( CNN ) -- With one of his first jokes at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards , host Seth Meyers cut to the chase : . `` MTV aired the Video Music Awards last night . That 's right , MTV still has an award for music videos even though they no longer show music videos , '' he said . `` That 's like network TV holding an awards show and giving all the trophies to cable and Netflix . That would be crazy . Why would they do that ? '' There was loud laughter in the auditorium -- knowing laughter , because that 's what the Emmys have resembled in recent years : an awards show on network TV celebrating cable TV . During this year 's awards telecast , though , viewers could almost see the tug-of-war -- as the networks pulled off some surprising wins and Netflix found itself shut out of the major categories . In fact , Monday 's telecast felt at times like an elaborate commercial for network TV , interrupted ever so briefly by an actual commercial that Netflix paid to air during the first of the three hours . It was a reminder that the answer to the question `` What 's the future of television ? '' is `` all of the above . '' When it was all over , the cable channel AMC , home to `` Breaking Bad , '' had picked up five Emmy statues , but so had CBS , the broadest of the broadcast networks . One of CBS 's five was awarded to Julianna Margulies , star of `` The Good Wife , '' in the lead actress in a drama category . On stage , she thanked `` our writers who never cease to amaze me with 22 episodes a year '' -- a jab at cable series that tend to have much shorter seasons . Another network series , ABC 's `` Modern Family , '' came away with three wins , including the outstanding comedy award for the fifth year in a row . Television critics expressed disappointment on Twitter -- partly because there were newer , edgier nominees like Netflix 's `` Orange is the New Black '' and HBO 's `` Silicon Valley '' that deserved the prize . `` Even for the Emmys , this is some hardcore repetition , '' NPR 's Linda Holmes wrote on Twitter . But ABC was understandably thrilled by all the recognition for the sitcom . `` Someone forgot to tell the voters that the networks were n't supposed to win anything , '' opined Slate 's Willa Paskin . For viewers , of course , there 's hardly any network-cable tension at all . These days , TV fans barely distinguish between ABC and AMC and Amazon , and they do n't have to , thanks to newfangled set-top boxes and streaming video websites . Case in point : On Monday , I watched an old episode of NBC 's `` Friday Night Lights '' on Netflix , then the Emmys red carpet on the cable channel E ! , and then the actual awards show on NBC . Furthermore , all of the companies that own broadcast networks also own lucrative cable channels , and in many cases the same companies also license shows to streaming services like Netflix . Still , there is palpable tension within the television industry : Some broadcast executives resent the fact that long stretches of the Emmys -- which they take turns televising -- amount to celebrations of cable . The executives also point out that there are big differences between the business models of broadcast and cable , and in many ways , that favors cable . All of this raises a question that gets re-asked every year : Can a broadcast series like `` Downton Abbey , '' on PBS , really compete with `` True Detective , '' on HBO , or `` Breaking Bad '' ? On Monday , the answer was yes , with an asterisk . Indeed , Margulies ' best actress win -- her second win in the category -- was all the more notable because `` The Good Wife '' was not even nominated for best drama . Backstage after the telecast , Margulies said she felt very strongly that her award was `` for the whole team , '' for the whole show . Other network wins included Allison Janney for her supporting actress role in the new CBS comedy `` Mom '' and Jim Parsons for his lead actor role in `` The Big Bang Theory . '' PBS 's `` Sherlock '' earned three statues , as well . There was something of an underdog spirit to these wins -- underscored by the joke Meyers made upon introducing Stephen Colbert , the Comedy Central late-night star who will succeed David Letterman on CBS next year . `` He 's being demoted from cable to network TV , '' Meyers quipped . Later in the evening , Colbert won the variety series Emmy for his `` Colbert Report . '' Next year , his old cable and new network shows could compete with one another in the category . But broadcast , cable , HBO , Netflix -- viewers do n't care where the show comes from , as long as the show 's worth watching . And the lines between all the different versions of TV will continue to blur .
Host Seth Meyers talked about network executives and cable shows . Some critics were unhappy with ` ` Modern Family '' episode . Netflix nominees and other edgy cable shows were shut out this year .