66th Primetime Emmy Awards

Scheduling of ceremony

The ceremony was held on a night other than Sunday for the first time since 1976 (the 28th Primetime Emmy Awards were also staged on a Monday that year, May 17). NBC's ideal date on the 2014 calendar for the ceremony (Sunday, August 24) led to the other scheduling factor — MTV's Video Music Awards, which were set for that night more than a year in advance (and would be staged in the L.A. area as well, at The Forum in Inglewood). On January 28, 2014, rather than go head-to-head with the VMA's, NBC announced that the ceremony would take place on Monday, August 25. The move would allow NBC to commit to a preseason Sunday Night Football broadcast for the 24th (a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals); it also ensured the tradition of staging the Primetime Emmy Awards the weekend after the Creative Arts Emmy Awards (that ceremony was already set for August 16).

The ceremony's weeknight date and start time – 5:00 p.m. (PDT) in Los Angeles, California – led to concerns of rush hour traffic gridlock in Los Angeles' downtown core at the time of the ceremony; to help alleviate the concerns, the ATAS worked with Los Angeles city officials to map out street closures and red carpet staging areas, as well as include travel instructions (including which routes to take and where to park) in attendees' ticket packets.

Changes in categories and balloting

On November 14, 2013, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that it would implement online voting for its members to select the nominees. However, online voting to determine the winners would not be used until 2015, and winners for this year were voted on via paper ballots.

The Academy had also announced changes to several awards and categories that affect both the Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Changes for the Primetime Emmy Awards involved separating the Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category into two entities again—Outstanding Miniseries and Outstanding Television Movie. The two were combined in 2011, due to a downtrend in the genres. This separation is only for the program category with all other awards in the category remaining combined between the two formats.

There was also an increase in the number of longform nominees in writing, directing and performing categories for miniseries/movie (from five to six nominees) as well as a change in their final voting procedures.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold:

Programs

Acting

Lead

Supporting

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

Most major awards

;Notes

Presenters and performers

The awards were presented by the following:

Presenters

Performers

''In Memoriam''

Sara Bareilles performed the song "Smile" during the "In Memoriam" segment of the awards ceremony:

• Ralph Waite
• Paul Walker
• Maximilian Schell
• Casey Kasem
• Abby Singer
• Meshach Taylor
• Robert Halmi Sr.
• Juanita Moore
• Sandy Frank
• Russell Johnson
• James Avery
• Daniel Blatt
• Sandi Fullerton
• Hank Rieger
• Paul Mazursky
• Ann B. Davis
• Eli Wallach
• Lucy Hood
• Hal Cooper
• Michael Filerman
• Alan Landsburg
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Peter O'Toole
• Mitzie Welch
• Don Pardo
• David Brenner
• Shirley Temple
• Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
• Carmen Zapata
• Hal Needham
• Sandy Grossman
• Ruby Dee
• Sheila MacRae
• Mickey Rooney
• Marcia Wallace
• Sid Caesar
• Harold Ramis
• Elaine Stritch
• Lauren Bacall
• James Garner
• Joan Fontaine
• Maya Angelou
• Bob Hoskins

After the last picture was shown, a special tribute to Robin Williams, who died on August 11, 2014, was presented by Billy Crystal.

Ratings

Despite its departure from its normal telecast schedule, the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards received 15.59 million viewers, the second-largest viewership in eight years.

Footnotes

References

References

1. (January 28, 2014). "NBC to air Emmy Awards on Monday (yes, Monday) Aug. 25". [[Los Angeles Times]].
2. Levin, Gary. (April 25, 2014). "Seth Meyers named Emmys host". [[Gannett Company]].
3. (August 25, 2014). "Emmys 2014: Sherlock sweetens an otherwise bitter night for British stars". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
4. (August 25, 2014). "Emmy awards 2014: Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia Louis-Dreyfus among winners – live!". [[The Guardian]].
5. (August 25, 2014). "Emmys 2014: 'Breaking Bad' and 'Modern Family' Take Top Honors". [[The New York Times]].
6. (August 25, 2014). "The 66th Primetime Emmy Award winners". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
7. (August 25, 2014). "The 66th Primetime Emmy Award nominations". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
8. (July 10, 2014). "2014 Emmy Nominations: 'Breaking Bad,' 'True Detective' Among the Honored". [[The New York Times]].
9. (July 10, 2014). "Emmy Awards 2014: the nominations in full". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
10. (January 30, 2014). "Save the Date: Primetime Emmys Airs on Aug. 25". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
11. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/video-emmy-awards-2014-seth-727681 "Emmys: Seth Meyers Zings Network TV, 'Big Bang' Salaries in Opening Monologue,"] from ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'', August 25, 2014
12. The ceremony's unusual date – a Monday night in late August – was due to two factors, primary being [[NBC]]'s commitment to ''[[NBC Sunday Night Football. Sunday Night Football]]''; since acquiring the [[National Football League]]'s Sunday night game package in [[58th Primetime Emmy Awards. 2006]], NBC, when it is their turn in the four-network rotation to air the Primetime Emmy Awards, usually schedules the ceremony for the Sunday before Labor Day weekend, to avoid conflicts with ''SNF'' in mid-September (when [[American Broadcasting Company. ABC]], [[CBS]] or [[Fox Broadcasting Company
13. [https://archive.today/20140825223556/http://www.mtv.com/news/1706992/2014-mtv-movie-awards-vmas-dates-set/ "2014 MTV VMAs and Movie Awards Get Show Dates!"] from MTV.com, May 8, 2013
14. (August 20, 2014). "Emmygeddon: Can TV Academy Avoid Monday Night Traffic Nightmare?".
15. (November 14, 2013). "Emmys to Introduce Online Voting in 2014". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
16. The Academy also introduced two new categories—[[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Outstanding Structured Reality Program]] and [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. Outstanding Reality-Competition Program]]", "[[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Outstanding Structured Reality Program]]", and "[[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program]]"; the last two are awarded at the [[66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards]].
17. (July 10, 2014). "Emmy nominations 2014: The complete list". [[CNN]].
18. [http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2014 Emmys.com list of 2014 Nominees & Winners]
19. "Oscar champs Halle Berry, Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts to present on 2014 Emmys ceremony". [[Gold Derby]].
20. (August 25, 2014). "Sara Bareilles + Billy Crystal Lead Moving 'In Memoriam' Tribute at Emmys". PopCrush.
21. (August 14, 2014). "Robin Williams to be honoured at Emmy Awards with special tribute". Mirror Online.
22. (August 20, 2014). "Billy Crystal To Deliver Tribute To Robin Williams At Emmy Awards".
23. Kondolojy, Amanda. (August 26, 2014). "Monday Final Ratings: No Adjustments for 'Hotel Hell', 'Bachelor in Paradise' or 'Under the Dome'". [[TV by the Numbers]].
24. De Moraes, Lisa. (August 26, 2014). "Update: Seth Meyers Delivers Second-Highest Emmy Ratings In Eight Years — 15.6 Million Viewers".