punishment and race that the U.S. is still wrestling with, Landgraf said.

Viewers are also fascinated by true stories that challenge the perceptions and realities of the criminal justice system, as evidenced by interest in such shows as HBO’s The Jinx and Netflix’s Making of a Murderer.

“I think O.J. is about this moment in time right now, and the debate going on in the United States about how equitable our society is or is not, and includes a specific focus inside the debate about the equity within the criminal justice system,” Landgraf said. “In general, we’re interested in the weakness and the strengths of our own criminal justice system. They speak to the flaws of our system and potential police misconduct, but also, frankly, to the weaknesses of juries as well.”

TV movies like Bessie or HBO’s upcoming Confirmation — which depicts Anita Hill’s sex-discrimination charges levied during the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — are strong stories of a type that has received little TV fanfare, but with universal storylines that appeal to all viewers, HBO Films president Len Amato said.

UNDERSERVED AUDIENCES

It also helps that these shows appeal to a still-underserved African- American audience that watches more TV than any other ethnic group. African-Americans watched 43 hours of live TV per week during the second quarter of 2015, compared with 24 hours by Hispanics and 16 hours for Asian-Americans.

“First and foremost, people are looking for a good story, because those are color-blind,” Amato said. “Then, you’re reaching audiences that are underserved. Even if you don’t have a progressive bone in your body that cares about diversity, just on that level alone, where the rubber meets the road, it’s good business.”

Plus, younger viewers who might not know the gritty details of the O.J. Simpson saga or about the Underground Railroad can identify with the storylines and plots.

“So many people don’t know the Anita Hill story — it’s not exactly something that’s pushed in the history books — so if it brings the story to a new generation and they gain some insight, or they take pride in the fact that a situation like this could lead to empowerment, [that] is good,” Amato said.

The trial of O.J Simpson, as portrayed in the FX series (see related Q&A), set the stage for much of what we see on TV today, Landgraf said.

“It’s the mother of all true reality stories; it is the beginning of the 24-hour news cycle and of crime as infotainment,” he said. “Most young people believe that the most fascinating, crazy stuff that’s ever happened in the world of reality television has happened in their lifetime and, when they see this, they’re going to realize that many of the things that happened during this trial [are] still the craziest thing that’s ever happened to reality TV.

“It gave rise to the media environment in which young people have lived their entire lives,” Landgraf said.

Underground (premiering Wednesday, March 9) was more about telling a good story than teaching a history lesson, WGN America president and general manager Matt Cherniss said.

Though the characters in Underground are fictional, the series stays true to the documented history surrounding the Underground Railroad, the 19th-century network of secret escape routes and safe houses used by runaway slaves.

“Obviously, it’s a controversial time period and it’s a subject matter that’s sensitive and takes a high level of execution and care when you approach it,” Cherniss said. “But when I read the script, I just read a great adventure and not a period piece.

“Too often to this point, people have looked at that particular time period and felt that it needed to be honored in such a way that there wasn’t an opportunity to insert a bit of genre into the storytelling,” he added.

The fact that the pilot includes a Kanye West song — procured under the watchful eye of executive producer John Legend — also can’t hurt in reaching millennials, even if the series is set some 150 years before the hip hop superstar was born.

MORE IN THE PIPELINE

As demand across numerous platforms for diverse, scripted content continues to grow, networks see room to make more stories based on what they call the treasure trove of good, true-life African-American themed stories that have yet to be told.

Along with History’s retelling of the classic miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley, HBO in May will debut the original movie All the Way, which chronicles the relationship between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.

BET is developing biographical movies on the R&B music group New Edition and on former South African president Nelson Mandela.

“People like to know that what they’re seeing has some basis in the truth,” BET’s Hill said. “Also, with these projects you get to see what’s behind the curtain of stories that you already know the beginning, middle and end of.”

Added WGN America’s Cherniss, “Having many more outlets out there creating original content and looking at things that are distinctive as far as the subject matter is concerned does provide a broader landscape for different stories to be told.”

Black History Month: What to Watch

A sampling of shows set to air in February

Feb. 1

Change Agents: History in the Making(short films)

TV One

Feb. 2

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story(limited series)

FX

Feb. 3

Preachers of Atlanta(reality series)

Oxygen

Feb. 5

47th Annual NAACP Image Awards

TV One

Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to ‘Off The Wall’(documentary)

Showtime

Feb. 9

Here We Go Again (series)

TV One

Feb. 10

The Next 15(reality series)

TV One

Feb. 13

SportsCenter on the Road From Hampton University(special)

ESPN

Feb. 14

Rise Up: SportsCenter Black History Month Special(special)

ESPN

Feb. 24

About the Business(reality series)

BET

Feb. 29

Major League Legends: Hank Aaron(special episode of docuseries)

Smithsonian Channel

Hate in America(documentary)

Investigation Discovery

Also This Month:

• Disney XD and Disney Channel will run a documentary-style interstitial that illustrates the bravery of young African-Americans through the lens of Cameron Boyce (Descendants) and his timeless hero, Jo-Ann Boyce — his grandmother, who was one of the Clinton 12, a group of 12 black Tennessee teens who were the first to integrate into an all-white high school in the South in 1956, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

• Music Choice will offer a package of music videos dubbed “The New Classics,” including videos from Drake, Fetty Wap and Rihanna, as well as videos from the soundtracks of popular black movies such as Straight Outta Compton.