Emmys 2014: Little awards love for big ‘Game of Thrones’

Monday night was very good for “Breaking Bad” at the Emmy Awards. Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul and the series itself all won top awards. But all that Walter White love meant the poor, put-upon citizens of Westeros went back to the kingdom relatively empty-handed.

Despite becoming a massive international hit -- it’s the most pirated TV show in the world -- “Game of Thrones” took home just four technical Emmys out of the show’s 19 total nominations.

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FOR THE RECORD

An earlier version of this post stated that “Game of Thrones” received 11 Emmy nominations. “Thrones” received 19 nominations.

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After winning one back in 2011, Peter Dinklage has come and gone every year without a repeat victory. And he remains the only member of the cast to be recognized by the TV academy.

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The HBO series, which grabbed the largest audience ever for one of the channel’s original programs this season at 18.6 million viewers on average across all platforms, took home awards this year for art direction, costumes, makeup and visual effects.

It missed winning best drama series, casting, supporting actor for Dinklage, supporting actress for Lena Headey, guest actress Diana Rigg, directing for Neil Marshall and writing for show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

Instead, George R.R. Martin was handed a typewriter in the audience and scolded by Weird Al Yankovic to write the next book faster. It was all in good fun, and Martin gamely pecked the keys. But you didn’t see anyone mocking “Modern Family” or “Breaking Bad.”

And the series actually fared better this year than last year, when it went into the Emmys with 16 nominations and only took home two awards.

With all the trouble “Game of Thrones” has had catching on with Emmy voters, another genre favorite “The Walking Dead” has fared even worse. Despite generally positive reviews and having an ever-growing cable audience that rivals its network competition, the zombie series received zero Emmy nominations this year, down from just one nomination last year.

Similarly, Tatiana Maslany failed to get an actress in a drama series nomination for her work in “Orphan Black,” despite having won the Critic’s Choice Award two years in a row.

The Emmys have always had a bit of a blind spot when it comes to genre TV. The last time a science fiction, fantasy or horror series won the outstanding drama series Emmy was in 2005 for the first season of “Lost.”

But with the recent champions “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” both ending, the stage is set for a drastically different drama series race next year. Assuming “Thrones” keeps making nice with the dragons and the White Walkers.

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