This Sunday evening, the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Ryan Seacrest hosted the event, launching the show with a tame and brief monologue. In contrast to many of Emmy's past hosts, Seacrest is not a comedian, so he wisely left the zingers and one-liners to animated characters from "Family Guy" who performed a musical number that slighted other networks (the Emmys appeared on Fox this year) and various other comedians like Ray Romano and Lewis Black who later took the stage to present awards.
The big winner of the night was arguably "The Sopranos" who, after its last season, took home an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series as well as directing and writing awards.
However, none of the show's nominated actors - most notably James Gandolfini and Edie Falco - won an award. Instead, James Spader of "Boston Legal" and Sally Field of "Brothers & Sisters" won for Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Drama Series. Field made an impassioned if not inarticulate speech about mothers who have children at war in Iraq.
Iraq was also the topic of Jon Stewart's speech as he accepted on behalf of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," which won for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series. Stewart and Stephen Colbert (both of whom undeservingly lost to Tony Bennett in the Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program category) presented the award for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series to Ricky Gervais of HBO's "Extras." "Daily Show" alum Steve Carell was nominated in that category for "The Office," and he ran up to accept the award when it was clear Gervais was not present at the ceremony.
The night's other big winners included Jeremy Piven, now a two-time winner for Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his role on "Entourage," Jaime Pressly in the supporting actress category for "My Name is Earl," and America Ferrara of "Ugly Betty" who beat out the equally deserving Mary-Louise Parker and Tina Fey for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. Terry O'Quinn of "Lost" and Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" took home Supporting Actor/Actress in a Drama awards.
"30 Rock" won Outstanding Comedy while Robert Duvall's "Broken Trail," a western featured on AMC, took multiple categories including Best Mini-Series.
- by Diana Landes
