It’s Emmy night, baby! Tonight is the night when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences celebrates primetime television by awarding various shows, producers, directors and actors for their talent and creativity over the last year. Ryan Seacrest is set to host the event and we’ll be covering every minute of it right here. From the awards to the lengthy speeches to Seacrest’s witty banter and anything else that happens.
We invite you to comment below with your thoughts and opinions! Stay tuned as the ceremony is set to begin in mere moments!
8:00 p.m.: Here we go! Brian and Stewie Griffin open the show. They make fun of TV, calling it trash. They follow up with this comment with a song, celebrating the crappiness of TV. Scrubs, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives and The Sopranos all get mentions in the song, among others. The crowd is enjoying the song. When Isaiah Washington’s name gets mentioned, the camera zooms in on T.R. Knight. The best joke in the song was when they brought up The Sopranos and the song cut out and the screen went to black. The joke’s getting a little old but it still works.
8:04 p.m.: Seacrest starts his opening monologue by applauding the past hosts of the Emmy’s including Carson, Conan and Ellen. Everyone claps. He makes a not-quite-funny joke about how unlike the other hosts, he showed up to do the red carpet pre-show. He goes down to flirt with Eva Longoria and talk about her outfit. He then seeks out William Shatner. Shatner pokes fun at his own tux. Now Seacrest is talking about the set. This is seriously a weird opening monologue. Seriously, it’s totally awkward like he knows he cant be as funny as the previous hosts yet he’s trying to anyway. Lucky for Seacrest, he’s good on his feet even when he’s bad with the jokes.
Now Seacrest is talking about some of the big shows up for awards like Ugly Betty, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Entourage, Two and a Half Men, Heroes. He stops to make a joke about seating Hayden Panettiere as far away from Jeremy Piven as possible, now that she’s 18 and legal.
Seacrest pretends like he’s going to sing then cuts himself off and introduces the first presenter, Ray Romano…
8:09 p.m.: Ray Romano comes out and does a bit of stand-up comedy. At one point, the camera cut away and the sound cut out. When it came back to Romano, he made a joke about having children (watching?), which could explain why they cut from the audio. Perhaps whatever he said wouldn’t have been appreciated by the FCC.
Romano talks about how his wife wants him to get back into television. He talks about how his fights with his wife are useless since he can no longer use them for the episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. He then makes a joke about the circular stage he’s standing on and how he feels bad for the people seated behind him. That segways into talk about the Sopranos and now he’s presenting. I guess they asked him to do a bit of comedy before his presentation to fill the minute normally allotted for the host (who, in this case, ran out of stuff to say).
8:13 p.m.:Jeremy Piven wins Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Entourage! He keeps his speech short and gets teary as he dedicates his award to his late father.
8:14 p.m.: Vanessa Williams and America Ferrara present for Best Supporting Actor In A Drama Series. Terry O’Quinn wins it for Lost. This is his first win. Go Locke!!! O’Quinn is wearing a shockingly pink shirt. He makes a joke about Desperate Housewives and how nice it would be to get their paychecks. O’Quinn goes on to acknowledge his co-stars and thanks everyone. Another short speech! I wonder if they’re really rushing them this year.
8:21 p.m.: Seacrest is back and talking about women in television this year. He makes a joke about Weeds followed by a drug joke directed at Paula Abdul. Heh. That was actually pretty good.
8:22 p.m.: Tina Fey and Julia Louise Dreyfus present the awards for Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series. I’m really hoping Jenna Fischer takes this one! Jaime Pressly wouldn’t be bad either. And its Jaime Pressly for My Name Is Earl! She says she had a funny line prepared by Greg Garcia but she cant think of it. She seems genuinely humbled and her demeanor is so far from her character on the show (who usually yells in that exaggerated southern drawl). Now she’s crying but its ok because she looks gorgeous as she thanks everyone.
8:26 p.m.: Kyle Chandler and Katherine Heigl come out to present for Supporting Actor in a mini-series. The announcer pronounced Heigl’s name with a soft G (is this announcer living under a rock?!) and Heigl politely corrected the unseen voice before going on with the presentation. I thought that was funny because I think most of us were thinking the same thing. Thomas Haden Church wins it for Broken Trail. Church gives a brief teary speech and we’re off to a commercial.
8:33 p.m.: Ellen is here being funny (maybe she can take over for Seacrest who is doing fine but is kind of boring). She babbles as she waits for the prompter which tells her to introduce a montage of one-liners from TV shows. The montage shows late-night hosts like Conan and Leno as well as Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Colbert and some other funny men making humorous remarks on their shows. It’s the best of the one-liners, I guess. Now we have clips of these hosts talking about Tom Snyder. That was kind of random and totally switched the mood from kind of funny to serious. It’s great to acknowledge his death but I don’t think it fit with the rest of the montage.
8:37 p.m.: The cast of Entourage comes out with Eva Longoria to present for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series. Its mostly Grey’s Anatomy and Sopranos stars in this category. Katherine Heigl wins it for Grey’s!. Good for her. She thanks the guys for getting her name right and says her own mother told her she didn’t have a shot in hell of winning this tonight. The camera goes to her mom, who’s looking serious. Katherine looks like Marilyn in a beautiful white gown. She’s crying and saying she’s honored to be among the people she’s nominated with, especially Chandra and Sandra. The music is coming up to cut her off. That’s the first time that’s happened tonight.
8:41 p.m.: Jennifer Love Hewitt and John Cryer come out to present for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Musical or Comedy. As all of the nominees are listed off for each show, there are lots of humorous clips that have been submitted by the various funny-shows. The team from Late Night With Conan O’Brien wins. One of the writers says “Thanks to O.J., we’ll have a show tomorrow.” That gets a much-deserved laugh.
8:50 p.m.: Seacrest makes a joke about the Kid Nation kids powering the set by running on treadmills. Ok, the jokes are getting marginally better. He then announces Christina Aguilera and Tony Bennett. Christina’s wearing a gorgeous pink dress. Her and Bennett’s voices really compliment each other as they duet “Steppin’ Out With My Baby.” The dancers look like they fell out of a production of Chicago.
8:53 p.m.:Alec Baldwin presents for Best Directing Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program to Bob Marshall for his special on Tony Bennett. What a great way to follow up the brief but fantastic musical performance by Bennett.
8:57 p.m. Ali Larter and Kiefer Sutherland present an award to Robert Duvall for Best Actor in a Lead Actor In A Miniseries or Movie. Duvall talks about the western genre and how proud he is to be an actor in this business and then the music cuts him off.
Ok, so we made it through the first hour and so far, most of the speeches have been surprisingly short. No complaints there!
9:03 p.m.: Queen Latifah is talking about Roots. We get some clips from the show and see Latifah looking stunning in a gorgeous, red gown that flatters her curvy figure. She talks about how Roots spoke to people of different races and ages. I think my dad still has a Roots marathon recorded on VHS that he has yet to get all the way through but I agree with what Latifah is saying about this powerful series.
The Roots stars step out onto the stage to a huge applause, which quickly turns into a standing ovation. They talk about how Roots changed their lives and how it affected the lives of the viewers. They’re presenting the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries. Is it just me or could Lou Gossett Jr. sound strong and intelligent even if he were reading the back of a shampoo bottle? Broken Trail wins, of course. Good for them. I don’t even like westerns that much and I thought that miniseries was fantastic.
Duvall accepts the award and seems to be continuing the speech he started earlier. Once again, the music comes up slowly to remind him to finish up.
9:09 p.m. Neil Patrick Harris and Hayden Panettiere step onto the stage to announce the winners for the Outstanding Guest Actors in a drama series. These awards were already awarded at the Creative Arts ceremony. Leslie Caron won for Guest Actress and she takes the stage to announce Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Its unlikely but I would love to see Battlestar win! Alan Taylor wins for The Sopranos.
9:14 p.m.: Harris and Panettiere now present for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Let me guess - Sopranos again. Yup! David Chase wins for Sopranos. Whatever. Sopranos is a fine show but Battlestar Galactica never gets any love at these things.
9:20 p.m.: Steve Carell takes the stage to present and he’s quietly hilarious. He keeps saying “Thank you. You are very nice.” He’s talking about the awesomeness of The Office and how he’s a part of a great “en-semble.” Cut to clip of the Office actors talking to the camera Office-style about Carell. And now back to Steve announcing the award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Series. Jon Stewart takes the award for The Daily Show (again!). Stewart owns this category.
9:25 p.m.: The Tony Bennett Special wins another award. This time its for Variety Comedy or Music Special. Bennett stands there quietly holding the Emmy as the other recipients shout names into the microphone. Bennett smiles and then thanks everyone and points out his beautiful wife. Awww. His wife is really young!
9:28 p.m.Boy, is Marcia Cross sporting a lot of cleavage tonight! And now the award for Supporting Actress In A Miniseries and the Emmy goes to Judy Davis for The Starter Wife. And Judy is no where to be found.
9:29 p.m. Chairman of the Television Academy takes the stage to talk about Bob Hope and the efforts that have been made on television to raise money and awareness for charities. The point of this is to announce the awards given to FOX for Idol Gives Back and HBO’s Addiction. I’m making a mental note to check my HBO On Demand to see if Addiction is available.
A brief note about the commercials. Fox REALLY wants us to watch Back To You. Please. Watch it.
9:36 p.m.: Kyra Sedgwick, Glenn Close and Mary Lousie Parker are on stage talking about powerful women in television. Women are rocking these days! And the award for Outstanding Television or Movies. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee wins. Geez, after that girl-power lead in, I really expected Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy to win this one!
9:39 p.m.: Joe Mantegna announces the performance by The Jersey Boys. They sing “Walk Like A Man” and they’re totally lip-synching but the dancing is fun to watch. The song goes into a solo of “Cant Take My Eyes Of You” Ok, so there’s Sopranos clips playing on screens in the background that we’re now getting to see between close-ups of the singer (who appears to be actually singing now). They go back into a group number and I’ve given up trying to figure out if they’re really singing at this point but the clips from Sopranos are great. What a fantastic lead-in to the cast of Sopranos taking the stage to take a bow.
9:49 p.m.: Sally Field and Patrick Dempsey are on stage and complimenting on how lovely they look. They’re presenting for Best Actress for a Miniseries or Movie. Go Debra Messing! I loved The Starter Wife. Helen Mirren wins for Prime Suspect: The Final Act. Didn’t see it so I have nothing to comment but as she’s won four Emmy’s before, she probably deserved this one.
9:51 p.m.: Lewis Black takes the stage and as always, starts being loud and insulting because that’s what he does best. I can take this guy in very small doses. Where is Seacrest? He’s supposed to be host but he’s barely been around. Once again a stand-up comic is here instead. Black is making fun of the networks pushing other shows while airing episodes of their current shows. Now he’s ranting about crawl-bars on news shows. “Why not just fill the screen with all the most useless information you can and have a sock-puppet talk to us!” gets a laugh. He says they’re giving us Attention Deficit Disorder then wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and tells us to watch Fox’s fall lineup. Then a crawl-bar appears. Hilarious.
9:56 p.m. Seacrest comes back for two seconds to announce the presenters for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseres, Movie or Dramatic Special. Phillip Martin wins for Prime Suspect: The Final Act. And now the award for Outstanding Writing a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special. Frank Deasy wins for Prime Suspect.
Are we done with the miniseries stuff yet?
10:08 p.m. Sorry, I fell behind for a bit.. Al Gore won some kind of award for Interactive TV and now Tony Bennett just won an award for Individual Performance In a Variety or Music Program . Bennett is so old and sweet. It makes me happy that they’re flooding him with awards tonight.
10:11 p.m. Teri Hatcher and K-Ville’s Anthony Anderson announce the presenters for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, Stanley Tucci and Elaine Stritch (who won Best Guest Star Emmys this year). The two banter back and forth for a bit and now its on to the award. The winner is Richard Shepard for Ugly Betty!. Go Betty!!! This could bode well for Betty’s chances at the Best Comedy Emmy.
And now we’re on to Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. The Office got more than one nominee in this category, as did the hilarious, 30 Rock. Greg Daniels wins it for The Office’s “Gay Witch Hunt” episode. Daniels’ gives a quiet little speech about bringing the group together to make this episode. It’s sweet but he’s being shh’ed off by the music.
10:23 p.m. Ryan has given up trying to be funny and has resorted to just dressing funny by wearing the an outfit from Henry VIII. He announces Wayne Brady, who comments on Seacrest looking like a medieval pimp. Ha! Everyone is funnier than Seacrest tonight! Brady takes special care to announce the presenters for the next award extra-dramatically. He calls Rainn Wilson up to the stage and then (surprise!) its Kanye West, sharing the stage with Wilson. Brady is keeping up with his game-show-host act. He says whoever loses this contest tonight will retire from show-business. Now West and Wilson are playing a round of Don’t Forget The Lyrics. Could FOX pimp their shows any harder tonight?! Luckily, Wilson and Brady are funny and West is a sport for poking fun at his own music and laughing at Wilson as he does the same. It's nice to see West with a sense of humor, especially when it seems like he usually takes everything so seriously!
The two announce the winner for the Emmy for Best Reality Program. The Amazing Race wins and we get clips of people fighting. Top Chef should have won but at least we got to see a brief clip of Rob and Kimberly bickering.
10:36 p.m.: Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are on stage talking about being green. Colbert is holding a leaf blower that’s fueled by Al Gore’s tears. Stewart suggests giving up Award Shows altogether to which Colbert replies, “If Entertainment people stop rewarding each other, the earth wins!” Why couldn’t these guys have hosted this thing?!
And the winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series is Ricky Gervais for Extras!. Gervais is a comic genius! Hahaha Jon Stewart just said since Gervais couldn’t be here, they’re giving the award to their friend, Steve Carell. Carell takes the stage and he, Colbert and Stewart jump around hugging and celebrating.
10:40 p.m.: Hugh Laurie and Felicity Huffman present the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series to Sally Field for Brothers and Sisters. You like me! You really like me! Please plug Boniva, Sally! She doesn’t. She dedicates her award to all of the mothers of the world. Wow. She’s so well spoken which probably comes from years of accepting awards. She gets flustered for a bit and then yells, “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no Go----” Whatever came after that must’ve been littered with swear words because they cut the sound. What was I saying about well-spoken? Aw, who cares? She’s still adorable.
10:44 p.m. We get the annual tribute to the TV stars who are now deceased. RIP Steve Irwin. Jack Palance, Jane Wyman, Tom Poston, Tom Snyder, Ed Bradley, Merv Griffin, Luciano Pavarotti and many others are featured.
10:51 p.m.: William Shatner and Debra Messing are on stage and after some very brief banter, they present the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Go America!. YES!!!! America Ferrara wins for Ugly Betty! Yay!!! She’s so beautiful! She made me cry at the Golden Globes when she gave her acceptance speech and once again, my eyes are tearing up a bit now. She’s just so grateful and proud of the role she’s playing.
10:54 p.m.: Jimmy Smits and Kate Walsh are about to present the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The award goes to James Spader for Boston Legal. Spader says he feels like he just stole a pile of money from the mob (in reference to beating out James Gandolfini). Spader shares Shatner’s talent at dry wit. There’s times when you cant even tell if he’s joking or not but that makes it all the more funnier, I think. He thanks everyone and we’re back to commercials. This is the part where they stretch out the show even more by cutting to commercials constantly between announcing all of the big awards. Blah.
11:02 p.m.: Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton are on stage to announce the winner for Outstanding Comedy Series. Holy crap, 30 Rock actually won it! I didn’t think they had a chance against some of the other “bigger” shows. Nice job on that, Academy! Fey thanks everyone who works on their show as well as their families for putting up with their schedule. She then thanks their “dozens and dozens of viewers.” Ha! AND commercial. Geez. Watch K-Ville. Watch Prison Break. Watch reruns of Friends and According to Jim (those ones were local so you might’ve gotten something different there). We get it already, FOX!
11:08 p.m.: Helen Mirren announces the award for Outstanding Drama Series. And the Emmy goes to The Sopranos. No surprise there. The show wrapped up its last season so it was kind of obvious that the Academy would throw one last award at it and let the cast take the stage at the Emmy’s “just one. More. Time.”
11:11 p.m. : Seacrest says good-bye and amazingly enough, the show is over, just 11 minutes over schedule.
And that concludes this live-blog. Post your thoughts below on what you thought of the ceremony! Did Seacrest bore you as much as he bored me? What was your favorite moment? Favorite speech? Were you disappointed at all because your favorites didn’t win? Personally, as much as I love Katherine Heigl, I would’ve preferred Sandra Oh to take the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award. Anyone agree with me there?
