Jimmy Fallon hosted the 62nd Primetime Emmys Sunday night. Overall the awards show proved to be underwhelming. Fallon brought his ecclectic musical abilities to the table; the opening Glee-inspired number and the tribute to shows that ended last season (24, Lost, Law & Order) were the most entertaining parts of the show. There was also a humorous Modern Family segment that coughed up plenty of laughs. Despite the lack of exciting bits and jokes, 13.5 million viewers tuned into the telecast; that’s the largest audience for any non-sports telecast this year since American Idol‘s season finale in May. The awards show also saw the highest adults 18-49 rating (4.1) for any telecast since the Glee season finale in June.
But let’s move on to the winners and losers, shall we? Modern Family and Mad Men took home the top prizes for outstanding comedy and drama series, respectively. It was certainly a nail-biter between Modern Family and Glee, but the voters made it known that the more grounded sitcom was worthy of the Emmy. This is the third win in a row for Mad Men in the top category; they beat out the fantastic final season of the beloved Lost. Speaking of Lost, the show was completely shut out. Dexter‘s Steve Shill beat out Lost‘s Jack Bender for best directing; Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) topped Matthew Fox for best actor; Terry O’ Quinn (Lost) and Michael Emerson (Lost) likely split the vote and lost against Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) for outstanding supporting actor; and Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse did not win for writing the final episode “The End”–that award went to Matthew Weiner & Erin Levy for Mad Men‘s “Shut the door. Have a Seat.”
Let’s look back at the comedy categories. Modern Family continued to impress when Eric Stonestreet (he plays Cameron) won outstanding supporting actor against costars Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ty Burrell. Showrunners Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd won outstanding writing for the pilot episode. Though it did not win best comedy, Glee did have its time to shine. Jane Lynch won outstanding supporting actress for her awesome portrayal as the snarky Sue Sylvester, beating out Modern Family‘s Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara in the process. Glee creator Ryan Murphy won for his direction of the captivating pilot episode. Moving on… Jim Parsons finally won best actor for playing the nerdtastic Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory and Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) surprised us all by claiming the best actress award.
Other honorable mentions include: Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) beat out Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) for best actress in a drama; Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) beat out Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss for best supporting actress in a drama; the HBO movie Temple Grandin took home outstanding movie, directing for a movie, lead actress in a movie (Claire Danes), and supporting actor (David Strathairn) and actress (Julia Ormond) in a movie; another HBO movie You Don’t Know Jack won for outstanding lead actor (Al Pachino) and outstanding writing; The Pacific was crowned outstanding miniseries; Top Chef won best reality show over The Amazing Race; and finally, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart won the outstanding variety, comedy, or music series award for the seventh year in a row unfortunately beating out the favorite The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
That’s a wrap for this year’s Emmys. Lost lost. Modern Family, Mad Men, and Glee proved to be worthy contenders. And Jimmy Fallon sang. Look after the break for the full list of winners.
[Via EW-HollywoodInsider, here & here] Continue reading 2010 Emmys results: Modern Family, Mad Men win; Lost emerges empty-handed
