The 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards were handed out Sunday night to pretty much the usual suspects. Sure, our otherwise well-oiled ML Predictor 3000 machine experienced a few surprise hiccups, but nothing we couldn't tweak on the fly in preparation for the evening's big wins for Best Drama Mad Men and Best Comedy 30 Rock. And I don't know if any modern technology could have predicted just how good Neil Patrick Harris would be as the show's host. More winners and reflections after the jump.
Viewers who'd just watched the latest episode of Mad Men could click over to CBS in time to see E.P. Matthew Weiner and Co. accept the show's Best Dramatic Series prize, making Mad Men a perfect two-for-two in that category. AMC stablemate Breaking Bad lost again, but nabbed its second Best Actor prize for Bryan Cranston as the series' tweaker teacher. As expected, Glenn Close repeated as Best Actress winner for Damages; drama's supporting-actor Emmys went to Michael Emerson for Lost and Cherry Jones for 24.
Meanwhile, accepting 30 Rock's Best Comedy Series hardware, Tina Fey thanked her "friends at NBC for keeping us on the air [...] even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show." Also as predicted, 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin claimed the comedy side's Best Actor award while Toni Collette took home Best Actress for The United States of Tara.
We didn't get to see Tracy Morgan's sure-to-be-legendary acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor, alas, as four-time nominee Jon Cryer took advantage of Jeremy Piven's off-year to claim his first statuette. Kristin Chenoweth was a melty, sobby, endearing mess after winning Best Supporting Actress for Pushing Daisies, mentioning she was looking for work before wryly turning to presenters Fey and Jon Hamm to tell them how much she enjoyed their shows. She'll be back.
The superb Grey Gardens won Best TV Movie and Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries (Jessica Lange; Drew Barrymore was robbed); Brendan Gleeson walked away with the Best Actor prize for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in After the Storm.
Check out the Emmys' site for all 400 or so winners; congrats to all, and may the Academy next yearintroduce an awards-show host category strictly to recognize Neil Patrick Harris for his peerless contributions to the form. His opening number, "Put Down the Remote," was alone worth the consideration: