Emmy night's snubs and surprises

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Winners, losers from the 2015 Emmy Awards

Michael Tammero recaps all the action

This year’s Emmy race proved to be highly unpredictable, probably as a result of rule changes that opened up the voting to the broader membership.

Among the biggest snubs of the night:

• Beloved “Better Call Saul” star Jonathan Banks was considered the frontrunner for supporting drama actor — so much so that his competition didn’t even bother to write speeches, including winner Peter Dinklage.
• Except for Jon Hamm’s big win, “Mad Men” was out of the running in the writing and directing categories for its farewell season.
• “American Horror Story: Freak Show” came away empty-handed in the acting categories — a first for the “AHS” franchise since its inception.
• “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” made a splash with seven nominations but was not destined for Emmy glory for its first season.

Among the surprises:

• “Game of Thrones” commanded the ultimate respect from the Academy with writing, directing and best series wins.
• Regina King of “American Crime” prevailed over the showier work by a two-headed Sarah Paulson and a bearded Kathy Bates in “American Horror Story: Freak Show”
• “The Voice” dethroned long-time reality series champ “The Amazing Race” for a second time in three years.
• Tony Hale of “Veep” topped odds-on favorite Tituss Burgess of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” in the supporting comedy actor field.
• With its stage pedigree, PBS’ “Wolf Hall” seemed like Emmy bait, but it had no traction with voters in final judging.
• Director David Nutter, a winner for “Game of Thrones,” is known as the king of drama pilots, but his first series Emmy win came for a show that he did not helm at the pilot stage. (He previously won an Emmy for his work on the HBO mini “Band of Brothers.”)