The 2007 Emmy Awards Review

The evening started off with a cute little song and dance routine from Stewie and Brian of "Family Guy" before we had to watch Seacrest go out into the audience and mingle with his celebrity friends. Thankfully they kept this segment short but unfortunately we were then treated to a mini stand-up routine by Ray Romano before he presented the first award of the night. His comedy fell flat and he looked painfully nervous, no wonder since his routine was so weak.

Romano went on to present the Best Supporting Actor In A Comedy award to Jeremy Piven for "Entourage". Very well deserved and his acceptance speech was short and to the point and a little touching as he rembered his father.

Next up were "Ugly Betty" stars America Ferrerra and Vanessa Williams to present Best Supporting Actor In A Drama which went to Terry O'Quinn for "Lost".Another short speech which he barely seemed to have started before the band tried to cut him off with the music. They really seem to be trying to move things along tonight.

We were then treated to another dose of Seacrest who took a nasty little dig at Pula Abdul who missed it entirely. I hope they keep his "witty banter" as short as the acceptance speeches. He then introduced Tina Fey and Julia Louis Dreyfuss to present the Best Supporting Actress In A Comedy award which went to Jaime Pressley for "My Name Is Earl". A very touching speech and the first tears of the night.

Kathleen Heigl (the announcer embarrasingly mis-pronounced her name) and Kyle Chandler were the next presenters for Best Supporting Actor In a Miniseries Or Movie which went to Thomas Haden Church for "Broken Trail". Weird acceptance speech which started off goofy and just as he got a little misty and emotional, the band decided it was time to get him off the stage.

Ellen DeGeneres was the next presenter and she went on a very unfunny rambling routine about how she had forgotten what it was she was presenting before finally presenting a montage of "topical one-liners" made up of clips of clips from late night talk shows which weirdly segued into a memorial to Tom Snyder.

Next up to present were the male leads from "Entourage" and Eva Longoria. Is it really necessary to have six people present one award? They were presenting the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress In A Drama which went to Katherine Heigl for "Grey's Anatomy", and thankfully they got her name right this time. She seemed genuinely surprised to win and gave a great acceptance speech.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jon Cryer were the next presenters to give the award for Outstanding Writing In a Comedy Series which went to the writers of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien". Maybe they should have hired some of these guys to punch up some of the little skits the presenters have to do before presenting which are mostly painful. It's amazing that they let them spout out this nonsense yet cut off the winners wo have something decent to say.

A little musical interlude as Christina Aguilera and Tony Bennett performed a duet. Not my cup of tea but it's actually nice to see one of these little pop divas that can actually sing.

Alec Baldwin was the next presenter, looking very dapper in a white jacket, and it was his job to present the awars for Directing A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program" which went to the director of a Tony Bennett musical special. What a coincedence that would be the winner just as Tony Bennett was on stage. hat are the chances?

Next up Kiefer Sutherland and the very beautiful and elegantly dressed Ali Larter to presen the Emmy for Best Lead Actor In MIniseries Or Movie which went to Robert Duvall for "Broken Trail" which is the second award tonight for that movie. His speech was very dry and boring and I'm sure everyone was delighted when the music started signalling him to wrap it up.

Queen Latifah was next, and she brought out a number of members of the cast of "Roots" which is celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. This is a show that really deserves the honors being heaped upon it tonight. The cast then went on to resent the award for Outstanding Miniseries which went to "Broken Trail" whic ih cleaning up so far. Robert Duvall accepted and continued where he left off on his previous speech. He is reciting his memoirs on stage tonight.

Neil Patrick Harris and Hayden Panittiere announced the winners of the secondary awards (best guest spot by an actor and actress) that are given out in a seperate untelevised event. Leslie caron won one of those and as a supplementary award of sorts was given the honor of presenting the award for Best Directing In A Drama Series which went to Alan Taylor for an episode of "The Sopranos". Harris & Panittiere returned to present a writing award which went to David Chase for "The Sopranos".

At last, a bit that was actually funny, with Steve Carell presenting and other members of "The Office" chiming in with videotaped bits talking about him. He then went on to present the award for Best Variety, Comedy Or Music Series which went to "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart". Carell styed on stage and presented for Best Variety, Comedy Or Music Special which went to "Tony Bennett : An American Classic".

As has become obligatory with all awards shows nowadays, we got to meet the accountants who tabulate the votes. Three people who are more wooden than Pinocchio.

Mark Harmon and Marcia Cross were the next presenters with the task of presenting for Best Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or Movie which went to Judy Davis for "The Starter Wife". The first person to win who was not in attendance. Next up is bathroom break time as the Chairman and CEO of the Television Academy talks about how wonderful television is and how it contributes to society.

Kyra Sedgewick, Glenn Close, and Mary Louise Parker presented for Outstanding Made For Television Movie which went to "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee".

Another musical turn as the cast of the Broadway hit "Jersey Boys", performed with scenes from"The Sopranos" playing in the background. I don't thinkanyone really likes these musical bits but they always have to wedge them in there. The show, if it stays on schedule, is a little over halfways done at this point and I have to say that, at the moment, it has been a rather dull affair and I'm finding myself flicking back and forth between the show and the football game. If I wasn't writing this I'd probably have given up by now.

The cast of "The Sopranos" then took the stage, to a standing ovation, and took a bow. A very strange little bit as it wasn't set up in any way with no introduction stating that they were honoring the show and just cut to commercial.

Sally Field and Patrick Dempsey introduced the nominees for Best Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or Movie which went to Helen Mirren for "Prime Suspect". A great speech as she really embraced and made fun of the music that cues the winners to cut their speeches short.

Comedian Lewis Black was up next and put his acerbic wit to the forefront as he took a jab at TV executives with a great little bit of stand-up. Catherine Morris and Danny Pino then presented the award for Best Director Of Dramatic Movie Or Miniseries whic went to the director of "Prime Suspect". They then presented for writing in the same category which was alo won by "Prime Suspect".

Masi Oka of "Heroes" spoke about the new technology of interenet TV and then the presented an Emmy to Al Gore for Current TV which is at the forefront of this new technology.

Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher were the next presenters and actually had a very funny little rapport before presenting for Oustanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program which went to Tony Bennett yet again as he claimed his 3rd award of the evening.

Anthony Anderson and Teri Hatcher were the next presenters and the banter returned to it's usual dull self. They showed more of the awards that were presented earlier and then presented Stanley Tucci and Elaine Stritch (she was great as she went off the prompter and was very witty) who had won a couple of those awards. The presented for Outstanding Directing In A Comedy Series which went to the director of "Ugly Betty". Anderson and Hatcher returned to present for writing in the same category which went to the writers of "The Office".

Wayne Brady was next up to present for Best Reality show but before that had Rain Wilson and Kanye West come up to perform in a musical contest. Another comedy piece that fell totally flat. Wilson and West then presented the reality award which went to "The Amazing Race".

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were the next presenters and launched into another unfunny bit (surprising coming from those two who are normally great) before giving the award for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series which went to Ricky Gervais for "Extras" ( a great show that you should watch if you haven't seen it yet).

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series was the next award and was presented by Felicity Huffman and Hugh Laurie and the Emmy went to Sally Field for "Brothers And Sisters". Her speech was a manic mess that was cut off as I can only assume she used some questionable language which made for a messy segue into the clips of the celebrities who passed away during the past year.

William Shatner and Deborah Messing presented for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series which went to America Ferrerra for "Ugly Betty".

Jimmy Smits and Kate Walsh then presented for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series and, in a bit of an upset, the Emmy went to James Spader for "Boston Legal". Everyone was certain that James Gandolfini would win this one for "The Sopranos". A funny little self-effacing speech from Spader.

Next up, Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton presented the award for Outstanding Comedy Series which went to "30 Rock". This is great news for a show that barely survived last season and deserved a bigger audience. Hopefully this award will get it the viewership it deserves.

Helen Mirren had the honor of presenting the final award of the night which was for Outstanding Drama Series and the Emmy went to, not surprisingly, "The Sopranos".

All in all the 59th Annual Emmy Awards was a pretty forgettable night of television. The best moments of the night were those that were spontaneous and unscripted and unfortunately those moments were few and far between. It hard to pass any sort of judgement on the host Ryan Seacrest as he really had very little time on screen, not something I am going to complain about quite frankly. The show only ran over about 10 minutes, something of a minor miracle for an awards event, thanks in large part to the timer that limited the amount of time that winners could talk in their acceptance speech. I hope I've covered everything for those of you who could not watch and i hope that those of you who did tune in were a lot more entertained than I was.