Betty White won an Emmy for her celebrated job of hosting "Saturday Night Live" at Saturday afternoon's 2010 Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, while John Lithgow took home the Guest Actor in a Drama award for his guest stint as the "Trinity Killer" on "Dexter" and Ann-Margret received a standing ovation after winning for her appearance on "Law & Order: SVU."
As usual, HBO led all networks in Emmy wins with 17. Its miniseries "The Pacific" was the most-honored single show, with seven Emmys.
Another two dozen Emmys will be handed out in a live telecast on August 29, including many of the highest-profile categories.
The Creative Arts Emmys show hands out more than 70 of the close to 100 Emmy Awards voted by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Awards given out at the show include honors for casting, art direction, choreography, cinematography, costumes, hairstyling, makeup, editing, lighting, music, sound, visual effects, stunts and technical direction.
Some awards for writing and directing are also handed out, as are the Guest Actor and Guest Actress categories.
White, who won in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, was not present to accept her award. But her "SNL" episode was certainly a winner: in addition to her own Emmy, that episode also won awards for its director and makeup artists.
Accepting his award for the Showtime series "Dexter," Lithgow accidentally thanked HBO.
Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance on "Glee." He also won as the host of the Outstanding Special Class Program, the Tony Awards; he was originally not listed as a nominee for the award, due to an oversight by Tony producers.
Ann-Margret's win as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "Law & Order: SVU" was one of the most well-received of the show.
"The Pacific" won two awards for makeup and others for casting, art direction, sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects.
In the Reality Show category, the Emmys were spared another controversial speech by Kathy Griffin when the colorful comic's show lost to "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution."
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The category of Outstanding Reality-Show Host, which caused some controversy when it was moved off the Primetime Emmys show and into the Creative Arts show, went to Jeff Probst of "Survivor" for the third year in a row. Probst, who originally said he would not attend because he'd be shooting the upcoming season of his show, ended up flying in from Nicaragua the afternoon of the Emmys to attend.
Another closely-watched category was Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series, where Conan O'Brien was one of the nominees for his short-lived stint on "The Tonight Show." But O'Brien did not secure any additional revenge against the un-nominated Jay Leno; his show lost to "The Colbert Report."
Programs receiving multiple Emmys included "The Pacific" with seven, "Disney Prep and Landing" with four (three of them in a juried animation category with multiple winners), and "Modern Family," "Saturday Night Live" and "The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert" with three. Fourteen other shows, including "CSI," "Dancing with the Stars," "Glee," "Mad Men," "The National Parks," "Return to Cranford," "Survivor," "Temple Grandin," "The Tudors" and the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics received two.
Anne Hathaway beat out two "Simpsons" vets, Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria, to win the Emmy for Outstanding Voiceover Performance for her guest appearance on the long-running show.
In the music categories, winners included Randy Newman for the song "When I'm Gone" from "Monk," and Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman for the title music to "Nurse Jackie." Backstage, Melvoin and Coleman, former members of Prince's band who performed under the names Wendy and Lisa, said that the enigmatic musician's lawyers had sent them a cease-and-desist order demanding that they stop talking about him.
Amidst high-profile guests and presenters like Christina Hendricks, Jane Lynch and Robin Williams was commercial phenom Isaiah Mustafa, aka the "Old Spice Guy" from the advertisement that has brought him a cult following. His ad won an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.
ABC finished a close second to HBO in the overall Emmy count with 15, followed by Fox with 9.
The ceremony took place at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. An edited version will be shown on E! Entertainment Televison on Friday, August 27. Academy guidelines say that every winner will be shown on the edited version, but most will not have their speeches included.
The full list of winners:
Outstanding Voice-Over Performance: Anne Hathaway, "The Simpsons"
Outstanding Animated Program: "Disney Prep and Landing"
Outstanding Short-format Animated Program: "Robot Chicken"
Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series: "The Tudors"
Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries Or Movie: "The Pacific"
Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming: "82nd Academy Awards"
Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series: "Modern Family"
Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series: "Mad Men"
Outstanding Casting For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "The Pacific"
Outstanding Choreography: Mia Michaels, "So You Think You Can Dance"
Outstanding Cinematography For A Half-Hour Series: "Weeds"
Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series: "CSI"
Outstanding Cinematography For A Miniseries Or Movie: "Return to Cranford"
Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming: "Life"
Outstanding Cinematography For Reality Programming: "Survivor"
Outstanding Commercial: "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," Old Spice Body Wash
Outstanding Costumes For A Series: "The Tudors"
Outstanding Costumes For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "Return to Cranford"
Outstanding Costumes for a Variety/Music Program or a Special (juried award): "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "So You Think You Can Dance," "Titan Maximum"
Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series: Don Roy King, "Saturday Night Live"
Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming: Barak Goodman, "My Lai"
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series: "Lost"
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Comedy Series (Single Or Multi-Camera): "Modern Family"
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Miniseries Or A Movie: "Temple Grandin"
Outstanding Short-Form Picture Editing: "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Special (Single Or Multi-Camera): "The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert"
Outstanding Picture Editing For Nonfiction Programming: "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama"
Outstanding Picture Editing For Reality Programming: "Intervention"
Outstanding Hairstyling For A Single-Camera Series: "Mad Men"
Outstanding Hairstyling For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special: "Dancing with the Stars"
Outstanding Hairstyling For A Miniseries Or A Movie: "Emma"
Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Nonfiction: "The Jimmy Fallon Digital Experience"
Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Fiction: "Star Wars: Uncut"
Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic, Multi-Camera) For Variety, Music Or Comedy Programming: "2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony"
Outstanding Main Title Design: "Bored to Death"
Outstanding Makeup For A Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic): "Grey's Anatomy"
Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic): "Saturday Night Live"
Outstanding Makeup For A Miniseries Or A Movie (Non-Prosthetic): "The Pacific"
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "The Pacific"
Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score): Sean P Calley, "24"
Outstanding Music Composition For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special (Original Dramatic Score): Alex Wurman, "Temple Grandin"
Outstanding Music Direction: Vancouver Dave Pierce, "2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony"
Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics: Randy Newman, "Monk"
Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music: Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, "Nurse Jackie"
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series: Neil Patrick Harris, "Glee"(photo, above, by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series: John Lithgow, "Dexter"
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series: Betty White, "Saturday Night Live"
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series: Ann-Margret, "Law & Order: SVU"
Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program: Jeff Probst, "Survivor"
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special: "The Kennedy Center Honors"
Outstanding Special Class Program: "63rd Annual Tony Awards"
Outstanding Children’s Program: "Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie"
Outstanding Children's Nonfiction Program: "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: The Face of Courage: Kids Living with Cancer"
Outstanding Nonfiction Special: "Teddy: In His Own Words"
Outstanding Nonfiction Series: "National Parks: America's Best Idea"
Outstanding Reality Program: "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution"
Exceptional Merit In Nonfiction Filmmaking: "Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)"
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series: "24"
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "The Pacific, Part Five"
Outstanding Sound Editing For Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera): "America: The Story of Us"
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour): "Glee"
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Miniseries Or A Movie: "The Pacific, Part Two"
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation: (tie) "Entourage" and "Modern Family"
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Or Music Series Or Special: (tie) "62nd Annual Grammy Awards" and "25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert"
Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming: "The Deadliest Catch"
Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series: "CSI"
Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "The Pacific, Part Five"
Outstanding Stunt Coordination: "Flash Forward"
Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Series: "Dancing with the Stars"
Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special: "25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert"
Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series: "The Colbert Report"
Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming: Dayton Duncan, "National Parks"
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation (juried award): "Disney Prep and Landing," William M George III ("Disney Prep and Landing"), Joe Mateo ("Disney Prep and Landing"), Greg Colton ("Family Guy"), Nora Murphy-Berden ("Generator Rex"), Chu-Hui Song ("Generator Rex"), Chris Do ("Heart of Stone"), Andy Bialk ("The Ricky Gervais Show"), Charles Ragins ("The Simpsons")
Governors Awards: Norman Brokaw, The Ad Council
Syd Cassyd Founders Award: John Leverence
CORRECTION: The original version of this story erroneously said that reality-host winner Jeff Probst did not attend the show.
