What did Hollywood expect. They chose as their host Jane Lynch, the undeniably talented star of “Glee,” a show that is only a pop culture phenomenon because pop culture writers who agree with its politics say so (9 to 11 million viewers is not a phenom). Furthermore, “Glee” is a highly partisan enterprise that gleefully (see what I did there?) and regularly goes out of its way to insult the large majority of Americans who are not liberal. This large majority of Americans is also known as — wait for it, wait for it — The Customers.

Detroit Free Press:

It wasn’t the worst ratings performance in Emmys history, but Fox’s broadcast Sunday of the “63rd Primetime Emmy Awards” was down about 8% from 2010.

According to preliminary figures released Monday from Nielsen, 12.4 million viewers tuned in to the show, hosted by “Glee” star Jane Lynch.

Jimmy Fallon’s hosting turn in 2010, which netted 13.5 million viewers for NBC, was possibly aided by the Peacock Network’s decision to move the telecast to Aug. 29 to avoid a conflict with its “Sunday Night Football.”

The lowest-rated Emmys came in 2008 and 1990, when only 12.3 million viewers tuned in to TV’s biggest night.

All America is doing, Hollywood, is not liking you back. This is not a difficult code to crack.

 The Emmys keep buying what “Mad Men” is selling. The 1960s Madison Avenue saga won its fourth consecutive best drama series award Sunday, while big-hearted romp “Modern Family” claimed its second best comedy trophy.

“Modern Family” producer Steve Levitan, whose picture of the American family today includes gay couples and interracial families, told of being approached during shooting by a real-life gay couple who wanted to say thanks.

“They said, `You’re not just making people laugh, you’re making them more tolerant,’” said Levitan, whose show received a total of five awards.

While “Mad Men” gained the top comedy award, it couldn’t pull honors for stars Jon Hamm or Elisabeth Moss.

Kyle Chandler was the surprise winner in the best drama actor category for the last season of Texas football drama “Friday Night Lights,” blocking odds-on favorites among his fellow nominees, including Hamm.

“I knew for a fact I would not be standing here. I did not write anything and now I’m starting to worry,” said Chandler, who also beat out Steve Buscemi of “Boardwalk Empire.”

It was a fitting victory for Chandler and “Friday Night Lights,” which was critically acclaimed but struggled for an audience, and whose high school football team’s motto was, “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”

Julianna Margulies won top drama acting honors for “The Good Wife.” Margulies, who navigates politics, law and family in the show, added to her Emmy stash. As part of the “ER” medical drama cast, she won a supporting actress Emmy in 1995.

Full List of winners:

_ Actress, Drama Series: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife,” CBS.

_ Actor, Drama Series: Kyle Chandler, “Friday Night Lights,” DirecTV/NBC.

_ Supporting Actor, Drama Series: Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones,” HBO.

_ Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Margo Martindale, “Justified,” FX.

_ Writing, Drama Series: Jason Katims, “Friday Night Lights,” NBC.

_ Directing, Drama Series: Martin Scorsese, “Boardwalk Empire,” HBO.

_ Comedy Series: “Modern Family,” ABC.

_ Actor, Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS.

_ Actress, Comedy Series: Melissa McCarthy, “Mike & Molly,” CBS.

_ Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: Julie Bowen, “Modern Family,” ABC.

_ Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: Ty Burrell, “Modern Family,” ABC.

_ Writing, Comedy Series: Steven Levitan and Jeffrey Richman, “Modern Family,” ABC.

_ Directing, Comedy Series: Michael Spiller, “Modern Family,” ABC.

_ Miniseries or Movie: “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

_ Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce,” HBO.

_ Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Barry Pepper, “The Kennedys,” ReelzChannel.

_ Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

_ Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Guy Pearce, “Mildred Pierce,” HBO.

_ Directing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Brian Percival, “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

_ Writing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Julian Fellowes, “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

_ Reality-Competition Program: “The Amazing Race,” CBS.

_ Variety, Music or Comedy Series: “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” Comedy Central.

_ Directing, Variety, Music or Comedy Series: Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live,” NBC.

_ Writing, Variety, Music or Comedy Series: “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” Comedy Central.

Hosted by late night’s Jimmy Fallon, the award show celebrated the best of television. As always, the Emmys had its share of expected victors, including “Mad Men’s” third consecutive win for best drama and Jane Lynch’s victory as outstanding supporting actress in a comedy. Many predicted a tight race for best comedy between “Glee” and “Modern Family,” with “Family” unsurprisingly prevailing in that category. Also, Bryan Cranston went home with his third consecutive win for “Breaking Bad” and Edie Falco won for best actress in a comedy for her role on “Nurse Jackie.” Despite these predicted winners and perennial victors, there were still some noteworthy surprises.

The most interesting upsets came in the acting categories as several new or previously overlooked performers went home winners. For instance, the best supporting actor and actress in a drama. Against tough competition, including her colleague Christine Baranski from “The Good Wife,” Archie Panjabi won for best supporting actress, and best supporting actor went to “Breaking Bad’s” Aaron Paul. In another surprise and after multiple nominations, Kyra Sedgwick won her first Emmy for best actress in a drama beating Glenn Close, who has won for the past two years for her work on “Damages.”  

My favorite win of the night went to Jim Parsons as lead actor in a comedy for his performance on “The Big Bang Theory.” Parsons faced off against Alec Baldwin, who has won this award twice for “30 Rock” and Tony Shalhoub, who had won thrice for “Monk.” I only recently started watching Parson’s work on “Theory” and he is a tremendously funny actor who deserved this recognition.

One of the nicest and most unexpected surprises was how the winners focused on their work and not on their politics. This may have to do with the fact that Hollywood’s president, Barack Obama, is suffering in the polls. But whatever the reason, it was a relief to see things stay on course. I appreciated many of the non-political speeches, especially George Clooney’s thoughtful words as he accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

Overall, it was an enjoyable night. Although some bits fell flat, Fallon deserves credit for the way he handled his host responsibilities. He seemed ready and willing to try a lot of different bits to get a laugh. There were many opportunities for failure but Fallon overcame the lamer jokes and the weaker parts of the show (including the Twitter introductions of some of the award presenters). Fallon tried really hard to keep the audience entertained throughout the show and was mostly successful.

In a night that celebrated the effort that goes into telling stories that entertain and/or enlighten people, both Fallon and the stars succeeded admirably.

Striving to outdo a rival celebutard at the 2010 Slammy Awards, Flora and Fawna debut a radical new eco-trend: The Booty Blast Blocker which traps CO2 emissions of a decidedly personal kind.  But the ass-blast trapping trend backfires in ways the girls may never be able to live down.

—–

Note:  This is the original webisode we created which features pretty crude animation.  After seeing this, Asian power house, Cutting Edge Productions, agreed to lend a hand by animating the webisode, Sput Car, which many of you saw the last couple of weeks here on Big Hollywood. More webisodes yet to come if we can find someone crazy enough to support us.  

To follow our progress, please go to www.floraandfawna.com. There, you’ll be able to buy utterly worthless  Flora & Fawna gear, watch all the episodes and donate money for new webisodes.  Help us make fun of these pseudo-green, self-obsessed Hollywood  celebutards.  

Oh, and check out Fawna’s Facebook page here.

I also abhor false or frivolous claims of racism. Of course, according to the media, the end of this scourge was supposed to be of the many dividends of making Barack Obama President, but those of us on the right certainly know this has so far turned out to be one of many lies we were told during the 2008 campaign. 

Why mention two concepts with apparently nothing in common except my antipathy for them? The reason is that as I found myself watching the Emmy broadcast (I wasn’t that into the football game and Entourage hadn’t started yet) when it suddenly occurred to me that, based on liberal Hollywood’s definition of racism, I was witnessing an event that was barely one notch above a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan.

This offensive truth first hit me when they showed the crowd via a wide shot from the Los Angeles stage. I hit pause on my DVR and a comprehensive scan of the audience revealed that it resembled a film newsreel from the early 60’s (appropriate, I guess, since Mad Men won best drama) with row after row of skin pigmentation-challenged faces. I literally haven’t seen such a Caucasian dominant crowd in LA since I attended the USC/Texas Rose Bowl a couple of years ago.

But it wasn’t just those in attendance who were lacking this century’s greatest virtue: diversity. The host was white. All of the presenters I saw were white. Those who were nominated were almost all white. And Caucasians completely dominated the winner’s circle. Heck, even the guy who used to play the “White Shadow” won one.

But the overt “racism” didn’t stop there. Tracy Morgan, arguably the most prominent black nominee, plays a character on 30 Rock that is easily among the most dangerously stereotyped black roles in modern television (I guess since the show’s two real stars, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, are hardcore liberals, this is not relevant). If that wasn’t enough, the black person who got by far the most attention during the telecast was Kayne West, and that was because he was being made fun of all night.

And yet despite the Nokia Theater being transformed into the liberal caricature of the Republican Convention (except with Tina Fey being honored instead of Sarah Palin), absolutely NOTHING has been said about this obvious and, based on what we have constantly been taught, horrifying development.  I have Googled all sorts of combinations of the words “racism, black, white, and EMMY awards” and not even one mention of Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson comes up.

At first glance this all may seem to be cause for celebration. Perhaps we really have turned a racial corner in this country and inequality of outcome is no longer seen as automatic proof of inequality of opportunity. Maybe it is even now okay for whites like me to beam in pride at my race’s ability to finally kick ass again in something “important” now that we have ceded even golf to the Cablinasians.

But I actually think there is something very seriously wrong going on here. What was showcased last night was less Hollywood’s “good old boy” network at work, and more the ramifications of over a decade now of massive fragmentation within the television media.

In the Golden Age of television (the 70’s and 80’s) there were only four or five channels and the networks were forced to broadcast. Now there are hundreds of channels and television has become all about narrowcasting to an economically preferred demographic (which, for the major networks, is apparently mostly made up of white people). So instead of Good Times, Sanford and Son, or The Jeffersons airing on major networks with big budgets and automatic mainstream audiences, the fragmentation has created a self-segregation phenomenon that is only surpassed by the dramatic racial disparity in religious worship. There is still plenty of “black” television programming; it is now just on channels that mostly only other black people watch.

To me this is a sad and dangerous development.  Television used to be the ultimate uniter and now has become the definitive divider of our culture. The major networks used to create a de facto “team photo” of our nation which (after a slow start) eventually included everyone in the picture. Now, each race, gender, and age group has their own “team” and tends to watch programming that is built to only appeal to them. In short, we end up living in very different realities with almost nothing in common (this same ominous trend can of course be seen in news coverage with the advent of cable news networks with obvious political leanings).

While this modern reality has its advantages (HBO’s non-Bill Maher original programming and The Golf Channel immediately come to mind), there seems to be little doubt that it is a net loss to the strength of the fabric of our country.  What is most surprising however is that no one seems to be noticing it, even when the evidence is as black and white as it was Emmy night.

[ed. note: In a scheduling reshuffle this piece accidentally published for a few minutes last week.]