HBO Leads Creative Arts Emmys

Pay cabler tops night with 17 wins, ABC comes in just behind with 15

By Andrea Domanick -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/21/2010 9:22:08 PM

HBO led for most wins at the 62nd Annual Creative Arts Emmys Saturday with the pay cabler topping the night with 17 trophies. ABC was just behind, winning out amongst the broadcast nets with 15.

HBO's acclaimed miniseries The Pacific earned six of the awards, while the network's heavily-nominated movie Temple Grandin received two.

ABC's half-hour Christmas special Disney's Prep and Landing brought in four awards for the network, three of those being for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Newcomer Modern Family brought in three Emmys for the network.

After HBO, Showtime claimed the most awards for a pay cabler with five. Most notably, Dexter's John Lithgow won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series--the fifth Emmy of his career--for his season-long role as the "Trinity Killer" Arthur Mitchell.

Upon accepting his award, Lithgow accidentally thanked HBO instead of Showtime.

"I'm glad to have every chance to thank [Showtime CEO] Matt Blank and [Showtime President] Bob Greenblatt at HBO," Lithgow said on stage.

When informed of the faux-pas, Lithgow said, "I wondered why people were laughing at me. Now I know."

Neil Patrick Harris took home two statues: one for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance on "Glee," and a second, somewhat unexpected win, for host of the Outstanding Special Class Program, the Tony Awards -- due to an oversight by Tony producers, Harris was not originally listed as a nominee for the award. He has a chance to pick up a third Emmy for the year at next week's Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy for How I Met Your Mother.

Survivor's Jeff Probst won the award for Outstanding Host for a Reality Competition Program for the third year in a row. The award faced controversy within the Academy after having been moved from the Primetime Emmys telecast to the Creative Arts Emmys due to scheduling constraints.

Though Probst, who was not expected to attend the ceremony, once called the move "disappointing news," he left Survivor's Nicaraguan set for a few hours to accept the award in person, cheerfully exiting the stage with "Thank you for letting me be part of a great night!"

Fellow hosting nominee Ryan Seacrest was equally gracious. After eight Primetime Emmy nods and misses for American Idol, Seacrest shared a trophy for Outstanding Reality Program for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which he executive produces . 

CBS took home the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special award for The Kennedy Center Honors and NBC's Don Roy King won for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night Live picked up two other awards--making up three of NBC's seven wins--thanks in part to Betty White's stint as host, which earned her a statue for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. That episode also earned the show an award for Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special.

NBC's other honors included Ann-Margret's guest-actress in a drama series role for Law & Order: SVU and its presentation of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony.

The Colbert Report took home an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy series, stifling Conan O'Brien's potential last laugh with a win for his short-lived Tonight Show stint on NBC.

The Primetime Emmy Awards will air live on NBC on Aug. 29 beginning at 5 p.m. PT.