58th Primetime Emmy Awards
Promotional poster
Date	August 27, 2006 (Ceremony) August 19, 2006 (Creative Arts Awards)
Location	Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles,California
Presented by	Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Hosted by	Conan O'Brien
Highlights
Most awards	Major:Elizabeth I (4) All:Elizabeth I (9)
Most nominations	Mrs. Harris (7)
Outstanding Comedy Series	The Office
Outstanding Drama Series	24
Outstanding Miniseries	Elizabeth I
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program	The Amazing Race
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series	The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Website	http://www.emmys.com/
Television/radio coverage
Network	NBC
Produced by	Ken Ehrlich
Directed by	Louis J. Horvitz
← 57th · Primetime Emmy Awards · 59th →

The58th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, August 27, 2006, at theShrine Auditorium inLos Angeles,California onNBC at 8:00 p.m. ET (00:00UTC) withConan O'Brien hosting the show. The ceremony attracted 16.2 million viewers, 2.5 million fewer thanthe previous year's ceremony, but still the ratings winner for the week.^[1] TheDiscovery Channel received its first major nomination this year. 27 awards were presented.

This awards show was the first in fourteen years to be held in August because of NBC's request; because ofNBC Sunday Night Football, the ceremony moved to accommodateNFL Kickoff Weekend.

A new voting system determined nominees in particular categories (mostly lead acting and outstanding series categories) by a"blue ribbon" panel of judges, which resulted in the exclusion of popular shows such asDesperate Housewives andLost, and actors likeJames Gandolfini andEdie Falco fromThe Sopranos andHugh Laurie fromHouse.Lost's exclusion was mocked during the opening sequence (see below), when O'Brien, accompanied byHugo "Hurley" Reyes, headed down a hatch to get to the Emmys. O'Brien asked Reyes if he wanted to come; Reyes says coyly, "Well, we weren't exactly invited", to which O'Brien replies "But you wonlast year!"

For itssecond season,The Office wonOutstanding Comedy Series; this was its only major award. No comedy series won more than two major awards this year. In the drama field,24 wonOutstanding Drama Series for itsfifth season, after being nominated and losing the previous four years. It was also the first timethe Fox Network won this award. Its three major awards topped all drama series. ItsOutstanding Lead Actor, Drama award (forKiefer Sutherland) was also the first time Fox had won this award.

Ellen Burstyn was nominated forOutstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her role inMrs. Harris, even though she was onscreen for only fourteen seconds, which caused controversy.

The show that received the most major nominations wasMrs. Harris, with seven. The top-nominated show had not received so few nominations since1970, whenMarcus Welby, M.D. received six. However, there were far fewer nominations back then, with most categories having three slots making this ceremony unique.

Thepilot episode ofMy Name Is Earl joined a select group of TV episodes to win for bothdirecting andwriting.

Winners are listed first and highlighted inbold:^[2]

Notes

The awards were presented by the following people:^[3]

The opening sequence of the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards show depicted hostConan O'Brien wearing a tuxedo, sitting in luxury on a plane, sipping champagne and mentioning to the flight attendant that this would be the second Emmy's ceremony that he would be hosting. O'Brien then rhetorically asked the flight attendant, "What could possibly go wrong?" Immediately after that, the plane began to experience turbulence and then was portrayed as having crashed on (or near) an island. O'Brien is then seen walking ashore on the beach and onto the island still wearing his (now drenched) tuxedo.Hurley appears and then follows O'Brien to a hatch. When O'Brien asks if he wants to come along, Hurley says that they "weren't exactly invited". O'Brien enters the hatch and arrives on the set ofThe Office.

The intention of this opening sequence was to parody the premise of theABC seriesLost. However, the sequence reportedly disturbed some viewers because of theComair Flight 5191 disaster that had occurred earlier in the day. Cincinnati NBC affiliateWLWT-TV had the unfortunate coincidence of running a "Breaking News" scroll about the crash at the same time as the scene was airing.^[4]

Entertainment industry critics, such asLA Weekly columnistNikki Finke, lambastedNBC's decision to not pull the plane crash portion of the opening sequence, in light of the aforementioned crash earlier that day. Finke stated that she believed NBC could have—with relative ease—instructed their writers to come up with a different sketch at the last minute, which could have been used as a substitute.

The skit also parodied shows such asThe Office,24,House,South Park, andDateline NBC (specifically, the "To Catch a Predator" segments). An animatedTom Cruise from theSouth Park episode "Trapped in the Closet" appears in a skit where an animated O'Brien hides inStan Marsh's closet, only to run away when he discovers Cruise has already occupied the closet.

The show featured tributes to two TV legends:Dick Clark ("America's Oldest Teenager"), andAaron Spelling, producer of such classic TV shows asDynasty andBeverly Hills, 90210. The former tribute was presented bySimon Cowell,American Idol judge, with a performance byBarry Manilow, who won aPrimetime Emmy Award later that evening.Joan Collins,Heather Locklear, andStephen Collins, along with the original threeCharlie's Angels, gave the tribute for Spelling.

Actors from DynastyJoan Collins andHeather Locklear, Actor from7th HeavenStephen Collins and Three Original Cast ofCharlie’s AngelsFarrah Fawcett,Kate Jackson andJaclyn Smith Pays Tribute ToAaron Spelling

• Official list of all nominees
• Emmys.com list of 2006 Nominees & Winners
• Nikki Finke Asks: "What Was NBC/Conan Thinking?"
• 58th Primetime Emmy Awards atIMDb
• Video of the Plane Crash Sequence from the 58th Primetime Emmy Broadcast

• Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies
• 2006 television awards
• 2006 in Los Angeles
• August 2006 in the United States

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• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards