Nellie Andreeva

Louie‘s momentum continues. After largely flying under the radar for the first two seasons, the FX series’ third season earned a first Emmy award in September, then first SAG, Golden Globe and PGA nominations. And tonight Louis CK’s semi-autobiographical series won the top comedy prize at the WGA Awards, its first major best series honor. Louie snapped Modern Family‘s two-year streak to win the best comedy series WGA Award. ABC’s hit comedy didn’t leave empty-handed, converting one of its three episodic nominations to win for Elaine Ko-penned Virgin Territory.

Even bigger was the breakthrough for IFC’s cult series Portlandia. In one of the night’s biggest surprises, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s off-beat, modestly budgeted comedy beat out heavyweights The Daily Show, Colbert Report and Armisen’s Saturday Night Live, which had won the comedy/variety WGA Award for the past six years, to land its first major award of any kind. The winner for best new series was not such a shocker, with Lena Dunham’s Girls adding another trophy to its recent best comedy series Golden Globe and DGA Awards. On the drama side, AMC’s Breaking Bad repeated as best drama series while AMC’s Mad Men returned to the winners circle after skipping last year to earn an episodic prize for The Other Woman, written by Semi Chellas and Matthew Weiner.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.