— “Mad Men” and “30 Rock.” “That was a nail biter,” says Tina Fey, who then gets in a little dig at NBC’s “Leno Show” strategy: “I want to thank our friends [at NBC] for keeping us on the air even though we’re more expensive than a talk show.”
— Glenn Close wins for lead actress in a drama… Bryan Cranston wins for actor … producers are trying so hard to make this entertaining despite the winners being utterly predictable… Cranston says, “I’m so thankful that Glenn Close is actually a woman” — excellent example of a compliment gone awry.
—Matthew Weiner does the speaking when he and Kater Gordon win for drama writing — which is great that Weiner is finally getting a chance to talk.
— Michael Emerson wins for “Lost.” Deserved. He accepts with a gentle voice. Gentle Ben. …. Cherry Jones for “24”…
— Drama segue: “Battlestar Galactica,” “True Blood” clips … reminding us how many great shows were not nominated…
— Backstage reactions from winners here…
— Colbert didn’t win, again. “Daily Show” takes home award for outstanding variety/comedy show…
— Ricky Gervais, always good at this: “Better than last year, isn’t’? Though that was always in the cards wasn’t it? … That joke just for the 5,000 people in this room, not for the 5,000 people watching at home.”
— Wild guess: Jimmy Fallon’s ratings will not go up this week.
— Billy Crystal singing — Hey, didn’t you used to host something? They’re replacing not naming all the nominees with naming them with clever methods (the Facebook gag was pretty funny).
— These variety clips, man … bring back Ken Howard.
— PBS’ “Little Dorrit” wins best miniseries. HBO dispatches thugs to beat the crap out of Ken Burns.
— Dr. Horrible segment … but how many CBS viewers understood the reference?
— Backstage, Jeff Probst suggests “Amazing Race” withdraw from the reality category. “‘Amazing Race’ should do what Oprah did and just pull themselves out of the race and make room for the other people,” he said.”Race” producer take the stage next and say that’s unlikely…
— Brenden Gleeson makes me want to go to an Irish pub.
— Ken Howard wins for “Grey Gardens.” He gives a decade-old kidney transplant shout out. Aren’t we all grateful these mini categories weren’t time shifted?
— Outstanding supporting actress in movie or mini clips = people looking sad.
— Backstage, somebody asks Toni Collette to comment about the phenomenon of “cougars.” Basically, they called Collette a cougar and wanted her opinion about that. “Is there a question amongst that?” she asks, looking a bit horrified. “I think that’s somebody else’s fantasy.”
— Reality host. Jeff Probst wins again. Wonder if he’ll settle into an “Amazing Race”-like annual win of this two-year-old category…
— Segue to “reality” portion of Emmys. Why, it’s almost like going from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland at Disney…
— CBS airs one of the “Family Guy” “Where’s My Emmy?!” toons
— Alec Baldwin wins for “30 Rock.” Again.
— Backstage, Kristin Chenoweth’s dress is super sparkle-y. If somebody dipped her in a lake, all the fish would go nuts
— Outstanding direction for a comedy series… Jeff Blitz, “The Office” …
— Cryer is asked about why Harris had an easy time coming out. “I don’t think it was easy until Neil did it it,” Cryer says, “I think Neil is blazing a trail…”
— Our humble press tent on TV! NPH explains to viewers that this is “where you go when you win” … but that’s if you’re an actor, not necessarily if you’re a reporter…
— Toni Collette wins for the comedy-for-awards purposes Showtime series “United States of Tara”
— Trying to decide what I thought of the wacky eye-wear for comedy actress nominees … it was so silly but it felt, by the time we got to a monocle and pipe, it kinda worked…
— Jon Cryer wins for “Two and a Half Men” — no Emmy for Neil Patrick Harris tonight …
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes crack about this being “the last official year of network broadcast television…”
— Matt Hubbard, “30 Rock” wins for outstanding writing in comedy series…
— Kristin Chenoweth wins for “Pushing Daisies” and promptly loses it in adorable squeaky tears…
— Seth MacFarlane was one of the few mocked celebrities in an awards show audience I’ve seen who didn’t seem secretly annoyed by being teased …
— This is a nice Entertainment Tonight behind-the-scenes look at the Emmys. Wait, this is the actual telecast? And the point of a stage tour is…
— Kanye joke — “Here’s hoping Kanye West likes ’30 Rock” … but is it the last?
— Nicely done opening song. Harris seems ridiculously comfortable live in front of millions of viewers…
— NPH takes stage. Damn. I thought you had to choose a black or white tux. You can do both?
— Do you want to start the Emmy awards with an intro that references using TV to watch The Big Game sporting event when there’s a Giants vs. Cowboys game airing against awards?
OK. Sitting in Emmy press tent on top of Nokia parking garage … two bottles of Smart Water, check. Two cans of Coke, check…. let’s go… if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Emmy Awards order of categories revealed post…
