| 66th Primetime Emmy Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Promotional poster | ||||
| Date |
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| Location | Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Presented by | Academy of Television Arts and Sciences | |||
| Hosted by | Seth Meyers | |||
| Highlights | ||||
| Most awards |
| |||
| Most nominations | The Normal Heart (9) | |||
| Outstanding Comedy Series | Modern Family | |||
| Outstanding Drama Series | Breaking Bad | |||
| Outstanding Miniseries | Fargo | |||
| Outstanding Competition Program | The Amazing Race | |||
| Outstanding Variety Series | The Colbert Report | |||
| Website | http://www.emmys.com/  | |||
| Television/radio coverage | ||||
| Network | NBC[2] | |||
| Produced by | Don Mischer | |||
| Directed by | Glenn Weiss | |||
| ||||
The66th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in US prime time television programming from June 1, 2013, until May 31, 2014, as chosen by theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Monday, August 25, 2014, at theNokia Theatre inDowntown Los Angeles, California, where 26 awards were presented, and was broadcast in the U.S. byNBC.[2] Comedian andLate Night hostSeth Meyers hosted the ceremony for the first time.[3][4][5][6][7] The nominations were announced on July 10, 2014.[8][9][10]
The scheduling of thePrimetime Emmy Awards is coordinated with that of theCreative Arts Emmy Awardsceremony, which was held the previous weekend on August 16, 2014.[1]
Breaking Bad was the major winner of the night, with five wins, including its secondPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for the second part of itsfifth season.Modern Family won its fifth consecutivePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, tying withFrasier 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 theOutstanding Directing Emmy twice after her win for directing theModern Family episode"Las Vegas".The Amazing Race won its tenthPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program as well. Other major winners of the night wereSherlock:His Last Vow (3 wins),American Horror Story: Coven andFargo (2 wins each).
"This year we're doing the Emmys on a Monday night in August, which if I understand television, means the Emmys are about to be canceled."
The ceremony was held on a night other than Sunday for the first time since1976 (the28th Primetime Emmy Awards were also staged on a Monday that year, May 17).[2] The ceremony's unusual date – a Monday night in late August – was due to two factors, primary beingNBC's commitment toSunday Night Football; since acquiring theNational Football League's Sunday night game package in2006, 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 withSNF in mid-September (whenABC,CBS orFox normally air the ceremony).[Note 1] NBC's ideal date on the 2014 calendar for the ceremony (Sunday, August 24) led to the other scheduling factor —MTV'sVideo Music Awards, which were set for that night more than a year in advance[12] (and would be staged in the L.A. area as well, atThe Forum inInglewood). 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.[2] The move would allow NBC to commit to apreseasonSunday Night Football broadcast for the 24th (a game between theCincinnati Bengals andArizona Cardinals); it also ensured the tradition of staging the Primetime Emmy Awards the weekend after theCreative Arts Emmy Awards (thatceremony was already set for August 16).[2]
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, theATAS worked withLos 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.[13]
On November 14, 2013, theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences 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 until2015, and winners for this year were voted on via paper ballots.[14]
The Academy had also announced changes to several awards and categories that affect both thePrimetime andCreative Arts Emmy Awards. Changes for the Primetime Emmy Awards involved separating theOutstanding Miniseries or Movie category into two entities again—Outstanding Miniseries andOutstanding 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.[15] The Academy also introduced two new categories—Outstanding Structured Reality Program andOutstanding Unstructured Reality Program.[Note 2][16]
There was also an increase in the number of longform nominees inwriting,directing and performing categories for miniseries/movie (from five to six nominees) as well as a change in their final voting procedures.[15] 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.[15]
Winners are listed first and highlighted inbold:[17]
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| Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|
| HBO | 39 |
| FX | 20 |
| CBS | 14 |
| Netflix | 11 |
| PBS | |
| AMC | 10 |
| Showtime | |
| ABC | 9 |
| NBC | 7 |
| Lifetime | 5 |
| BBC America | 4 |
| Fox | 3 |
| Comedy Central | 2 |
| IFC |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Normal Heart | Movie | HBO | 9 |
| American Horror Story: Coven | Miniseries | FX | 8 |
| Fargo | |||
| Breaking Bad | Drama | AMC | 7 |
| Downton Abbey | PBS | 6 | |
| Game of Thrones | HBO | 5 | |
| House of Cards | Netflix | ||
| Modern Family | Comedy | ABC | |
| Orange Is the New Black | Netflix | ||
| Sherlock: His Last Vow | Movie | PBS | |
| True Detective | Drama | HBO | |
| Veep | Comedy | ||
| Louie | FX | 4 | |
| The Big Bang Theory | CBS | 3 | |
| Episodes | Showtime | ||
| The Good Wife | Drama | CBS | |
| Luther | Miniseries | BBC America | |
| Mad Men | Drama | AMC | |
| Silicon Valley | Comedy | HBO | |
| 67th Tony Awards | Variety | CBS | 2 |
| The Beatles: The Night That Changed America | |||
| Girls | Comedy | HBO | |
| Homeland | Drama | Showtime | |
| Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight | Movie | HBO | |
| Saturday Night Live | Variety | NBC | |
| Treme | Miniseries | HBO | |
| The Trip to Bountiful | Movie | Lifetime |
| Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|
| AMC | 5 |
| CBS | |
| FX | |
| HBO | 4 |
| ABC | 3 |
| PBS |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breaking Bad | Drama | AMC | 5 |
| Modern Family | Comedy | ABC | 3 |
| Sherlock: His Last Vow | Movie | PBS | |
| American Horror Story: Coven | Miniseries | FX | 2 |
| Fargo |
The awards were presented by the following:[18]
| Name(s) | Performed |
|---|---|
| "Weird Al" Yankovic Andy Samberg | "Weird Al's Theme Songs" |
| Sara Bareilles | "Smile" |
Sara Bareilles performed the song "Smile" during the "In Memoriam" segment of the awards ceremony:[19]
After the last picture was shown, a special tribute toRobin Williams, who died on August 11, 2014, was presented byBilly Crystal.[20][21]
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.[22][23]
