DuVernay's documentary "13th" was the biggest winner of the night, taking home four prizes for Documentary Special, Writing, Motion Design, and Original Music and Lyrics for "The Letter to the Free" by Common, Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins.
Corden, 39, picked up the first award at the ceremony, for Variety Special thanks to his "Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special".
In addition to picking up that prize for the second year in a row, the "Late Late Show" presenter also took to the stage at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles for the second time when the 2016 Tony Awards, which he fronted, was given the Special Class Programme award, reported Variety.
Bee picked up Best Variety Special Writing for her "Not The White House Correspondents Dinner" and credited her win to the writers she collaborates with.
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"Thank you so much to Academy... To these people with me on stage tonight for making me look so good. These are the people who stand in a jet stream of daily obscenities and manage to write jokes about them," she said.
She also joked about her own experiences, "Mom, thank you. You are officially forgiven for getting us into a cult."
Other winners at the ceremony included "Hairspray Live", "RuPaul's Drag Race" - which took three prizes, including Host for a Reality/Reality Competition Programme - and "Saturday Night Live".
The evening's awards focused on reality, documentary and animated programmes, and the second part of the prize-giving, for scripted programming, will take place tonight.