The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in US prime time 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 in the United States, television industry in the United S ...

. The ceremony was held on Monday, August 25, 2014, 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, and was broadcast in the U.S. by NBC. Comedian and '' Late Night'' host Seth Meyers 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. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

s is coordinated with that of 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 ...

, 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 for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...

'' was the major winner of the night, with five wins, including its second Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for the second part of its fifth season. '' Modern Family'' 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 from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...

'' as the series with the most consecutive wins in the category.

Gail Mancuso Gail Susan Mancuso (born July 14, 1958) is an American film and television director. Early life and career Mancuso grew up in Melrose Park, Illinois. She is married to Brian Downs, a doctor, and divides her time between her homes in Valencia, Sa ...

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 '' Modern Family'' episode "Las Vegas". ''

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

'' won its tenth Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program as well. Other major winners of the night were '' Sherlock: His Last Vow'' (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 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

(the 28th Primetime Emmy Awards 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''; since acquiring the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

's Sunday night game package in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, 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 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, 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 (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

'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). 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 In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

''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 of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

and

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); it also ensured the tradition of staging the Primetime Emmy Awards the weekend after the Creative Arts Emmy Awards (that

was already set for August 16). The ceremony's weeknight date and start time – 5:00 p.m. ( PDT) in Los Angeles, California – 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 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 b ...

and Creative Arts Emmy Awards. 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 programs are honored in three categories: "

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality 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' ...

", " 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 the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

, 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

Supporting

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

Most major awards

;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, musician, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. Bareilles has earned various accolades, including ...

performed the song "

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

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was a Swiss actor. Born in First Austrian Republic, Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his fa ...

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40'', as well as the weekly syndicated televi ...

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

Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach ( ; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. Known for his character actor roles, his entertainment career spanned over six decades. He received a British Aca ...

* Lucy Hood * Hal Cooper * Michael Filerman *

Alan Landsburg Alan William Landsburg (May 10, 1933 – August 13, 2014) was an American Screenwriter, television writer, Television producer, producer, and Television director, director. He was the founder and CEO of Alan Landsburg Productions and the Landsbu ...

* Philip Seymour Hoffman * Peter O'Toole * Mitzie Welch * Don Pardo * David Brenner *

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat, who was Hollywood's number-one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was na ...

* Efrem Zimbalist Jr. * Carmen Zapata *

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

* Sandy Grossman * Ruby Dee * Sheila MacRae *

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

* Marcia Wallace * Sid Caesar * Harold Ramis * Elaine Stritch *

Lauren Bacall Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall ( ), was an American actress. She was named the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the America ...

* James Garner * Joan Fontaine *

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

* Bob Hoskins 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 comedie ...

, 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
*
2014 Emmy Nominating Ballots
{{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 in the United States Television shows directed by Glenn Weiss