59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: Lackluster and Censor Driven Technical Difficulties

This year's 59^th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. did not prove to be utterly exciting or eventful. While the show was well put together and did present some surprise in terms of winners, nothing truly note worthy happened this year. While there was no flashing of breasts or overt foul language, for those who missed the show you still may be interested in the mild highlights from "Television's Biggest Night."

This year the stage was in the center of the auditorium, leaving large part of the 6,000 people in attendance forced to watch the back of the show the entire night. This set-up was referenced the entire night and some much as being called the "worse seats" ever by James Spader during his acceptance speech. This year Emmy's did go "Green" with stage being made entirely of existing materials and the carpet made of recycled plastic bottles. Steve Colbert and Jon Stewart made light efforts of the "green" efforts during their presentation of Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Brian and Stewie Griffith of Fox's "The Family Guy" opened the show with a song commentary of the year in television called "You Can Find It On TV" poking funny at such T.V. happenings as Sunjaya of American Idol and the soon to be debuted show Cavemen and the much criticized final ending of the "The Sopranos."

Seacrest's opening monologue was your average and relatively safe opener. It certainly got a few laughs from the crowd, especially when Seacrest gave a cute "Hello Teri" to Teri Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives." Obviously calling attention to various rumors and tabloid photos regarding their "relationship." Ryan dazzled the audience with his knowledge of red carpet fashion from not only hosting various Red Carpet pre-shows in the past, but also from hosting this year's Pre-Show on E! Seacrest did the basic round the room introducing various casts sitting in the audience and the show went on. Believe it or not there were a few highlights even with the lack of excitement.

This year it was clear that there was a time limit for speeches. Awardees continued to mention being afraid of the timer and the "get off the stage" music cue seemed to come a lot sooner than in past years. The direction crew was clearly trying to keep time for its many advertisers, taking commercial breaks in between every two award presentations. One could have definitely lost count of the amount of times the Macy's Commercial featuring celebrity driven product lines appeared in the first hour alone. Ray Ramano graced the stage with a short set, which included a joke about his former co-star Patricia Heaton and her new show. Unfortunately part of the joke was missed do to a "glitch" when the camera angle was switched inadvertently and was only returned back to Ramano's attention when he ended with "Shame on you. We have TV children." The "glitch" appeared again later in the show during Katherine Heigl's win and another time during Sally Field's speech. Was this the show's attempt to curtail any inappropriate actions or language from appearing on-air? There were no "glitches' however when Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher of "Til Death," who presented Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, traded racy dialogue in which Garrett commented that Fisher's dress put her on "Charlie Sheen's To Do List." One cute moment was when Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy corrected the announcer's pronunciation of her name. Ellen Degeneress was a humorous highlight when she presented a montage of topical one-liners and a tribute to late broadcaster Tom Snyder. Christina Aguilera and Tony Bennett performed a lovely rendition "Stepping Out with My Baby" with dancers in tuxedo style costumes and canes. The pregnant Aguilera in fuchsia looked mature and sophisticated and their performance was well done.

During the show, Fox.com offered five bloggers' perspectives of the Award show that was constantly uploaded simultaneous throughout the evening. Queen Latifah presented a tribute to the thirtieth anniversary of the miniseries "Alex Haley's Roots". Later Cicely Tyson, Louis Gossett Jr, and Ben Verene and Levar Burton were among the cast members of "Roots" on-hand to present the award for Outstanding Miniseries. Before presenting the award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, Steve Carell showing a mock interviews of fellow cast mates from "The Office" discussing Carell in true "Office" fashion. Dick Askin, Chairman and CEO of Television Academy recognized American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" and HBO's "Addiction" project for their respective humanitarian and awareness campaigns. The cast of the musical "Jersey Boys," saluted "The Sopranos" by performing a medley of songs that included "Walk Like A Man" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." After the performance the entire cast of "The Sopranos" walked on stage and took a bow to a standing ovation. Comedian Louis Black humorous rant to TV producers, which covered the bogging down of shows with on-screen ads during the show and advertising during credits rolling. Wayne Brady selected Rainn Wilson and Kanye West in an impromptu Don't Forget the Lyrics style contest. West lost to Wilson because he pronounced the "you" instead of "ya" from his song "Stronger" from his new album. Sally Fields won for her work in "Brothers & Sisters" and gave a very rousing speech, until she lost track and began to stammer while the infamous music played in the background. The breakout winner of the evening would have to be America Ferrera of Ugly Betty. When her name was announced the crowd sitting around her instantly leapt their feet cheering, possibly the second most jovial response the entire show. The first would have to be for Hollywood's new darling Al Gore who along with Joel Hyatt won the newly created Creative Achievement in Interactive Television for their endeavor, Current Television. The duo received a standing ovation. The "Awww" moment of the evening had to be when Mr. Tony Bennett made the mistake of walking back to his seat with his Emmy for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. The last hurrah for "The Sopranos" came in a win for Outstanding Drama Series bring the saga's illustrious reign to a fitting end.

And the winners are...

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series -Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series- Terry O'Quinn, "Lost"

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series- Jaime Pressly, " My Name is Earl"

Supporting actor in a Miniseries or Movie- Thomas Hadden-Church, "Broken Trail"

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"

Writing for a Variety, Music , or Comedy Program - "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"

Directing for Variety, Music, or Comedy Program - Bob Marshall, "Tony Bennett An American Classic"

Lead Actor Miniseries or Movie - Robert Duvall, "Broken Trail"

Outstanding Miniseries - "Broken Trail"

Directing in a Drama Series- Alan Taylor, "The Sopranos"

Writing for a Drama Series - David Chase, "The Sopranos"

Variety Music or Comedy Series - "Daily Show with Jon Stewart"

Variety Music or Comedy Special - "Tony Bennett: an American Classic"

Supporting Actress in Miniseries or Movie - Judy Davis, "The Starter Wife"

Outstanding Made for Television Movie - "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"

Lead Actress in Miniseries or Movie - Helen Mirren, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"

Director Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special - Phillip Martin, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"

Writing Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special - Frank Deasy, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"

Creative Achievement in Interactive Television- Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, "Current TV"

Individual performance in Variety or Music Program- Tony Bennett, "Tony Bennett: An American Classic"

Directing for a Comedy Series - Richard Shepard, "Ugly Betty"; "Pilot" Episode

Writing for a comedy series - Greg Daniels, "The Office"; "Gay Witch Hunt" episode

Outstanding Reality Competition Program- "The Amazing Race"

Lead Actor in Comedy Series - Ricky Gervaise, "Extras"

Lead Actress in a Drama - Sally Fields, "Brothers & Sisters"

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"

Lead actor in a Drama Series - James Spader, "Boston Legal"

Outstanding Comedy Series - "30 Rock"

Outstanding Drama - "The Sopranos"