The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in
prime time
Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
television programming from June 1, 2012, until May 31, 2013, were held on Sunday, September 22, 2013, at the
Nokia Theatre in
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
.
CBS televised the ceremony within the United States. Actor
Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Primetime Emmys for the second time. The
Creative Arts Emmy Awards
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 language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin .
Religious and civil ...
was held on September 15.
''
Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...
'' won
Outstanding Drama Series for the first half of its
fifth season, while ''
Modern Family'' won
Outstanding Comedy Series for the fourth consecutive time.
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
made history by earning the first
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. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
nominations for original online only
streaming television
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television series, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable t ...
. Three of its
web series
A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...
, ''
Arrested Development'', ''
Hemlock Grove'', and ''
House of Cards'', earned a total of 14 nominations. Netflix also made history with three wins, including
Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the
pilot episode, "
Chapter 1", of ''
House of Cards'', as well as a pair of Creative Arts Emmy Awards, making "Chapter 1" the first Primetime Emmy Award-winning
webisode
A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or cab ...
.
Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold:
Programs
Acting
Lead performances
Supporting performances
Choreography
Directing
Writing
Academy's "hanging episodes" rule
The Television Academy was alerted to an issue with "hanging episodes" by
Starz. The channel has numerous series with multiple "hanging episodes". "Hanging episodes" are episodes broadcast after the Academy's deadline for consideration that are part of a season that began before the deadline. For instance, in 2012, Starz's ''
Magic City'' and
AMC's ''
Mad Men'' both ended their seasons in June, after the May 31 deadline. These episodes were allowed to be webcast for award consideration prior to their telecast should that telecast air after the submission period has closed. The Academy had prior rules stipulating that eligible episodes be presented on the same platform as the episodes that qualify the series.
Most major nominations
Most major awards
;Notes
Presenters and performers
The awards were presented by the following:
Presenters
Performers
''In Memoriam''
Prior to the ''In Memoriam'' segment:
*
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 comedie ...
presented a tribute to
Jonathan Winters
*
Rob Reiner
Robert Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and liberal activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael Stivic, Mike "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitc ...
presented a tribute to
Jean Stapleton
*
Jane Lynch presented a tribute to
Cory Monteith
*
Michael J. Fox presented a tribute to
Gary David Goldberg
*
Edie Falco presented a tribute to
James Gandolfini
James John Gandolfini (; September 18, 1961June 19, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American American Mafia, Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007 ...
A video was then presented paying tribute to the TV stars and well known behind-the-scenes workers who had died since the previous Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast, including:
*
David Frost
*
Dennis Farina
*
Annette Funicello
*
Eydie Gormé
*
Dale Robertson
*
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman (September 21, 1931 – November 23, 2012) was an American actor, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera ''Dallas'', and the handsome astronaut Major Anthon ...
*
Leslie Frankenheimer
*
Conrad Bain
*
Maxine Stuart
*
Lee Thompson Young
* Preston Davis
*
Alan Kirschenbaum
*
James Loper
*
Lou Myers
*
Milo O'Shea
* Fran Bascom
* Lois Smith
*
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
*
Emily Squires
* Bonnie Dore
*
Eileen Brennan
*
Bonnie Franklin
*
Russell Means
* Milt Hoffman
*
Jack Shea
*
Jeanne Cooper
*
Allan Arbus
*
Henry Bromell
* David Connell
*
Charles Durning
*
Richard Matheson
*
Harry Carey Jr.
*
Ken Venturi
*
Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professional American football, football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS Sports, CBS, Fox Sports (USA), Fox, and ESPN Sunday Night Football, ESP ...
*
Steve Sabol
*
Alex Karras
*
Jack Klugman
*
Jenni Rivera
Dolores Janney "Jenni" Rivera (July 2, 1969 – December 9, 2012) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and producer known for her work within the regional Mexican music genre, specifically in the styles of Banda (music), ...
* Eddie Michaels
*
Michael Ansara
*
Charles Lisanby
*
Fay Kanin
*
Emanuel Steward
*
Ray Dolby
*
Julie Harris
*
Deborah Raffin
*
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), better known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer. Primarily known for Pop music, pop and Country music, country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and b ...
*
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
Reception
Critical
The reviews for the ceremony were mostly negative. Brian Lowry of ''
Variety'' panned the show, writing: "By the time the show was over, it was hard not to think we could have done with at least one less musical number, or one less memorial tribute, in order to let the winners — including high-profile ones in major categories — actually deliver an acceptance speech without hearing piano music kick in just as they started warming up." Melisa Maerz of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' also gave the ceremony a negative review, writing: "All of which begged the question: What does the Emmys really offer us, anyway, that we can't get elsewhere? Witty banter? (There was more of that online.) Red-carpet gawking? (Nothing here that you can't see on
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
.) Exclusive access to the Mani Cam? If you're only tuning in to see which under-appreciated shows to add to your
DVR queue, well,
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
can tell you that better than the Emmys, especially when a
mediocre season of ''
Modern Family'' wins against ''
Louie'', ''
Girls'', and ''
Veep''. The one thing the Emmys is still very good at? Creating consensus. But maybe that's the problem. This year, the consensus was that the Emmys were bad."
Ratings
The broadcast received 17.63 million viewers, the largest audience in total viewers since 2005.
References
External links
Emmys.com list of 2013 Nominees & WinnersAcademy of Television Arts and Sciences website*
2013 Emmy Nominating Ballots
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2013 in American television
2013 television awards
2013 in Los Angeles
2013 awards in the United States
September 2013 in the United States