OK, OK, you crazy Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. We get it. You guys can't be pigeonholed. You're nobody's rubber stamp. The point is made. At least for the moment, you are now officially wackier and less predictable than those Hollywood Foreign Press dudes and their offbeat ol' Golden Globes.

The word uttered most often from the audience at Sunday night's 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards -- a.k.a. Upset Central -- was "Who?" This was clearly one Emmyfest that went according to nobody's game plan, with Exhibit A being the unexpectedly stellar showing of the swan-songing "Everybody Loves Raymond" for its truncated final campaign.

Not only did "Raymond" defy the so-called experts -- we should have remembered that when it comes to the Emmys, there are no experts -- by knocking off "Desperate Housewives" and "Arrested Development" to claim its second top comedy prize; it also found Brad Garrett and Doris Roberts carting off their third and fourth supporting comedy acting statuettes, respectively.

Garrett wasn't supposed to win. Jeremy Piven of HBO's 'Entourage" was. And Roberts was supposed to lose to "Arrested Development's" Jessica Walter. But sentiment was obviously on both of their sides.

How did "Raymond" pull the comedy series upset? My theory is that voters looked at "Housewives," thought to themselves, "I like this show, but it isn't particularly funny," and then went with their heart rather than their head (or they would have marked down the superior "Arrested").

But the "Raymond" triumphs were merely the tip of the upset iceberg this night. Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross are supposed to be fighting it out for "Housewives," and so naturally their co-star Felicity Huffman wins (deservedly, I might add). Patricia Arquette was handicapped as maybe the fourth or fifth choice in her lead drama acting category for NBC's "Medium." It was pegged as a two-way race between Mariska Hargitay and Glenn Close. Her win was off-the-charts bizarre.

It was just one "You're kidding!" after another. S. Epatha Merkerson ("Lackawanna Blues") knocked off the favored Halle Berry ("Their Eyes Were Watching God") for lead movie/mini actress. Tony Shalhoub earned his second lead comedy acting trophy for USA Network's "Monk," while everyone was conceding either Jason Bateman or Ray Romano.

The acting favorites who actually held serve, as it were, were few on Sunday night -- namely, Geoffrey Rush (for "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers") and Paul Newman (for "Empire Falls"), Oscar winners both who earned their first Emmy triumphs.

But otherwise, it was a night when prevailing wisdom took it squarely on the chin. I mean, a PBS miniseries ("Masterpiece Theatre: The Lost Prince") beating an HBO entry ("Empire Falls")? Maybe voters got a little confused with their ballots and mistakenly thought they were going with "Lost: The Prince Episode."

How can Quentin Tarantino ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") lose a directing Emmy to J.J. Abrams (for the "Lost" pilot)? And then William Shatner -- William Shatner! -- wins his second straight Emmy for the same role. It was for "The Practice" last year in a guest spot, "Boston Legal" this time for supporting.

Somehow, too, FX, the network doing the most dynamic stuff in television, was shut out entirely on Sunday -- most perplexingly in Close's loss for "The Shield." While the parade of long-shot victories tells us that we're finally seeing participation in the voting process from more than merely the same 10 people, they still have a long way to go in their willingness to move beyond the same old same old.

Piven was robbed. Close was robbed. Denis Leary of FX's "Rescue Me" was robbed (of course, he wasn't even nominated). Hugh Laurie of "House" was robbed.

As for "Desperate Housewives," it wasn't robbed. That's what you get for entering as a comedy series when you're really a drama flaunting the absurdity of the system.

Arquette's win was something else again. Any guesses as to how this happened? I'm fresh out of viable theories.