Emmy winners announced

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 1950s drama Mad Men and a firmly 21st century comedy, Modern Family, won the top drama and comedy prizes at the Emmy Awards, with the British period piece Downton Abbey scoring an unexpected hat-trick.

Downton Abbey took six awards in total, including best miniseries, best director, and best actress for Maggie Smith. The show, whose second series started on ITV in Britain on Sunday, September 18 night, has been a critical success on the US network PBS.

Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet won her first Emmy, for her lead role in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce.

On a night of surprises that brought a slew of newcomers to the Emmy podium, Mad Men won best drama series for a fourth straight year but the waiting got tense as the 1960s advertising drama lost out in all the acting, writing and directing races.

The little-seen but critically admired football drama Friday Night Lights won for best writing and its star Kyle Chandler beat favorites Jon Hamm and Steve Buscemi for best dramatic actor.

Melissa McCarthy won lead comedy actress at her first shot for the CBS romantic comedy Mike & Molly, in which she plays an overweight teacher.

Julianna Margulies, star of The Good Wife on CBS, won the race for best dramatic actress.

Fox musical comedy Glee - one of the most talked about shows of the last two years - won just two Emmys, both in creative arts categories, while HBO's lavish Boardwalk Empire won seven of its eight total Emmys in last week's technical awards section. Its only win on Sunday night went to director Martin Scorsese.

HBO was the biggest network winner with 19 Emmys, followed by 14 for PBS, 11 for CBS, nine for Fox, eight for ABC and six for NBC, The Guardian reported.