“Breaking Bad” has won the Emmy for drama series, a first for the AMC hit.

The series stars Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin. Though Cranston has won multiple Emmys for his performance and the series has been nominated three previous times, “Breaking Bad” had yet to prevail in the drama series category until Sunday night.

It was considered a slight favorite going into the evening, thanks in part to the tremendous buzz surrounding its final eight-episode run, which will conclude on Sept. 29. The Albuquerque-set drama edged out some difficult competition in a watershed year for the Emmys, the first in which a digitally distributed series (Netflix’s “House of Cards”) was among the drama series nominees. This was also the second consecutive year in which the four major broadcast networks were shut out of the outstanding drama series category.

EMMYS 2013: Full coverage | Complete nominee/winner list | Drama round table

Other contenders included reigning champion “Homeland” (Showtime), “Mad Men” (AMC), “Game of Thrones” (HBO) and “Downton Abbey” (PBS).


The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, were held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and aired live on CBS.

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