The Emmys: The Winners

I wouldn't exactly call these Emmy Awards the worse in recent history, but it was tough to get through early on with some winners that were at best boring (Modern Family) and at worst utterly disappointing (Jon Cryer?!). Most of that was relegated to the comedy categories which were subpar to begin with, but it set the tone for a night filled with many repeat winners and thus very little surprises. It also didn't help that towards the middle and end of the ceremony, the producers started getting really serious about keeping the show on time cutting off many of the major winners' speeches. Of course they still felt the need to insert in as many inane skits as they could like making fun of the In Memoriam segment or a initiating a social media prank about Tracy Morgan fainting. Jimmy Kimmel was actually pretty game for most of the night, with his opening sketch and monologue making the highlights.

As for the actual winners, as I said above, repeat winners were the big winners as 8 of the 12 acting awards given out tonight went to actors who have won an Emmy previously. Three of those first time winners came in the TV Movie/Miniseries categories with Kevin Costner and Tom Berenger winning for their performances in Hatfields & McCoys and Julianne Moore taking home Best Actress for playing Sarah Palin in Game Change. Speaking of Game Change, it also took home Director, Writing, and Best TV Movie/Miniseries. Its writer, I have to point out, is Danny Strong who is an alum of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also guest starred on Mad Men, which technically means at least one actor from that show has now won an Emmy. But it really was a night to forget for Mad Men.

Of course, Mad Men was the slight favorite to win Best Drama tonight and many had hoped someone from its main cast would finally win as well. Unfortunately, not only did they lose out on all of that, but they also got an unprecedented 0 out of 17 nominations this year. Homeland broke the winning streak of Mad Men this year winning Best Drama Series and three other awards including double Actor/Actress wins for Damian Lewis and Claire Danes. Aaron Paul and Maggie Smith picked up Supporting awards, which made me happy despite my heart wanting to give it to Giancarlo Esposito and Christina Hendricks respectively.

Modern Family won a handful of awards tonight as they have done the past three years winning Series, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Directing. I like the show, but their Emmy dominance harbors real resentment. More depressingly, Cryer picked up Actor while Julia Louis-Dreyfus won for Actress, which was one of the more pleasant comedy wins tonight even if Amy Poehler should've won instead. Poehler, by the way, saves the Emmy Awards yet again by seemingly swapping acceptance speeches with Louis-Dreyfus to expected hilarious results. Louis C.K. winning Writing was also pretty cool, but I really wanted Community's "Remedial Chaos Theory" to win.

Here is a complete list of winners from tonight...

DRAMA
SERIES: Homeland (SHO)
ACTOR: Damian Lewis, Homeland (SHO)
ACTRESS: Claire Danes, Homeland (SHO)
SUPP. ACTOR: Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (AMC)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey (PBS)
DIRECTING: Tim Van Patten, Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
WRITING: Alez Ganza, Howard Gordon, Gideon Raff, Homeland (SHO)
GUEST ACTOR: Jeremy Davis, Justified (FX)
GUEST ACTRESS: Martha Plimpton, The Good Wife (CBS)

COMEDY
SERIES: Modern Family (ABC)
ACTOR: Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
ACTRESS: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)
SUPP. ACTOR: Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family (ABC)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Julie Bowen, Modern Family (ABC)
DIRECTING: Steve Levitan, Modern Family (ABC)
WRITING: Louis C.K., Louie (FX)
GUEST ACTOR: Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
GUEST ACTRESS: Kathy Bates, Two and a Half Men (FOX)

MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIALS
MINISERIES OR MOVIE: Game Change (HBO)
ACTOR: Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys (HISTORY)
ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, Game Change (HBO)
SUPP. ACTOR: Tom Berenger, Hatfields & McCoys (HISTORY)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story (FX)
DIRECTING: Jay Roach, Game Change (HBO)
WRITING: Danny Strong, Game Change (HBO)

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM
SERIES: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
DIRECTING: Saturday Night Live (NBC)
WRITING: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

REALITY
COMPETITION PROGRAM: The Amazing Race (CBS)
PROGRAM: Undercover Boss (CBS)
HOST: Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars (ABC)

Prediction-wise, I did only slightly better than last year getting 9 out of 19, but still pretty damn dreadful. I pretty much nailed the drama categories, but was woefully wrong on the comedy ones.