Kimmel loses award but wins as Emmy host

Josh Groban and the late Jimmy Kimmel. Todd Wawrychuk/ABC

Nobody was paying me to watch The Emmy Awards last night, so I missed the cold opening and Kimmel's monologue. I caught up Monday morning on YouTube, however. That was the best way to go, because YouTube, unlike CTV, had it with the sound on--a big improvement, apparently, on CTV's audio challenged effort.

Costner. Would it have killed him to wear a tie?

I'm told CTV did have the sound on for all their eleventy million-billion promo spots.
The opening had Kimmel getting punched in the face by many of the top female stars in Hollywood. I thought it was funny, especially when the reality show hosts pop their heads up over the washroom stall to say they'll take Kimmel's place as host, just as they really did last time ABC had this broadcast.
Kimmel's opening monologue had a few winners. He said of Downton Abbey, "It really gives you a sense of what it must have been like to grow up in Mitt Romney's house."
He also wondered if it's a good thing that multiple Emmy winner Homeland is president Obama's favourite show. "I don't think the president should be watching Homeland for the same reason I don't think Charlie Sheen should be watching Breaking Bad."
Then there was this shot at HBO for cancelling their racetrack drama, Luck. "By the way, if you're going to the HBO after party, don't eat the sliders." It was also funny when Kimmel had his parents thrown out of the Nokia Theater for promising he'd win an Emmy some day and then it didn't happen. Did he have another gag ready for them if he had won the Best Variety Show Emmy? The Variety statue went to Jon Stewart, again, which even he seemed pretty embarrassed about.

This is how flat Kimmel's Tracy Morgan viral web gag went over

Kimmel took his usual chances last night and a few did not work. The bit where he got Tracy Morgan to lie down on stage to cause a social media stir was just dumb. The Josh Groban salute to Kimmel during a fake In Memoriam was never going to work, there's just no tasteful way to goof on the dead people bit. But that's Kimmel and bless him for being true to his shtick.
The Breaking Bad/Andy Griffith Show mashup was creepy good, one for the kids. Opie came along later and made it all right.

Two great reasons to watch Sunday's Emmy Awards

Funniest bit of the night was the Modern Family taped sketch where young Lily turns out to be the biggest bitch in Hollywood. But why didn't Kimmel joke about the show's well publicized salary dispute? ABC kill that joke?
There seemed to be a few missed opportunities--no Clint Eastwood chair gag, for example (unless I missed it, which is entirely possible).
I liked the deal where they had photographers shoot the winners right after their speech, with the audience in the background. It looked great on television. As for the awards themselves, it was great to see Louie C.K. win a couple of trophies, he deserves as many as he can snag for his brilliant FX comedy Louie.

Julianna Moore was a deserving winner for Game Change, she was scary
 good as Palin. All those yellow dresses Sunday, throwing caution to the win

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