Story Highlights
- NEW: "Mad Men" is best drama
- NEW: "30 Rock" is best comedy; Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin also win
- "John Adams" has 13 Emmy wins overall
- "Colbert Report," "Daily Show" win Emmys
(CNN) -- "John Adams" set an Emmy record Sunday night, with 13 wins overall -- eight Creative Arts awards and five on the prime-time presentation, including outstanding miniseries.
HBO's "John Adams" has won 11 Emmys overall. The miniseries received 23 nominations.
The HBO program, which led all nominees with 23 nods, also earned trophies for Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson and writer Kirk Ellis.
"Mad Men" was named best drama.
The NBC sitcom "30 Rock" was named best comedy series as part of its seven Emmys overall. Creator Tina Fey got two -- one for writing, one for acting -- and lead actor Alec Baldwin also won. Gallery: See the stars on the red carpet
"The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" ruled the Emmys among variety/comedy/music programs, with "Colbert" winning for its writing and "Daily" winning best overall.
The award was the sixth straight for "The Daily Show." Blog: Behind the scenes at the Emmys
A predecessor in the topical "Daily"/"Colbert" tradition, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," earned an Emmy 40 years late.
Comedian Tommy Smothers, onetime "Smothers Brothers" scribe Steve Martin pointed out, left his name off the list submitted to the Emmys for the writing award in 1969 so as not to inflame their attitudes at a time when the ever-topical Smothers show was the subject of controversy. When the show's staff won, Smothers was left out.
Smothers accepted emotionally, concluding his speech, "There's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicate this to add the people who feel compelled to speak out ... to speak truth to power."
Another comedy veteran, Don Rickles, picked up an award for "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project."
"I've been in the business 55 years, and the biggest award I got was an ashtray from the Friars in New York," Rickles said, offering several more zingers in his acceptance. Earlier in the evening, when Rickles came out with Kathy Griffin to present an award, Griffin demanded the audience "GET UP!" -- and it responded with a standing ovation for the 82-year-old comedian.
In a surprise, "Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston defeated "Mad Men's" Jon Hamm and "House's" Hugh Laurie to win best actor in a drama.
Glenn Close won best actress in a drama for "Damages."
Jeremy Piven won his third straight Emmy Sunday night, for best supporting actor in a comedy for his performance in "Entourage." 
Interactive: List of winners »
Piven poked fun at the odd opening by five reality show hosts before thanking the audience for his award.
"What if I just kept talking for 12 minutes -- what would happen? That was the opening," he said.
The five hosts began the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards by doing ... nothing.
Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Jeff Probst -- with the 5-foot, 9 ½-inch high-heeled Klum towering over her fellow hosts -- spent a few minutes doing some bizarre vamping, admitting they hadn't prepared an opening. They followed a gracious Oprah Winfrey, who paid tribute to the television medium by observing that "television helped open up my world."
Probst won the award for best reality show host. "The Amazing Race" was named best reality-competition show for the sixth straight year.
Ricky Gervais received more laughs than the hosts for a segment in which he berated Steve Carell for stealing the Emmy Gervais won last year.
"Have you been to see 'Ghost Town' yet?" he demanded, referring to his new movie. "I went to see 'Evan Almighty.' Give me my Emmy."
No comments:
Post a Comment