Emmys 2011: The Winners

{jcomments off}A list of the main winners from the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards in which British period drama Downton Abbey won several categories.

AMC’s critically acclaimed 1960s drama Mad Men won Outstanding Drama Series – no surprise there – the darling of the critics beat Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife and Friday Nights Lights. Outstanding Comedy Series was won by Modern Family over the likes of Glee, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. British period drama Downton Abbey won Outstanding Miniseries or Movie on the day when the second series was launching in the UK – it won’t air until January in America. The Julian Fellowes drama beat The Kennedys, The Pillars of the Earth, To Big to Fail, Mildred Pierce and Cinema Verite. Dame Maggie Smith was honoured for her role as the Dowager Countess picking up the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/Movie. Also nominated in the category were Eileen Atkins for BBC One’s rival period drama Upstairs Downstairs, Evan Rachel Wood, Melissa Leo and Mare Winngham all for Mildred Pierce.

The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons picked up Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy over Matt LeBlanc for Episodes and Alex Baldwin for 30 Rock amongst others. Kyle Chandler was named Outstanding Lead in a Drama Series beating Michael C. Hall for Dexter, Jon Hamm for Mad Men and Hugh Laurie for House. Mike and Molly’s Melissa Carthy picked up Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy over Tina Fey, Edie Falco and Laura Linney. Julianna Margulies was named Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama beating fellow nominees Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men, Mariska Hargitay of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Kathy Bates for her role in Harry’s Law.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy was won by Ty Burrell for Modern Family beating Glee’s Chris Colfer, Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer amongst others. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama series was won by Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage seeing off competition from Alan Cumming for The Good Wife and John Slattery for Mad Men. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy was won by Julie Bowen for Modern Family as the comedy picked up another award. Betty White and Emmy host Jane Lynch were also nominated in the same category. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama went to Margo Martindale for Justified beating Michelle Forbes, Archie Panjabi and Christina Hendricks.

Barry Pepper won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries/movie for his role in The Kennedys beating Idris Elba, Laurence Fishburne and Greg Kinnear. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Mini-Series went to Kate Winslet for HBO drama Mildred Pierce while Elisabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey and Jean Marsh of Upstairs Downstairs were both nominated for the award. Outstanding  Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/Movie went to Guy Pearce for Mildred Pierce. Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy was won by the singer Justin Timberlake for Saturday Night Live, Paul McCrane was named Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama for Harry’s Law, Gwyneth Paltrow was named Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy while Loretta Devine was named Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Michael Alan Spiller picked up the Directing for a Comedy for his work on Modern Family, Martin Scorsese picked up the Directing award for Drama Series for his work on Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey won another award as Brian Percival was named Outstanding Director on a Miniseries/Movie. Don Rory King picked up the Outstanding Directing for a Variety/Music of Comedy Series for his work on Saturday Night Live.

Futurama was named Outstanding Animated Programme beating The Cleveland Show, The Simpsons, South Park and Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III. The Outstanding Writing for  A Comedy went to Modern Family, collecting another award in a very good night for the series, Friday Night Lights won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Downton Abbey won again this time for Outstanding Writing for a Mini-Series/Movie.