Mad Men wins three at Critics' Choice Television Awards

Mad Men stars best drama actor Jon Hamm as an advertising executive in 1960s New York

Mad Men was the big winner at the inaugural Critics' Choice Television Awards in Los Angeles, taking three awards including best drama.

Modern Family won best comedy but failed to add further prizes despite leading the field with six nods.

Organisers hope the event will be as successful at predicting Emmy winners as sister ceremony the Critics' Choice Movie Awards is at Oscar forecasting.

This year's TV Emmy nominees will be announced on 14 July.

Emmy winners will be announced on 18 September.

Mad Men's Jon Hamm won best drama actor while co-star Christina Hendricks shared best supporting actress with Justified's Margo Martindale.

Mad Men, which stars Hamm as an advertising executive in 1960s New York, made it a hat-trick of best drama Emmys at the 2010 ceremony.

Awards presenter Cat Deeley was nominated for best reality show host for So You Think You Can Dance

Modern Family also won best comedy at last year's awards.

Best actress in a drama went to Juliana Margulies for legal show The Good Wife while the equivalent comedy award went to Tina Fey for 30 Rock, set behind the scenes in a fictional live sketch comedy.

Other comedy prizes went to best actor Jim Parsons, for The Big Bang Theory, best supporting actor Neil Patrick Harris, for How I Met your Mother, and best supporting actress Busy Philipps, for Cougar Town.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Hoarders were joint winners of best reality series, American Idol won best reality competition and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show won best talk show.

Meanwhile, Danny DeVito, who won an Emmy in 1981 for TV sitcom Taxi, was honoured with the Icon Award.

The awards lunch was presented by Briton Cat Deeley who missed out on best reality show host - for Dancing with the Stars - to fellow nominee Mike Rowe, for Dirty Jobs.