Last night’s 65th Primetime Emmys ceremony gave television fans plenty of shocking moments after a hilarious opening, with Emmy hosts of the past derailing Neil Patrick Harris’ opening. Although, it was all part of Kevin Spacey’s plan. In the end, the top prizes went to Breaking Bad for outstanding drama series and Modern Family for outstanding comedy series.
Here’s the awards run-down. First up are the comedies. The winners in the supporting categories were both surprises. Merritt Wever won for Nurse Jackie and gave what many consider the best speech of the night. Tony Hale won for Veep. The lead actor Emmys went to Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep and Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory, both previous winners.
Despite losses in the acting categories, Modern Family still won outstanding comedy series. It has now won the award for all four of its seasons. Gail Mancuso also won for directing the “Arrested” episode.
On the drama side, Breaking Bad won two key categories - outstanding drama series and supporting actress for Anna gunn, who plays Skyler White. Supporting actor went to Boardwalk Empire’s Bobby Cannavale. Lead actor went to a shocked Jeff Daniels for The Newsroom. Claire Danes repeated for lead actress in Homeland.
Social Network director David Fincher won for directing the first episode of Netflix’s House of Cards.
HBO’s Behind the Candelabra was the big winner in the movie or miniseries category, winning director (Steven Soderbergh), lead actor (Michael Douglas), and outstanding miniseries or movie. Ellen Burstyn (Political Animals) won supporting actress in a miniseries or movie, while supporting actor went to James Cromwell (American Horror Story: Asylum) and lead actress went to Laura Linney (The Big C: Hereafter).
The Voice took home outstanding reality-competition series, marking just the second time in that award’s history that The Amazing Race didn’t win.
The Daily Show’s reign as outstanding variety series is over. The Colbert Report won both that Emmy and outstanding writing for a variety series.
You can check out the full list of winners at Emmys.com. You can also check out our full analysis and reactions here.