According to the LA Times, since the creation of the reality award category at the Emmys, one program has dominated the past seven years. However, this year, perennial winner “The Amazing Race,” ended its winning streak losing to “Top Chef.” That surprise was one of many at the unexpectedly non-political 62nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

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.”   (more…)

After a week that will go down in history as the moment Republicans finally stood up for themselves, comics are not laying off John McCain’s former running mate just yet. Bill Maher said that Iran was propped up by oil revenue and run by a religious whacko, just like Alaska. Letterman, despite frequent jokes about the amount of hate mail he has been receiving, couldn’t help mentioning that Gay Pride week was the only time of year when you can see hundreds of men dressed up like Sarah Palin.

The big topics of the week were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the presidential fly killing:

The election of Mahmoud was compared by the talk show hosts alternately to the 2000 Presidential and the 2008 Minnesota Senate elections. Fallon claimed that now that his opponent lost, he’ll go on to make a documentary about Global Warming.  David Letterman actually did a joke almost every single night, changing the punchline from Florida voting machines, to Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Al Franken and Jeb Bush.  Bill Maher used Norm Coleman then criticized his audience for not knowing who he was talking about. The funniest line was Ferguson’s who claimed that Iranian politics have finally gotten as corrupt as Chicago. (more…)

What a bountiful two weeks of comedy material we had. Our elegant man in the White House thought the capital of Canada was Iowa and proved that they don’t teach Industrial History at Harvard. There was also this photo… And so I thought it was about time to check in again with the Late Night hosts.

Monday marked the debut of Jimmy Fallon’s “green” talk show. According to USA Today he has recycled carpet, used seats and bamboo floors. I wonder if he also lights the stage with CFLs, limits guests to one square of toilet paper, serves warm tap water and vegan treats, and takes the subway to work? But enough of the negative. I thought I should check in and see if Late Night’s newest host has decided that it’s okay to make fun of the President. (Fallon also claims to have three bloggers on staff, so if you three are as sharp as I hope, Welcome To Big Hollywood!) This Monday I reviewed Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. (more…)