Los Angeles (California) [US], September 20 (ANI): The 2021 Emmy Awards on Sunday night kicked off to a rollicking start, leaving last year's COVID-shellshocked ceremony safely in its rearview mirror with this year's awards being distributed at LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles, California.

Emerging as evening's biggest winners were 'The Crown', 'Ted Lasso', and 'Mare of Easttown', which scored major victories. Along with these wins, the awards show also brought with it its share of snubs and surprises.

Some deserving nominees were overlooked by the Television Academy, and some scored wins in categories where they faced strong competition.

Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 73rd edition of the Annual Emmy Awards:Snub: 'WandaVision'While the Disney Plus series 'WandaVision' from Marvel Studios took home three awards at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend, for production, costume design and music, the action series was completely shut out of the Primetime Emmys. Fans and critics alike had loved the inventive show this past winter, in which Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) eventually faced her grief from losing Vision (Paul Bettany).

The show winning no major awards on Sunday night, after receiving 23 total nominations, proved to be the biggest snub of the show. The series was predicted to win at least two awards for acting: both Kathryn Hahn and Bettany were heavily tipped as favourites in their categories for limited series drama.

Surprise: Kate Winslet for 'Mare of Easttown'For most of the entire Emmys season, the frontrunner in the extremely competitive actress in a limited series category leaned toward Anya Taylor-Joy in 'The Queen's Gambit', who portrayed an orphan chess prodigy, who's also a pill addict and an alcoholic. But cut to this spring, and along came Winslet as Mare in HBO's spring limited series obsession 'Mare of Easttown'Winslet played Mare as a dogged detective investigating a murder in her town outside of Philly, where she knows every single person -- and has to navigate those closest to her being suspects. This was Winslet's second Emmy win for an HBO project: She also won in this same category for 2011's 'Mildred Pierce'.

Snub: Michael K. WilliamsMichael K. Williams was expected to win for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. Not because of his recent death at the age of 54, (the voting took place before that), but because he delivered a finely crafted, nuanced performance in 'Lovecraft Country'.

It doesn't seem that enough voters saw the HBO sci-fi series, which was cancelled after one season. Instead, the Emmys heaped another trophy on 'The Crown', giving the prize to Tobias Menzies for playing Prince Philip.

Surprise: Ewan McGregor for 'Halston'McGregor, who'd been previously nominated in the limited series drama category for 'Fargo', took home his first Emmy for 'Halston'. He delivered a transformative performance as the 1970s fashion designer, who battled addiction at the peak of his career.

However, McGregor was considered an underdog, since Ryan Murphy's 'Halston' on Netflix was met with mixed reviews when it premiered in May and Bettany was the frontrunner for the award for his role in 'WandaVision'.

Snub: 'The Handmaid's Tale'Among the multiple nominees left out due to The Crown's reign was the 21-time nominee 'The Handmaid's Tale', which had previously been the only streaming series to win the best drama award at the Emmys, taking the top prize in 2017 in a coup for Hulu.

The show was so popular with the TV Academy that it received multiple nominations in 2019 solely off of hanging episodes, but in 2021 the series won none of the awards for which it was nominated.

Snub: 'The Underground Railroad'Barry Jenkins's absolutely masterful, lyrical adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel of the same name deserved all the awards, and it would have deserved all the nominations too.

Though it went into the evening as a contender for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, sadly it didn't win either.

Surprise: Olivia ColmanPrediction for lead actress in a drama category was that either Mj Rodriguez ('Pose') or Colman's 'Crown' co-star Emma Corrin (who played Princess Diana) was going to take this trophy. Also, either one of those winners would have been historic, as Rodriguez would have been the first transgender winner in a major acting category, and Corrin would have been the first openly gender non-binary winner.

But Colman, who played Queen Elizabeth on Seasons 3 and 4 of 'The Crown', took home the trophy, leaving everyone surprised. Even she herself was so surprised that in her acceptance speech she said, "I would have put money on that not happening."The TV Academy limited the 2021 ceremony to about 600 attendees, due to health and safety guidelines as the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to rage across the US.

All attendees were required to show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test, taken 48 hours before the ceremony. The event was also moved outdoors to L.A. Live's Event Deck at the Microsoft Theater and the media centre was replaced by a virtual counterpart, as per Variety. (ANI)