'Modern Family' And 'Breaking Bad' Win Big At A Predictable Emmy Awards Show

For all the talk of 2014 being the year the Internet finally was going to leave a mark at the Emmys, Netflix was pretty much shut out at the awards ceremony on Monday night. Uzo Aduba won Outstanding Guest Actress at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards earlier this week for Orange is the New Black, but besides that, both Orange  and House of Cards took back seats to traditional network shows like Modern Family and cable standbys like Breaking Bad.

The AMC show, about teacher-turned-meth-dealer Walter White, won five Emmys during the big show, including for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for Bryan Cranston, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama for Anna Gunn, who played White's long-suffering wife. Aaron Paul also won again for his work as Jesse Pinkman.

It's hard to begrudge Breaking Bad its many awards. The show rose to new heights in its final season and offered what many (including me) believe to be the best ending ever for a TV show.

But Bad's good fortune meant that many other actors, directors and producers sat silently through the three-hour ceremony. Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire all left empty-handed despite multiple nominations. In the drama category the only surprise winner was True Detective's Cary Joji Fukunaga, who beat out Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan for Outstanding Directing for a Drama.

But that was the only statuette for True Detective tonight. (The show won four awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.)

That's despite the fact that True Detective's Matthew McConaughey was far and away the most popular star at tonight's ceremony. When Gail Mancuso won her Emmy for directing Modern Family she insisted that McConaughey look her right in the eyes during her whole speech. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel dedicated much of his bit to razzing McConaughey.

The other big movie star in attendance was Julia Roberts, who was nominated for her work in the HBO movie The Normal Heart but lost in her category to Kathy Bates from American Horror Story. Although more movie stars than ever are moving into television, we're not seeing them win big at the Emmys.

Instead, it seems the Academy wants to keep things as close to the status quo as possible. Jim Parsons won Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang Theory and Ty Burrell won Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role in Modern Family. The Amazing Race won once again for Outstanding Reality Series and The Colbert Report beat out its older brother The Daily Show for Outstanding Variety Show.

Colbert had one of the most uncomfortable moments of the evening when he acknowledged his pack of male writers and wondered why he only had one female writer. It seems like something he could have addressed years ago by, I don't know, hiring more women.

The moment was unfortunately followed up by Sofia Vergara being made to stand on a rotating table and look pretty while television academy president Bruce Rosenblum made a speech. It was the kind of tone-deaf skit that shows the television establishment really has very little idea how they treat women. Hopefully the reaction on Twitter was enough to make Emmy planners think twice before pulling such a stupid stunt again.

There were plenty of cringe-y moments but they were almost balanced out by Billy Crystal's sweet, perfect remembrance of his friend Robin Williams. His tribute was a rare moment of sincerity without schmaltz and it helped bring some heart to the proceedings.

Seth Meyers was fine in his first attempt at hosting an awards show. NBC is surely hoping it was enough to draw some more eyeballs to his late-night talk show, which launched in February.