Kelly and Tim Watch The Emmys

and here is what they thought:

The PreShow:
- Carrie Ann Inaba is dumber than we thought she was. Boo.
- Chris Harrison is still pretty awesome though.
- Chandra Wilson looks amazing! What a pretty dress.
- John Krasinski= love.
- Love also for Kaley Cuoco, YunJin Kim and Kathy Griffin (among others)
- How awkward; a rushed threesome interview with perhaps the most prestigious women on the whole red carpet: Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Marcia Gay Harden

The Host:
- There may have been cheering and chanting as Neil Patrick Harris took the stage, and not just at the Nokia Theatre in Hollywood.
- Love, Love, Love, Love, Love
- Dear Hugh Jackman, THAT'S how you do a song/dance opening number. You just got served.
- Slightly lame jokes made awesome by self-deprecating humour: good save.
- Loses the Emmy inexplicably to the guy from Pretty in Pink. The world of people who don't understand why Two and a Half Men is still on the air weeps as NPH keeps his cool.
- Many a presenter and winner congratulate NPH on being an awesome host (including super-host Jon Stewart as well as always classy Jeff Probst who failed epically as one of last year's hosts) .
- A little disappointed with the lack of magic tricks but super excited to see Dr. Horrible interrupt the accountants talking about the voting process.
- He truly is the coolest man on earth (in that he is so cool that all the uncool things he does suddenly become cool because he does them): see this week's Entertainment Weekly for proof.

The Production:
- The show was divided into 5 sections of awards: comedy, reality, miniseries/movie, variety and drama (with the awards for best comedy and best drama being given out at the end). It worked, it was an interesting way to honour each genre and allowed for a montage at the beginning of each section (who doesn't love a good montage?!). My TV votes YAY on the new format.
- Pretty moving video panels, a stellar orchestra to play TV theme music, a couple tech slip-ups here and there (mostly mic issues): an altogether well run show.
- The comedy montage was amazing... but left out Weeds completely.
- The drama montage spent too much time with Grey's Anatomy, barely acknowledged Brothers & Sisters and Friday Night Lights and completely skipped the CW's existence.
- In Memoriam was beautiful: Sarah McLachlan sang "I Will Remember You" as one of the most poignantly high death tolls in recent TV history reeled by (Bea Arthur, Patrick Swayze, Ed McMahon, Larry Gelbert, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and the voice of Snoopy, topped off with TV icon Walter Cronkite)

The Presenters:
- Some were random (do we really need to hear from the Jennifer Love Hewitt and Blake Lively?)
- Some talked too much (Ricky Gervais, Bob Newhart)
- Some were well matched (past and present TV vampires Stephen Moyer and David Boreanaz, the delightful cast of Big Bang Theory, the NPH cheering section aka HIMYM cast)
- Some were mismatched (Kate Walsh stood a full head above tiny Chandra Wilson in her heels)
- Most were inconsequential but non-offensive and nice to see even if they weren't nominees

The Winners:
- Kristin Chenoweth as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy! Let's call her the dark horse winner of the night. No one, including she, saw it coming, which made the victory all the sweeter. A nice final tribute to Pushing Daisies, as a crying Kristin capped off her excellent second/final season with a charming and funny speech in which she requested to appear on Mad Men now that she's unemployed.
- Jon Cryer beats Neil Patrick Harris to the Comedy Supporting Actor trophy. BOO. With Jeremy Piven left out this was supposed to be the year NPH finally got what he deserves.
- My TV favourite Jim Parsons loses out to a deserving (if predictable) Alec Baldwin but Toni Collette takes Tina's trophy in an exciting win as Best Actress in a Comedy for the superb United States of Tara (then confuses people with a show reference in her speech).
- 30 Rock takes the writing Emmy for their best episode of the year "Reunion" but The Office takes the directing statue home.
- Reality awards go to predictable but deserving repeat winners Jeff Probst and The Amazing Race. Sure they're great but I think it's time for Top Chef and Project Runway to get some credit.
- Nothing interesting happens in Miniseries/Movies (obviously): Grey Gardens wins the big prize alongside Little Dorrit; Ian McKellen looses out but Jessica Lange takes a win.
- Variety's big prizes go to The Daily Show (writing and best series), a fate we can live with happily, while the only small prize we cared about (original song) went to the least deserving nominee: the Oscars opening number. Sorry Justin, you'll have to settle for just one win this year.
- Aaron Paul is robbed by a boring Michael Emerson who wins for the second time in 4 years.
- Mad Men's winning writer is wearing what could be our favourite dress of the night, and is adorable in general.
- Best actor and actress in a drama go to last year's winners Glenn Close and Bryan Cranston (both good, but where is the Michael C Hall love? The Emmys are so predictable...)
- ... and they stay predictable long enough for shoe-ins 30 Rock and Mad Men to win best series.

Overall, a standard night filled with met high expectations (thank you Neil Patrick Harris), some good changes (formatting), some annoying familiarity (30 Rock and Mad Men, really?!?) and some wonderful surprises (Kristin, Toni).