54th Primetime Emmy Awards

The 54th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 22, 2002. Nominations were announced July 22, 2002. The ceremony was hosted by Conan O'Brien and was broadcast on NBC. Two networks, FX and VH1, received their first major nominations this year. The program America: A Tribute to Heroes was simulcast on every major network and, therefore, is not designated with one below. 27 competitive awards were presented.
After four nominations during its first seven seasons, Friends won Outstanding Comedy Series without a directing or a writing nomination. Everybody Loves Raymond led all comedies with nine major nominations and three major wins. Meanwhile, after eight consecutive nominations, Frasier was excluded from the Outstanding Comedy Series nomination for the first time. It would not be nominated for its final two seasons either.
For the third straight year, the drama field was conquered by The West Wing. In addition to winning its third consecutive trophy for Outstanding Drama Series, The West Wing achieved a milestone when it became the third series to gain nine acting nominations for its main cast members. This tied the mark set by Hill Street Blues in 1982 and later matched by L.A. Law in 1989. Game of Thrones would also match this in 2019. The West Wing also set a record with twelve total acting nominations when including the guest category, a category that existed for L.A. Law, but was not available for Hill Street Blues during its second season of nine acting nominations. Overall, The West Wing led all series in major nominations and wins with thirteen and four.
In addition, Stockard Channing joined an exclusive club of actors that have won two awards in one ceremony for different roles. Furthermore, Michael Chiklis became the second actor in a cable network series to win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Vic Mackey in The Shield whilst becoming FX's first ever acting win.
When Band of Brothers won Outstanding Miniseries, the audience gave a standing ovation to the miniseries' subjects: the soldiers of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, as their surviving members were shown both in the auditorium and on the broadcast at the Los Angeles St. Regis Hotel. Co-creator and executive producer Steven Spielberg then invited Major Richard "Dick" Winters, their D-Day commanding officer who was played by Damian Lewis in the miniseries and attended the ceremony live, to speak.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold:

Programs

Acting

Lead performances

Supporting performances

Individual performances

Directing

Writing

Most major nominations

Program	Category	Network	No. of Nominations
The West Wing	Drama	NBC	13
Everybody Loves Raymond	Comedy	CBS	8
Six Feet Under	Drama	HBO	8
The Gathering Storm	Movie	HBO	6
Sex and the City	Comedy	HBO	6
Path to War	Movie	HBO	5
Will & Grace	Comedy	NBC	5
24	Drama	Fox	4
Friends	Comedy	NBC	4
James Dean	Movie	TNT	4
The Laramie Project	Movie	HBO	4
Alias	Drama	ABC	3
America: A Tribute to Heroes	Variety	Various	3
Band of Brothers	Miniseries	HBO	3
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Variety	Comedy Central	3
Late Show with David Letterman	Variety	CBS	3
Malcolm in the Middle	Comedy	Fox	3
The Mists of Avalon	Miniseries	TNT	3
Shackleton	Miniseries	A&E	3
The Shield	Drama	FX	3
2002 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony	Variety	NBC	2
74th Annual Academy Awards	Variety	ABC	2
The Bernie Mac Show	Comedy	Fox	2
Curb Your Enthusiasm	Comedy	HBO	2
Frasier	Comedy	NBC	2
Judging Amy	Drama	CBS	2
Saturday Night Live	Variety	NBC	2
We Were the Mulvaneys	Movie	Lifetime	2
Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Variety	ABC	2
Wild Iris	Movie	Showtime	2

Most major awards

Program	Category	Network	No. of Awards
The West Wing	Drama	NBC	4
Everybody Loves Raymond	Comedy	CBS	3
The Gathering Storm	Movie	HBO	3
Band of Brothers	Miniseries	HBO	2
Friends	Comedy	NBC	2

;Notes

Presenters

The awards were presented by the following people:

Presenter	Role
The cast of Friends	Presented the awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Marg Helgenberger William Petersen	Presented the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Cloris Leachman Anthony LaPaglia	Presented the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Jon Stewart	Presented the award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series
Maura Tierney Noah Wyle	Presented the award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
Heather Locklear Simon Baker	Presented the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Bernie Mac	Presented the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program
Tina Fey Jimmy Fallon	Presented the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
The cast of The Osbournes	Presented the award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program
Debra Messing Eric McCormack	Presented the award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
Michael Chiklis Jill Hennessy	Presented the awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
Charles S. Dutton Patricia Clarkson	Presented the awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
Ray Romano	Presented the award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Tom Hanks	Presented the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to Oprah Winfrey
Ellen DeGeneres	Presented the award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special
Jennifer Garner Kiefer Sutherland	Presented the awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
Amy Brenneman Jimmy Smits	Presented the award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie
Martin Sheen Dennis Haysbert	Presented the award for Outstanding Miniseries
Garry Shandling	Presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Bob Newhart Suzanne Pleshette	Presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Kelsey Grammer	Presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Cynthia Nixon Kim Cattrall Kristin Davis	Presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Rudy Giuliani	Presented the Governor's Award to America: A Tribute to Heroes and the award for Outstanding Drama Series
Jay Leno	Presented the award for Outstanding Comedy Series