The US:British comedy star Ricky Gervais and actress Helen Mirren won top awards at the US Emmys in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
Gervais won best comedy series actor for Extras and Oscar-winning Mirren won best actress for Prime Suspect: The Final Act.
A standing ovation greeted the cast of The Sopranos, who gathered on stage after the drama had claimed honours for best writing and directing. Actor Joe Mantegna paid tribute to the show as "having changed the face of television".
The US television industry was paying a final tribute to the cast following the ending of the six-season series in a night otherwise filled with upsets.
The telecast took an emotionally-charged political turn when veteran Sally Field took the stage for her surprise Emmy win as best actress in a drama in the new series Brothers and Sisters, playing a mother whose son ships off to serve in the Iraq war.
"I'm proud to be one of those women, and let's face it, if mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamned wars in the first place," Field said to applause in a comment partially bleeped from the live Fox network telecast.
Al Gore, meanwhile, also received a standing ovation as his Current TV channel, which features viewer-created videos, was honoured for achievement in interactive television.
"We are trying to open up the television medium so that viewers can help to make television, and join the conversation of democracy and reclaim American democracy by talking about the choices we have to make," said Gore, whose global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, received an Oscar earlier this year.