HBO and NBC Lead Winners at 61st Primetime Emmys

30 Rock and Mad Men repeat as top series; Toni Collette, Alec Baldwin, Glenn Close, Brian Cranston, nab lead acting honors. Neil Patrick Harris praised for high-energy hosting job. Sep 20 2009 Faster. Funnier. That’s what executive producer Don Mischer promised for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, and that’s what he delivered. For their part, Television Academy voters were determined to share the wealth. A total of ten networks shared the 28 Emmys handed out during the live show at the NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE, with no network collecting more than five. Despite the expansion of several categories to six and even seven nominees, adding new faces and series to the mix, repeat winners dominated the night. NBC and HBO tied with five golden statuettes. For NBC, four were won by 30 Rock, including outstanding comedy series for the third year in a row, and lead actor Alec Baldwin, his second in a row. HBO’s Emmys were won in the movies and miniseries categories, including Grey Gardens for outstanding movie, Jessica Lange for lead actress in that film and Brendan Gleeson for lead actor in Into the Storm, in which he played Winston Churchill Basic cable networks dominated in drama. AMC’s Mad Men won for outstanding drama. Glenn Close took the Emmy for lead actress for FX’s Damages and Bryan Cranston was named lead actor in a drama series for AMC’s Breaking Bad. All three were second-consecutive victories. Defying most prognosticators, Toni Collette took home the Emmy for lead comedy actress for her work in Showtime’s United States of Tara. Other encore winners included The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for outstanding comedy series and The Amazing Race for reality-competition, both of which won for the seventh straight year. In all, broadcast networks claimed 13 Emmys and cable collected 11. Three went to PBS for the miniseries Little Dorrit. Onstage, one-liners replaced monologues. The entire show was neatly organized into five genres: comedy, reality, movies and miniseries...