VIEW PHOTOS

Just when it seemed that the 64th Emmy Awards were going to be every bit as routine as Jon Stewart suggested when he was bleeped while saying that space aliens would one day find out "just how predictable these [bleep]ing awards are," Emmy voters made Showtime's first-year drama "Homeland" one of the night's big winners.

The Outstanding Drama Series award didn't come as a complete surprise, given that the show had already won Emmys for lead actors Claire Danes and Damian Lewis and for its writing.

But it threw a monkey wrench into what could have been an historic night for "Mad Men," which had won the award for four consecutive years, and which would have set a new record for drama series had it won again.

Instead, "Mad Men" suffered its first loss in the category -- and not to the returning-to-the-air "Breaking Bad" or the tony British import "Downton Abbey," which were expected to put up a fight, but to "24" vets Alex Gansa's and Howard Gordon's thriller about a CIA officer and a former POW.

If the night was triumphant for "Homeland," it was a disaster for "Mad Men," the night's biggest loser. That show went into last week's Creative Arts Emmys tied with "American Horror Story" in leading all shows with 17 nominations. It was shut out at that show and at the Primetime Emmys, making it a miserable 0-for-17.

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