As ceremony honours Robin Williams

Ricky Gervais has lost out on winning an Emmy for Derek to Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory.

The Office creator had been nominated for best actor in a comedy series for his simple-minded care home helper, but it was not to be.

He tweeted a picture of himself in the stalls of the Emmys venue – the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles – last night with the hashtag '#loser'.

Meanwhile Julia Louis-Dreyfus won best comedy actress for her starring role in Veep.

Modern Family was named best comedy series and star Ty Burrell best supporting actor in a comedy. Allison Janney from the sitcom Mom scooped best supporting actress.

And Louis CK won the Emmy for best writing in a comedy series.

Jimmy Fallon was named best guest actor in a comedy for his Saturday Night Live appearance; and Uzo Aduba best guest actress of Orange Is The New Black.

The Colbert Report was named best variety series as well as the writing award in the same category.

A tribute to Mel Brooks won the Emmy for best variety special, with Sarah Silverman winning the writing award for her stand-up show We Are All Miracles.

Tributes were paid to Robin Williams during the ceremony, led by Billy Crystal.

He said: 'He made us laugh. Hard. Every time you saw him - on television, movies, nightclubs, arenas, hospitals, homeless shelters for our troops overseas. And even in a dying girl's living room for her last wish, he made us laugh. Big time.

'I spent many happy hours with Robin on stage. The brilliance was astounding. The relentless energy was kind of thrilling. I used to think if I could just put a saddle on him and stay on him for eight seconds I was going to do OK.

'It is very hard to talk about him in the past because he was so present in all of our lives. For almost 40 years he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy.

'While some of the brightest of our celestial bodies are actually extinct now, their energy long since cooled, but miraculously, because they float in the heavens so far away from us now, their beautiful light will continue to shine on us forever.'

But some viewers felt that producers were wrong to include a clip of a Robin Williams stand-up performance which they branded racist. In the footage he grabbed a pink scarf from an audience member and pretended it was a hijab and cried: 'I would like to welcome you to Iran… Help me!'

And in his own tribute, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel wore Mork’s trademark rainbow braces to the awards underneath his traditional black tuxedo.

Published: 26 Aug 2014