The Emmys in the Round

Well, there is no doubt that watching the Emmys last night could have been worse. I could have been in the audience and been one of the ones seated behind the stage, forced to watch all the boring stuff AND people's asses and the backs of their heads. Really, who came up with this award show in the round idea. The cameras and microphones were one way so half the audience only got to see the back end of what was going on.

I was disappointed in the Emmys last night. Mostly I think the hosting was the pits. I never have seen what the big deal is with Ryan Seacrest and why he's suddenly hosting everything from American Idol to the New Years Eve countdown to radio shows to guest-hosting Larry King Live and now the Emmys. Award shows needs someone with a sense of humour and spontaneity, not a talking head that read off the prompter and whose idea of a humourous segment is him showing up in a historical costume. Ellen Degeneres spent all of two minutes presenting a ridiculous montage of one-liners from the late shows with a tribute to the late Tom Snyder tacked on but all it did was make me realize that she was more entertaining in those two minutes than Seacrest was all night. Barring Ellen as host, I don't think the Emmys would have done to bad to have Elaine Stritch do the job. She definitely was one of the night's highlights when she said, while having trouble reading the teleprompter, "I'm not faking this, I really don't know what the hell I'm doing." I'm pretty sure there was a loud, collective "awww" from the audience when she left the stage. Other highlights included Lewis Black's spot-on rant about television programming (odd though it may have been in a night meant to celebrate the medium), The Roots Tribute, and Jon Stewart giving his friend Steve Carell the award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series when the real winner, Ricky Gervais, wasn't there to accept it (Carell was nominated in the same category).

Fox really went overboard promoting their own shows with an opening song and dance number from The Family Guy which was funny but just didn't seem right there. I LOVE The Family Guy but not necessarily as an opening number. But at least it was entertaining. The same cannot be said for the ridiculous segment where Wayne Brady plugged his new show on Fox, Don't Forget the Lyrics, while having a Kanye West lyric contest with Kanye himself and The Office's Rainn Wilson. What a waste of time.

As for the awards themselves, there were a few surprises. A lot of people seem upset at the James Spader win for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series against James Gandolfini and Hugh Laurie, among others. Well (please don't hurt me for saying this Trudy), I think James Spader is brilliant in Boston Legal and although I would have been very happy with a Hugh Laurie win, I was also pleased with a Spader win. I was very happy for Tina Fey when 30 Rock won for best comedy. I had other favourites there I wanted to win but you have to appreciate it when an underdog gets a nod like that and Fey's thanking the "dozens of viewers" of the show was fun.

I cannot end this post without mentioning the silly bleeping methods of Fox. When something "offensive" was uttered, they did not bleep, they inserted a shot of a big disco ball and complete silence that seemed to go on forever, leaving me to wonder if there had been some major technical difficulty the first couple of times it happened. Where, oh where, was the disco ball when Ryan was standing there in that absurd costume?