Dutton's Corner, Winfrey's Morrie surprise Emmys

A change in the voting procedures in the major categories for the Emmy Awards resulted in several surprise winners over the weekend, among them multiple trophies for Charles Dutton's explicit mini-series The Corner and for the Oprah Winfrey-produced TV movie Tuesdays With Morrie. British stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard also won an Emmy for his writing, while Vanessa Redgrave added yet another acting honour to her collection of statuettes.

Nearly four times as many voters sent in ballots this year, taking advantage of the decision by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to allow members to watch videotaped versions of the nominated shows at home, rather than insisting that they attend hotel screenings.

The Academy's intention had been to encourage a greater number of younger voters; but whether this led on the day to greater support of edgier material, however, is open to debate. While Dutton's no-holds-barred mini-series about Baltimore's drug underworld took home three Emmys for HBO, the pay-TV network's other great hope, The Sopranos, walked away with just one consolation acting prize to show for its 18 nominations.

In a repeat of last year's disappointment for HBO, the much-praised surreal mobster series lost out in most of the main categories to NBC's new and rather more uplifting White House drama The West Wing, written by Aaron Sorkin.

NBC's final haul of 23 creative and technical Emmys was enough to beat HBO's overall tally of 20 this year. Behind these two networks came ABC with 15, Fox with 11 and CBS with 7. The complete list of winners at the 52nd Primetime Emmy Awards in the 27 top categories handed out on September 10 is as follows:

Harpo Films. Oprah Winfrey, Kate Forte, Executive Producers; Jennifer Ogden, Supervising Producer

John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Aaron Sorkin, Thomas Schlamme, John Wells, Executive Producers; Kristin Harms, Producer;

Blown Deadline/Knee Deep Productions in association with Home Box Office. Robert F. Colesberry, David Mills, Davis Simon, Executive Producers; Nina Kostroff Noble, Producer

Komut Entertainment in association with Three Sisters Entertainment in association with NBC

Studios. David Kohan, Max Mutchnick, James Burrows, Executive Producers; Jeff Greenstein, Alex Herschlag, Co-Executive Producers; Jhoni Marchinko, Supervising Producer; Tim Kaiser, Producer

Charles S. Dutton, The Corner ' HBO

for a drama series

Thomas Schlamme, The West Wing ' Pilot ' NBC

Todd Holland, Malcolm In The Middle ' Pilot ' FOX

Louis J. Horvitz, 72nd Annual Academy Awards ' ABC

James Gandolfini, The Sopranos ' HBO

Jack Lemmon, Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays With Morrie ' ABC

Michael J. Fox, Spin City ' ABC

Sela Ward, Once And Again ' ABC

Halle Berry, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge ' HBO

Patricia Heaton, Everybody Loves Raymond ' CBS

Richard Schiff, The West Wing ' NBC

Hank Azaria, Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays With Morrie ' ABC

Sean Hayes, Will & Grace ' NBC

Allison Janney, The West Wing ' NBC

Vanessa Redgrave, If These Walls Could Talk 2 ' 1962 ' HBO

Megan Mullally, Will & Grace ' NBC

Linwood Boomer, Writer

Aaron Sorkin, Writer

David Simon, David Mills, Writers

Eddie Izzard, Writer

Worldwide Pants, Inc. Rob Burnett, Executive Producer; Barbara Gaines, Maria Pope, Producers

Broadway Video Inc. in association with SNL Studios. Lorne Michaels, Executive Producer; Ken Aymong, Supervising Producer; Marci Klein, Michael Shoemaker, Producers