It's my favorite night of the year, Emmy night!  Some people wait for the Oscars or the Super Bowl, but for me, there's nothing better than seeing if my favorite shows and actors take home the Emmy.

Making tonight's Emmy Award celebration even better is the fact that it's hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and there are rumors that he'll do a Dr. Horrible-inspired musical number.  So stick with me as I'll be posting updates all night along about the winners and the major events that everyone will be talking about tomorrow.  Let's just hope no one invited Kanye.

Before the night kicks off, let's see who BuddyTV users predict to win the major categories:

USER PREDICTIONS:
Drama: House, Hugh Laurie, Glenn Close, Michael Emerson, Chandra Wilson
Comedy: How I Met Your Mother, Jim Parsons, Tina Fey, Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski

MY PREDICTIONS:
Drama: House, Hugh Laurie, Glenn Close, William Shatner, Cherry Jones
Comedy: 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski

It's fascinating to see fans clearly LOVE House, Lost and How I Met Your Mother, but will that translate to Emmy voters?  I doubt it, but I would love to see it too.

As expected, NPH comes out with a great musical opening number and proves that he's a world-class entertainer.  I kind of love that this year, they've split the ceremony into sections, so first we'll get all the Comedy categories, and then we'll also have sections for Reality, Miniseries and TV Movie, Variety, and Drama.  In other words, if you need to go out and grabd a pizza from down the street, you can do it when they start the Miniseries stuff.

Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Aww, this was a bit unexpected, but very cool, because Pushing Daisies was amazing and Kristin cries to whole darn time and she's so sweet.

Comedy Writing: "Reunion," 30 Rock
Woohoo, as expected, the power of "I want to go to there" helped this episode win.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy: Jon Cryer, Two and Half Men
What?  There is no God and no justice.  He was nominated against Rainn Wilson, Jack McBrayer, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Dillon and Neil Patrick Harris, and I wish the award had gone to any of them.  I will never understand this fascination with a subpar juvenile sitcom.

Lead Actress in a Comedy: Toni Collette, United States of Tara
What?  This year already makes no sense, but I guess getting to play multiple personalities helped.  USOT was actually really good, so I'm confused, but kind of happy.

Comedy Directing: "Stress Relief," The Office
Yay for the post-Super Bowl episode, mostly for that unbelievably amazing opening scene with the fire drill.

Lead Actor in a Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Finally, an expected repeat winner.  For some reason, he feels the need to suck up to Lorne Michaels.  Either Lorne is dying, or he truly is the most powerful human being in the world. 


Reality Host: Jeff Probst, Survivor
He won last year, so just like the actual Reality Show category, it looks like we're in for the same winner every year.  I find that boring, spread the love, Emmys.

Reality Competition: The Amazing Race
Yawn, once again TAR wins.  It's won every year since this category was created, so seriously, they should just withdraw themselves from consideration next year.


Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Saddam
Yay, I love Shohreh, ever since House of Sand and Fog and her amazing bit in 24 as Dina Araz.  However, she has this crazy vocal thing where she breaths in and it sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball.  Still, love her.

Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Ken Howard, Grey Gardens
Never saw it, and I have no idea who he is, so whatever.  He does get one good line, hoping that his speech doesn't get interrupted by "a Congressman or a rapper."  

Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Brendan Gleeson, Into the Storm
Seriously, did anyone see this or even know what this TV movie is?  These categories seriously need to be shipped to the Creative Arts Emmys.

Miniseries and TV Movie Writing: Little Dorrit
Thankfully, this guy had the decency not to show up and save us a speech.

Miniseries and TV Movie Directing:  Little Dorrit
Sadly, the director of this PBS miniseries wasn't as kind.  I'm sure it's great, but I didn't watch this miniseries, and I'm willing to bet none of you did either.


Dr. Horrible!
Brilliant, the accountants get interrupted by Dr. Horrible, who takes over the airwaves to be hilarious and to sing a bit.  He's joined by the cast, including Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, who references how much he loves CSI: Miami, which coincidentally is the time slot rival to Fillion's Castle.  More Dr. Horrible, please.


Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens
Can I have Dr. Horrible back, please?  Because watching someone from HBO win a Miniseries/TV Movie category is a little obvious.

TV Movie: Grey Gardens
No duh, the big budget, highly-promoted HBO movie wins.  That's a little bit like the Harlem Globetrotters beating the Generals.

Miniseries: Little Dorrit
If there are only two nominees, why even pick one?  Also, once again, the Emmys give the shaft to David Simon, creator of Generation Kill and The Wire.


Variety Directing: American Idol
Umm, good for Idol?  Yeah, I don't why this category is here either.

Variety Writing: The Daily Show
Directing is boring, but Writing is at least funny because they all do funny intro packages, such as Conan ignoring all the Facebook friend requests from his writers.

Best Song: Hugh Jackman's Opening Number from the Oscars
Wow, for the first time they move this category to the primetime ceremony, hoping Justin Timberlake would win for "Motherlover," and then this happens.  That's kind of funny.  At least the winners make fun of themselves nonstop.

Variety Series: The Daily Show
The best part of this was Ricky Gervais' banter beforehand.  Why doesn't that man get even more work?  He should be everywhere, and please, if there is a God, let him host the Oscars.


Drama Controversy!
OK, I need to point this out.  There was a clip package for the Drama categories, and it featured scenes from CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS and The Mentalist, but none for Mad Men, Damages, Lost or a ton of other shows.  Come on CBS, this is just offensively biased, especially since I believe half the presenters are from CBS shows.  Criminal Minds, really?  Those four CBS shows have a grand total of one Emmy nomination for tonight's awards.


Supporting Actor in a Drama: Michael Emerson Lost
Yes, this is amazing, and so deserving.  Emerson rocks, and God bless the Emmys for honoring this fantastic performance.

Supporting Actress in a Drama: Cherry Jones, 24
Oh wow, these Drama  winners are great.  24 supporting players never win, so it's great that the first female president wins.

Drama Directing: "And in the End," ER
Wow, the medical drama gets one final parting gift for the series finale.

Drama Writing: "Meditations in an Emergency," Mad Men
Of the four Mad Men episodes nominated, it goes to the season 2 finale.

Lead Actress in a Drama: Glenn Close, Damages
Yeah, it was predictable, but come on, Glenn Close is an effing amazing actress and she is great on Damages.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Wow, deja vu.  He won last year when it was fresh and exciting, and while the show was even better in year two, there are so many deserving people in this category that have never won, like Hugh Laurie and Michael C. Hall.  However, it's impossible to hate such a nice and gracious guy.


Outstanding Comedy Series:  30 Rock
Three seasons, three straight wins in this category.   This is what I call an Emmy dynasty, and Tina Fey wins us over by thanking NBC for keeping them on the air even though they're so much more expensive than a talk show, taking a dig at The Jay Leno Show.


Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men
So after some shocking winners in the lower categories, the last four winners were all repeats from last year.  That's dull, especially because I thought the second season of Mad Men wasn't that great, especially compared to a lot of the other shows.


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