The 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, November 4, 2001, seven weeks later than originally scheduled. The ceremony was rescheduled twice from its original date of September 16 at the Shrine Auditorium because of the September 11th attacks that occurred five days prior to the event. It was also removed from its rescheduled date of October 7 again at the same venue as a result of the start of the War in Afghanistan. The event was then relocated to the smaller Shubert Theater, which had previously hosted the 1973 and 1976 ceremonies, and would be demolished in 2002. The ceremony was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and was broadcast on CBS.
| 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date |
(Creative Arts Awards) | |||
| Location | Shubert Theatre, Los Angeles, California, U.S. (ceremony) Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Creative Arts Awards) | |||
| Presented by | Academy of Television Arts and Sciences | |||
| Hosted by | Ellen DeGeneres | |||
| Highlights | ||||
| Most awards | The West Wing (4) | |||
| Most nominations | The Sopranos (14) | |||
| Outstanding Comedy Series | Sex and the City | |||
| Outstanding Drama Series | The West Wing | |||
| Outstanding Miniseries | Anne Frank: The Whole Story | |||
| Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series | Late Show with David Letterman | |||
| Website | http://www.emmys.com/  | |||
| Television/radio coverage | ||||
| Network | CBS | |||
| ||||
Barbra Streisand sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" in a surprise appearance at the close, in honor of the victims of the attacks.[1]
Sex and the City became the first premium channel show to win Outstanding Comedy Series; this was its only major award. The NBC cult hit Freaks and Geeks accomplished a rare feat: though it only ran for one season, it was nominated in two different years for writing. Frasier, now in its eighth season, earned its final Outstanding Comedy Series nomination after eight consecutive nominations including five consecutive wins (seasons 1–5).
The episode "Bowling" made Malcolm in the Middle just the second show, and first comedy, to have two different episodes win awards for directing and writing. The Defenders was the first show to do this in 1963 and 1965. (Specific episodes were not nominated in the comedy categories until the late 1960s). Game of Thrones would also achieve this in 2015 and 2016.
For his portrayal of John Cage in Ally McBeal, Peter MacNicol won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, the first in this category for Fox and the first in this category for any show outside the Big Three television networks.
In the drama field, The West Wing won Outstanding Drama Series for its second straight year and led all shows with four major awards on the night. The Sopranos led all shows with 14 major nominations and was second to The West Wing with three major wins.
Mike Nichols' win made him the ninth person to become an EGOT winner.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[2][3][a] For simplicity, producers who received nominations for program awards, as well as nominated writers for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program, have been omitted.
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Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special
| |
Outstanding Made for Television Movie
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| Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|
| HBO | 44 |
| NBC | 43 |
| ABC | 24 |
| CBS | 15 |
| Fox | 13 |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sopranos | Drama | HBO | 14 |
| The West Wing | NBC | 11 | |
| Will & Grace | Comedy | NBC | 7 |
| Anne Frank: The Whole Story | Miniseries | ABC | 6 |
| Conspiracy | Movie | HBO | |
| Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows | Miniseries | ABC | |
| Malcolm in the Middle | Comedy | Fox | |
| Everybody Loves Raymond | CBS | 5 | |
| Sex and the City | HBO | ||
| Wit | Movie | ||
| 61* | 4 | ||
| Late Show with David Letterman | Variety | CBS | |
| The 73rd Annual Academy Awards | ABC | 3 | |
| Ally McBeal | Comedy | Fox | |
| ER | Drama | NBC | |
| Frasier | Comedy | ||
| Saturday Night Live | Variety | ||
| Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band | HBO | 2 | |
| The Chris Rock Show | |||
| Cirque du Soleil's Dralion | Bravo | ||
| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Comedy Central | ||
| Ed | Comedy | NBC | |
| Ellen DeGeneres: The Beginning | Variety | HBO | |
| For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story | Movie | ||
| Friends | Comedy | NBC | |
| Judging Amy | Drama | CBS | |
| The Last of the Blonde Bombshells | Movie | HBO | |
| Nuremberg | Miniseries | TNT |
| Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|
| HBO | 8 |
| NBC | |
| ABC | 4 |
| CBS | 3 |
| Fox | |
| Bravo | 2 |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| The West Wing | Drama | NBC | 4 |
| The Sopranos | HBO | 3 | |
| Cirque du Soleil's Dralion | Variety | Bravo | 2 |
| Conspiracy | Movie | HBO | |
| Everybody Loves Raymond | Comedy | CBS | |
| Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows | Miniseries | ABC | |
| Malcolm in the Middle | Comedy | Fox | |
| Wit | Movie | HBO |
The awards were presented by the following people:[4]