The 63rd Emmy Awards on Sunday proved cable’s domination in the realm of dramatic primetime television.

The Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, one of the most anticipated awards of the ceremony, has historically been rotated among the Big Four networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. It was only at the 1999 Emmys with the nomination of The Sopranos that the nominee pool for the category began to shift to include cable networks such as HBO, AMC and Showtime.

This year, the tables completely turned. Only one purely broadcast show, The Good Wife, was nominated for the Outstanding Drama Emmy; broadcast’s only win in a major drama category was The Good Wife‘s Julianna Margulies’ Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

In the scope of the 2011 Emmys as a whole, cable television garnered 268 nominations to broadcast’s 221, breaking the almost-tied nomination counts from the 2010 Emmys. In actuality, among major categories, cable TV won nine Emmys compared to broadcast’s 14 (not including Friday Night Lights, which is a joint effort of DirecTV and NBC), only because there are 11 categories for comedy/reality and just nine for drama. The five categories for miniseries were split between broadcast and cable, which is why broadcast got the leg up. But far from the broadcast monopoly of the 1990s, the Emmys prove the truth that’s been tiptoeing its way into television over the past few years: The good shows are on cable.

It’s the underdogs with fewer programming restrictions that swoop in to save the TV junkies from the monotonous cycle of bar scenes cutting to apartment scenes cutting to workplace mishaps. Cable dominates when the criteria specify original thought, storyline and presentation — and it dominates when viewers are looking for something beyond sitcoms and singing competitions.

It’s unfortunate that all broadcast’s efforts to appeal to mass audiences are being usurped acclaim-wise by the originality they just can’t afford to try — the originality that, in premium cable’s case, only reaches a tiny sliver of the American television audience.

But it seems though the commemoration is somewhat skewed considering the audience size, America is getting exactly what it wants — either a full dose of heavy, creative dramas or humorous and comforting sitcoms, each in its own place. The tug of war between cable and broadcast is being intensified, but this is one fight that could end for the better.

diversions@umdbk.com