I’ve got Emmy fever, and the only prescription is three hours of TV awards show excellence. Not as catchy as Christopher Walken, but today is the 60th Annual Emmy Awards, and I’ll be here throughout the ceremony providing updates on the winners, losers, fashions, and attempts at comedy.

Tom O’Neil at TheEnvelope.com is hosting an Emmy competition that pits journalists against fans, and I participated as a journalist, so you can check it out to see my official predictions in the major categories airing tonight. Sadly, this means my reputation is at stake, so I might lose all Emmy credibility if I don’t win.

Also Read:
Complete List of Emmy Winners

Aside from TheEnvelope.com competition, I'm also in a heated battle with fellow BuddyTV writer Oscar Dahl, who loves the Emmys almost as much as I do.  Here's a quick reference guide to see our predictions in the major Comedy, Drama and Reality categories.

OSCAR DAHL:
Comedy - The Office, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Rainn Wilson, Amy Poehler
Drama - Mad Men, Jon Hamm, Kyra Sedgwick, Michael Emerson, Candice Bergen
Reality - The Amazing Race, Jeff Probst

JOHN KUBICEK:
Comedy - 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Christina Applegate, Neil Patrick Harris, Kristin Chenoweth
Draama - Mad Men, James Spader, Kyra Sedgwick, Michael Emerson, Sandra Oh
Reality - The Amazing Race, Ryan Seacrest


OK, let's get this show underway!

After a nice montage of famous catchphrases (the highlight being Gordon Ramsey saying "No soup for you!"), Oprah comes out.  It's the 60th anniversary of the Emmys, which means a lot of reminiscing about the history of TV.

After Oprah bores me to death, the five hosts show up.  They're all wearing suits, even Heidi Klum.  Jeff Probst is doing it casual without a tie.  Ugh, I can already tell this is going to be a terrible idea, because it's awkward getting five different people to mesh.  The joke is that there is no intro.

Howie gets the first Palin joke of the night.  Nothing can save this uncomfortable awfulness.  Heidi and Tom Bergeron are smart enough to stay out of it for most of the routine.  Jeff, Ryan and Howie leave, and Heidi and Tom have much better comic timing.  The lesson learned is that the fewer hosts, the better.

William Shatner comes on stage to rip Heidi's suit off to reveal a nice, skimpy dress.

The one-two punch of Tina Fey and a very pregnant Amy Poehler present the first award.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy: Entourage's Jeremy Piven wins.  Again.  Yawn, this is his third straight win, it's time for him to leave and let someone else win.  On the bright side, he mocks the opening with the reality hosts.

The hosts are hanging out on TV sets, so Tom and Ryan are chilling at the Seinfeld diner.  This gives us a chance to revisit "The Contest," one of the most iconic episodes of TV ever made.

Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Samantha Who?'s Jean Smart wins!  Wow, that's a huge upset, but it shows how much the Emmys love her.  She thanks Christina Applegate first and foremost.  I suppose this makes up for her not winning for 24.

The Desperate Housewives are up next, and for some reason they get a clip, despite the fact that the show has no major nominations tonight.  Way to promote your show, ABC.  All six ladies are on stage together.

Supporting Actor in a Drama: Damages' Zeljko Ivanek wins!  Holy crap, another huge upset.  His co-star Ted Danson was heavily favored, but this is very cool.  It's also worth noting he's another former 24 guest star, so I guess the Emmys missed that show too.

Ricky Gervais is in the house to brag about winning last year.  Why isn't he hosting?  After some great comedy, he introduces a montage of acceptance speeches from the past.  Man, I loved that moment when S. Epatha Merkerson lost her speech in her cleavage.  Ricky makes fun of Steve Carell some more, brilliantly.  He finally goes to tickle Steve into getting his Emmy from last year.

Directing in a Variety Series: The 80th Annual Academy Awards wins.

Conan O'Brien shows up after a hilarious Simpsons clip.  He makes a cool joke about Katherine Heigl deeming his jokes "not Emmy-worthy."

Supporting Actress in a Drama: In Treatment's Dianne Wiest wins.  Man, ever since Piven, this night has been full of shocks.  Three of the four supporting winners are from freshman shows.

Writing in a Variety Series: The team from The Colbert Report wins!  God bless America!  I smell some great material on his show this week.

What the hell is Steve Martin doing here?  I guess he's introducing The Smothers Brothers.  I just got to see them at the Television Critics Association, and they are still cutting edge with brilliantly biting political humor.  Martin gives an honorary writing Emmy to Tommy Smothers.

It's Josh Groban!  Yeah, I hate him too, but he's singing TV theme songs.  Friends, Happy Days, The Golden Girls, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, The Andy Griffith Show, The Love Boat, The Muppet Show, South Park, The Jeffersons, Baywatch, The Brady Bunch, Cops, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Two and a Half Men, Rawhide, Gillegan's Island, M*A*S*H, The Carol Burnett Show.  That was so freaking awesome, particularly seeing Groban rap like Will Smith and bust out his Eric Cartman impression.  Wow, did Josh Groban just become cool?

Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Laura Linney wins for John Adams.  Because John Adams will win everything.

Time to fill some more time with a tribute to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.  Various Laugh-In cast members show up to recreate the original shows and present the nominees for Variety Series.

Variety Series: The Daily Show wins.  Again.  Like it always does.  Come on, Emmys, spread the love.

The awards ladies are wearing outfits designed by Project Runway winner Christian Siriano and The Hills star Lauren Conrad.  Wow, that's a crazy pair.

Directing in a Comedy: Barry Sonnenfeld wins for the "Pie-Lette" of Pushing Daisies.  It's impossible to argue with that much deserved win, because that pilot was absolutely beautiful.

Writing in a Comedy: Tina Fey wins for writing "Cooter," the season finale of 30 Rock.  We could be in for a Tina Fey sweep tonight.

Ooh, a tribute to The West Wing, one of my favorite shows of all-time.  Martin Sheen is in the Oval Office saying that the show won Emmys for everyone involved except him.  He also encourages us to vote in the presidential election "at least once."

The mid-point of the show means it's time to slow down and bore us with speeches about the importance of TV.

TV Movie: Recount, the HBO film about the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, wins.  It truly deserves it, and I'm not just saying that because it was written by Danny Strong, Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Tom Wilkinson wins for John Adams.

Directing in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Wow, Recount wins over John Adams.  I suppose that's a minor surprise.  The funniest part is the director, Jay Roach, also directed the Austin Powers films.

Writing in a Miniseries or TV Movie: John Adams wins.  That's more like it, but shame on you for beating Danny Strong.

Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Eileen Atkins wins for something called Cranford from Masterpiece Theater.  How the hell did Laura Dern not win for her spot-on impression of Katherine Harris in Recount?

Reality Competition: The Amazing Race wins again, like it has every year since this category was created.  I love TAR, but six in a row is a bit much.

Miniseries: John Adams wins.  Duh.  I wrote this before Sally Field even opened the envelope, because it's the most predictable thing ever.  At least when producer Tom Hanks accepted, he called Sally Field mom and made a Forrest Gump joke.  You have to love a big movie star with a sense of humor about his career.

Variety Performer: Don Rickles wins for his comedy special, beating Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Tina Fey.

Directing in a Drama: Awesome, the winner is House for the amazing "House's Head" episode.  I'm shocked the voters looked past all the cool cable shows to honor this remarkable episode.

Writing in a Drama: Mad Men wins for its pilot, which is quite deserved.  Though in a category with Damages, Battlestar Galactica and The Wire, any episode would have been worthy of winning.

Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Paul Giamatti wins for John Adams.  It's sad that a hilarious and nuanced comedy performance like Ricky Gervais' in the Extras movie has to lose out to an overbloated, overly promoted HBO miniseries.

Lead Actor in a Comedy: Alec Baldwin wins for 30 Rock!  Excellent, and anyone who saw him in the therapy scene with Tracy Morgan knows why he won this.

Lead Actress in a Drama: Glenn Close wins for Damages.  Not my prediction, but I absolutely love Damages and I can't say bthis isn't deserved.

In Memoriam time.  George Carlin, Charlton Heston, Bozo the Clown, Estelle Getty, Sydney Pollack, Bernie Mac, Harvey Korman, Jim McKay, Tim Russert, Isaac Hayes.  RIP to all of them.

It's remarkable how awards shows always go long, so they need to rush the big awards at the end.  You'd think they would have learned by now and cut some of the early pointless filler.

Lead Actor in a Drama: Bryan Cranston wins for Breaking Bad.  Wait, what the hell?  After all those years not winning for Malcolm in the Middle, now they give Cranston an Emmy?  This night is full of surprising first season winners.

Lead Actress in a Comedy: Tina Fey wins for 30 Rock.  Good for her, and good for 30 Rock, taking this year by storm.

Reality Host: Jimmy Kimmel does a great job mocking the hosts by giving them feedback from their shows' judges, then he prolongs the announcement by going to commercial before revealing the winner.  Finally, the winner is Jeff Probst!  Well, it would seem Oscar Dahl is going to beat me in the predictions because I thought they'd go for the superior hosting duties of Seacrest.

Comedy Series: 30 Rock wins for a second straight year, cementing itself as a classic comedy series already.

Drama Series: Mad Men wins!  The fantastic freshman series delivers and completes the dominance of freshman dramas this year, taking six of the seven awards tonight.


In the end, Oscar wins, 5-4, though we both did pretty bad, missing on all the Drama acting categories.  It was a hard year to predict, because the Emmys are usually so fond of the old favorites that it's hard to predict the Drama side being overrun by new cable shows.  AMC and FX picked up five of the awards, and FOX was the only major network to win for Drama, while NBC and ABC dominated the Comedy side.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)