'Modern Family,' 'Homeland' Take Top Emmy Honors

'Amazing Race' repeats; 'Daily Show' earns 10th consecutive award

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/23/2012 8:29:30 PM

In a night full of repeat wins, Showtime's rookie drama Homeland was the newcomer at the 64^th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, taking the statue for outstanding drama series and ending Mad Men's quest for a record fifth consecutive win in the category.

It was Showtime's first best series Emmy win ever. Both series stars won for lead actor and actress in a drama series, respectively, with Claire Danes recognized for her portrayal of a bipolar CIA officer and Damian Lewis besting a field that included three-time category winner Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad and perennial nominee Jon Hamm of Mad Men.

"I don't really believe in judging art, but thought I'd show up just in case," Lewis said in his acceptance speech.

Homeland also took the Emmy for outstanding writing in a drama series for the pilot episode written by cocreators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.

Emmy favorite Modern Family was again a big winner, earning its third consecutive outstanding comedy series Emmy.

Eric Stonestreet won his second outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his role as Cam Tucker on the ABC sitcom. Stonestreet, who previously took the award in 2010, beat out fellow cast members Ed O'Neill, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ty Burrell as well as New Girl's Max Greenfield and Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader.

Modern Family's Julie Bowen repeated for her role as the Dunphy family matriarch, winning for outstanding supporting actress over her castmate Sofia Vergara, The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik, Desperate Housewives' Kathryn Joosten, Nurse Jackie's Merritt Wever and Kristen Wiig of SNL.

Cocreator Steven Levitan also received a nod for outstanding directing in a comedy series. The Mod Fam helmer joked in his acceptance speech "I want to thank me for hiring me as a director when no one else would."

Continuing in comedy, Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer, who previously won in the supporting actor category in 2009, took his first award for lead actor in a comedy series, beating out last year's honoree, The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons, as well as 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin, House of Lies' Don Cheadle, Louie's Louis C.K. and Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David.

Comedy veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus won for lead actress in a comedy series for her role as a female vice president on HBO's Veep, and said of her win: "People say this is a comedy, but I don't see anything funny about me being vice president of the United States."

Louis C.K., who was nominated for a record seven Emmys this year, took home two awards, for outstanding writing in a comedy series for FX's Louie and the Emmy for variety special for his stand-up show Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theater.

On the drama side, Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul won his second Emmy for supporting actor in a drama series for his portrayal of a meth manufacturer on the AMC series. Paul thanked his costar and fellow nominee Giancarlo Esposito as well as series creator Vince Gilligan and the rest of the writing staff, to whom he said, "Thank you so much for not killing me off."

Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith, who won last year in the miniseries category, repeated for supporting actress in a drama series for her scene-stealing role as the Dowager Countess. She beat out Downton's Joanne Froggatt, Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn, The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi and Christine Baranski and Mad Men's Christina Hendricks.

In another repeat win, CBS' The Amazing Race took its ninth Emmy for outstanding reality-competition program, over ABC's Dancing With the Stars, Lifetime's Project Runway, Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, Bravo's Top Chef and NBC's The Voice.

And in the first year in category history that Survivor's Jeff Probst was not nominated for outstanding reality host, Dancing With the Stars' Tom Bergeron instead won the top prize, beating out So You Think You Can Dance's Cat Deeley, The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan, American Idol's Ryan Seacrest and Betty White of Betty White's Off Their Rockers.

"I want to thank Jeff Probst for not being nominated. That helped," Bergeron said playfully in his speech.

Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart took home its 10^th consecutive statue for outstanding variety, music or comedy series. Stewart accepted the award and thanked fellow nominees The Colbert Report, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Real Time With Bill Maher, and Saturday Night Live.

The HBO movie Game Change was the big winner in the miniseries/movie category, taking home four awards, for outstanding miniseries, writing, directing and star Julianne Moore, who was honored for her portrayal of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin during the 2008 election.

"I feel so validated because Sarah Palin gave me a big thumbs down," Moore said of her win and its controversial reception in the political community.

The FX miniseries American Horror Story, nominated for 17 Emmys, received its sole win of the night for supporting actress Jessica Lange, who thanked creator Ryan Murphy, "who made me more promises than any man I'd ever met before and they all came to pass."

Tom Berenger took the corresponding supporting actor nod for History's western miniseries Hatfields & McCoys with costar Kevin Costner taking the Emmy for lead actor in a miniseries or TV movie.