The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S.

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

television programming from June 1, 2013 until May 31, 2014, as chosen by the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

. The ceremony was held on Monday, August 25, 2014, at the Nokia Theatre in

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California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and was broadcast in the U.S. by NBC. Comedian and '' Late Night'' host

Seth Meyers Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. He hosts ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'', a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to that, he was a cast member and head writer for NB ...

hosted the ceremony for the first time. The nominations were announced on July 10, 2014. The scheduling of the

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

s is coordinated with that of the

Creative Arts Emmy Award The Creative Arts Emmys are a class of Emmy Awards presented in recognition of technical and other similar achievements in American television programming. They are commonly awarded to behind-the-scenes personnel such as production designers, set ...

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secula ...

, which was held the previous weekend on August 16, 2014. ''

Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited h ...

'' was the major winner of the night, with five wins, including its second

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series since its institution in 1951. The award goes to the producers of the series. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys cere ...

for the second part of its fifth season. ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of th ...

'' won its fifth consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, tying with ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

'' as the series with the most consecutive wins in the category. Gail Mancuso became the first woman in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards to win the Outstanding Directing Emmy twice after her win for directing the ''

'' episode "Las Vegas". ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in fore ...

'' won its tenth

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reailty Competition Program is handed out for reality-style, skill-based competition formats during the primetime telecast since 2003. The award goes to the producers of the program. ''The Amazing Race'' w ...

as well. Other major winners of the night were '' Sherlock:

His Last Vow "His Last Vow" is the third episode of the third series of the BBC Television series '' Sherlock'', which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode was first broadcast on 12 January 2014, on BBC One and Channel One. It ...

'' (3 wins), '' American Horror Story: Coven'' and '' Fargo'' (2 wins each).

Scheduling of ceremony

The ceremony was held on a night other than Sunday for the first time since 1976 (the

28th Primetime Emmy Awards The 28th Primetime Emmy Awards were handed out on May 17, 1976. The ceremony was hosted by John Denver and Mary Tyler Moore. Winners are listed in bold with series' networks in parentheses. As of 2019, this was the last Emmy Awards ceremonies he ...

were also staged on a Monday that year, May 17). The ceremony's unusual date — a Monday night in late August — was due to two factors, primary being NBC's commitment to ''

Sunday Night Football Sunday Night Football may refer to: * ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006 * ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN * ...

''; since acquiring the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

's Sunday night game package in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

, NBC, when it is their turn in the four-network rotation to air the Primetime Emmy Awards, usually schedules the ceremony for the Sunday before

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

weekend, to avoid conflicts with ''SNF'' in mid-September (when ABC, CBS, or Fox normally air the ceremony).The last time a ceremony had to be scheduled around football was the

62nd Primetime Emmy Awards The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, were held on Sunday, August 29, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT (00:00 UTC; August 30). Com ...

, which NBC aired on Sunday, August 29, 2010. NBC's ideal date on the 2014 calendar for the ceremony (Sunday, August 24) led to the other scheduling factor —

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's Video Music Awards, which were set for that night more than a year in advance (and would be staged in the L.A. area as well, at The Forum in

Inglewood Inglewood may refer to: Places Australia *Inglewood, Queensland * Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area *Inglewood, South Australia *Inglewood, Victoria *Inglewood, Western Australia Canada * Inglewood, Ontario *Inglewoo ...

). On January 28, 2014, rather than go head-to-head with the VMA's, NBC announced that the ceremony would take place on Monday, August 25. The move would allow NBC to commit to a preseason ''Sunday Night Football'' broadcast for the 24th (a game between the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

and

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play th ...

); it also ensured the tradition of staging the Primetime Emmy Awards the weekend after the

s (that

was already set for August 16). The ceremony's weeknight date and start time — 5:00 p.m. ( PDT) in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

— led to concerns of rush hour traffic gridlock in Los Angeles' downtown core at the time of the ceremony; to help alleviate the concerns, the ATAS worked with Los Angeles city officials to map out street closures and red carpet staging areas, as well as include travel instructions (including which routes to take and where to park) in attendees' ticket packets.

Changes in categories and balloting

On November 14, 2013, the

announced that it would implement online voting for its members to select the nominees. However, online voting to determine the winners would not be used until

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, and winners for this year were voted on via paper ballots. The Academy had also announced changes to several awards and categories that affect both the

Primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

and

s. Changes for the Primetime Emmy Awards involved separating the Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category into two entities again— Outstanding Miniseries and Outstanding Television Movie. The two were combined in 2011, due to a downtrend in the genres. This separation is only for the program category with all other awards in the category remaining combined between the two formats. The Academy also introduced two new categories— Outstanding Structured Reality Program and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.

Reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1 ...

programs are honored in three categories: " Outstanding Reality-Competition Program", " Outstanding Structured Reality Program", and " Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program"; the last two are awarded at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. There was also an increase in the number of longform nominees in

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

, directing and performing categories for miniseries/movie (from five to six nominees) as well as a change in their final voting procedures. Additionally, a 2% rule was adopted in the comedy and drama series categories, wherein, a seventh nominee can be added to the respective categories if its total first-round votes are within 2% of the sixth place series.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold: Jim Parsons at PaleyFest 2013

Martin Freeman during filming of Sherlock cropped

Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

;By network"Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories. * HBO – 39 * FX – 20 * CBS – 14 * Netflix / PBS – 11 * AMC / Showtime – 10 * ABC – 9 * NBC – 7 * Lifetime – 5 * BBC America – 4 * Fox – 3 * Comedy Central / IFC – 2 ;By program * ''The Normal Heart'' (HBO) – 9 * ''American Horror Story: Coven'' (FX) / ''Fargo'' (FX) – 8 * ''Breaking Bad'' (AMC) – 7 * ''Downton Abbey'' (PBS) – 6

Most major awards

;By network * AMC / CBS / FX – 5 * HBO – 4 * ABC / PBS – 3 ;By program * ''Breaking Bad'' (AMC) – 5 * ''Modern Family'' (ABC) / ''Sherlock: His Last Vow'' (PBS) – 3 * ''American Horror Story: Coven'' (FX) / ''Fargo'' (FX) – 2 ;Notes

Presenters and performers

The awards were presented by the following:

Presenters

Performers

''In Memoriam''

Sara Bareilles Sara Beth Bareilles (, ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. She has earned various awards and nominations including nin ...

performed the song "

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

" during the "In Memoriam" segment of the awards ceremony: * Ralph Waite *

Paul Walker Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. He was known for his role as Brian O'Conner in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Walker began his career as a child actor in the 1980s, gaining recogniti ...

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film '' Judgment at Nuremberg'', ...

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

* Abby Singer * Meshach Taylor * Robert Halmi Sr. * Juanita Moore * Sandy Frank * Russell Johnson * James Avery * Daniel Blatt * Sandi Fullerton * Hank Rieger *

Paul Mazursky Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards: three ...

Ann B. Davis Ann Bradford Davis (May 3, 1926 – June 1, 2014) was an American actress. She achieved prominence for her role in the NBC situation comedy ''The Bob Cummings Show'' (1955–1959), for which she twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outs ...

* Eli Wallach *

Lucy Hood Lucille Anne Hood (January 27, 1958 – April 2, 2014), commonly known as Lucy Hood, was the founder of Fox Mobile Entertainment and the Executive Director of the Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) at the University of Sout ...

* Hal Cooper * Michael Filerman *

Alan Landsburg Alan William Landsburg (May 10, 1933 – August 13, 2014) was an American television writer, producer, and director. He was the founder and CEO of Alan Landsburg Productions and the Landsburg Company and was involved in producing over fifty mo ...

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produc ...

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old V ...

* Mitzie Welch * Don Pardo *

David Brenner David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of obser ...

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

* Efrem Zimbalist Jr. *

Carmen Zapata Carmen Margarita Zapata (July 15, 1927 – January 5, 2014) often referred to as "The First Lady of the Hispanic Theater" was an American actress best known for her role in the PBS bilingual children's program ''Villa Alegre''. Zapata is also ...

Hal Needham Hal Brett Needham (March 6, 1931 – October 25, 2013) was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast c ...

* Sandy Grossman *

Ruby Dee Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1 ...

Sheila MacRae Sheila Margaret MacRae (née Stephens; 24 September 1921 – 6 March 2014) was an English-born American actress, singer, and dancer. Career MacRae appeared in such films as ''Caged'' (1950), '' Backfire'' (1950), and ''Sex and the Single Girl ...

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

Marcia Wallace Marcia Karen Wallace (November 1, 1942 – October 25, 2013) was an American actress and comedian, primarily known for her roles in television situation comedies. She is best known for her roles as receptionist Carol Kester on the 1970s sitc ...

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950� ...

* Harold Ramis * Elaine Stritch *

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary ...

* James Garner * Joan Fontaine *

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...

After the last picture was shown, a special tribute to

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

, who died on August 11, 2014, was presented by Billy Crystal.

Ratings

Despite its departure from its normal telecast schedule, the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards received 15.59 million viewers, the second-largest viewership in eight years.

Footnotes

References

External links

Emmys.com list of 2014 Nominees & Winners

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Primetime Emmy Awards, 066 066 2014 in American television 2014 in Los Angeles 2014 television awards 2014 awards in the United States May 2014 events in the United States