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The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards got off to a rousing start for broadcast television with early awards going to CBS' The Big Bang Theory, ABC's Modern Family and Fox's Glee.
Cable swept the top awards for drama acting. Kyra Sedgwick took home the award for lead actress in a drama for TNT's The Closer. She beat out Friday Night Light's Connie Britton, Damage's Glenn Close, Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay, Mad Men's January Jones and The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies.
Bryan Cranston won his third consecutive Emmy for lead actor in Breaking Bad.
Cranston, who plays a chemistry teacher-cum-meth dealer in the AMC drama, delivered a humble acceptance speech, saying his fellow nominees including Mad Men's Jon Hamm, Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler, Lost's Matthew Fox, Dexter's Michael C. Hall and House's Hugh Laurie, were "robbed."
"You're only as good as the company you keep," said Cranston. "And I am honored to be in your company. "
Cranston's co-star Aaron Paul won his first for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. Paul, who was nominated last year, thanked series creator Vince Gilligan, his mom and Cranston.
"To work with you every single day is a dream," Paul told Cranston.
But Archie Panjabi continued broadcast's winning streak, taking home the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama for CBS' The Good Wife.
"This is amazing for my career," said Panjabi. "Thank you so much."
Jim Parsons snagged the Emmy for outstanding actor in a comedy series for his role as uber-geek Sheldon Cooper on CBS' Big Bang Theory.
Parsons thanked his cast mates, who he praised as "so talented and so darn hard working."
He also thanked series creator Chuck Lorre and the show's writer "for stories that are so worth working on."
"I feel so lucky to be working at all," said Parsons. "But to get to be working on this character is really beyond fortunate."
Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series and creators/executive producers Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd took home the statue for writing on a comedy series.
Stonestreet, who plays Jesse Tyler Ferguson's flamboyant partner Cameron, beat out Ferguson as well as cast-mate Ty Burrell and Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer, Glee's Chris Colfer and How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris.
Underscoring his improbable rise to stardom, Stonestreet admitted that all he "wanted to be when I was growing up was a clown." He thanked Levitan and Lloyd as well as his cast-mates; Ferguson appeared to be crying during Stonestreet's speech.
Stonestreet also thanked his parents, saying, "I would not be here if it weren't for my patents. I'm the product of proud supportive parents. "
Levitan, accepting the award for writing in a comedy, thanked executives at Warner Bros. as well as erstwhile ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson, "and everyone else still at ABC."
But he saved the most poignant thanks for his wife. "Modern Family is and will always be a love letter to you."
And although Modern Family's Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara also were nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy, that Emmy went to favorite Jane Lynch, who plays the acerbic scene-stealer Sue Sylvester in Fox's Glee.
Lynch thanked her wife Lara Embry and their daughter Hayden. She also thanked Glee "lord and creator" Ryan Murphy and acknowledged that acting is the only thing she ever wanted to do. "I'm an actor," she said. "We have no other choice -- or skills."
Glee's Ryan Murphy won for best direction on a comedy. Murphy dedicated the award to arts education and all the teachers who taught him to "sing and finger paint."
Edie Falco broke broadcast's early winning streak, taking home the Emmy for outstanding actress in a comedy.
Falco, a former Sopranos star who has a shelf of awards for her dramatic work, claimed during her acceptance speech: "I'm not funny!"
Bravo's Top Chef finally broke The Amazing Race's stranglehold on the Emmy for outstanding reality competition series.
The CBS series had won the award all seven years it's been handed out.
Steve Shill won the Emmy for directing for a drama series for his work on Showtime's Dexter.
Source: Broadcasting & Cable Mobile website
