The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 16, 2007, honoring the best in U.S. prime time television programming at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition (on tape delay three hours later on the West Coast of the United States at 8:00 p.m.). It was also the most recent Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony to be held at the Shrine Auditorium, as it was then relocated to the Nokia Theatre from the following year (PDT/3:00 UTC). The ceremony was hosted by Ryan Seacrest.[1]
| 59th Primetime Emmy Awards | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Date |
|
| Location | Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California |
| Presented by | Academy of Television Arts and Sciences |
| Hosted by | Ryan Seacrest |
| Highlights | |
| Most awards |
|
| Most nominations | The Sopranos (10) |
| Outstanding Comedy Series | 30 Rock |
| Outstanding Drama Series | The Sopranos |
| Outstanding Miniseries | Broken Trail |
| Outstanding Reality-Competition Program | The Amazing Race |
| Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series | The Daily Show with Jon Stewart |
| Website | http://www.emmys.com/  |
| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | Fox |
| Produced by | Ken Ehrlich |
| Directed by | Bruce Gowers |
The ceremonies were supposed to be produced by Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, executive producers of American Idol, but because of their heavy work load with Idol, Ken Ehrlich, last year's producer, resumed the producer's role for the fourth time.[2] Ratings plunged further down to a near an all-time low as an estimate 12.87 million, 19% lower than the past year,[3] making it the second smallest television audience in Emmy history, behind the 1990 telecast.
The nominations were announced on July 19 at 5:40 a.m. PDT (12:40 UTC) by Jon Cryer and Kyra Sedgwick.[4]
Meanwhile, the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian-actor Carlos Mencia, were presented eight days earlier on September 9.[5]
Freshman series 30 Rock defeated defending champion The Office to claim Outstanding Comedy Series; this was the only major award for 30 Rock.
Going into its final ceremony, The Sopranos needed just three major awards to tie the drama series record of 18 major wins set by Hill Street Blues. It was nominated in ten major categories coming in and ended the night with three wins, including its second win for Outstanding Drama Series. This tied the record and gave both shows identical résumés—18 major wins and 74 major nominations. This win for The Sopranos was also the first time any show's sixth season had won for the Outstanding Drama award, later achieved by Game of Thrones as well, another HBO drama.
AMC, a smaller cable network, won big with Broken Trail winning three Emmys. It won Outstanding Miniseries and the network's first Acting wins, for the series' stars, Thomas Haden Church and Robert Duvall.
Winners and nominees
editWinners are listed first and highlighted in bold:[6]
Programs
edit
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|
|
|
| |
Acting
editLead performances
editSupporting performances
editIndividual performances
edit
|
Directing
editWriting
editMost major nominations
edit| Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|
| HBO | 33 |
| NBC | 28 |
| ABC | 21 |
| CBS | 11 |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Nominations |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sopranos | Drama | HBO | 10 |
| The Office | Comedy | NBC | 7 |
| 30 Rock | 6 | ||
| Broken Trail | Miniseries | AMC | |
| Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | Movie | HBO | |
| Grey's Anatomy | Drama | ABC | 5 |
| The Starter Wife | Miniseries | USA | |
| Two and a Half Men | Comedy | CBS | |
| Boston Legal | Drama | ABC | 4 |
| The Colbert Report | Variety | Comedy Central | |
| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | |||
| Entourage | Comedy | HBO | |
| Lost | Drama | ABC | |
| Prime Suspect: The Final Act | Miniseries | PBS | |
| Ugly Betty | Comedy | ABC | |
| Extras | HBO | 3 | |
| Heroes | Drama | NBC | |
| Late Show with David Letterman | Variety | CBS | |
| Longford | Movie | HBO | |
| Tony Bennett: An American Classic | Variety | NBC | |
| American Idol | Competition | Fox | 2 |
| Battlestar Galactica | Drama | Sci Fi | |
| Brothers & Sisters | ABC | ||
| House | Fox | ||
| Jane Eyre | Miniseries | PBS | |
| Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Variety | NBC | |
| Real Time with Bill Maher | HBO | ||
| The Ron Clark Story | Movie | TNT | |
| Tsunami: The Aftermath | Miniseries | HBO | |
| Weeds | Comedy | Showtime |
Most major awards
edit| Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|
| NBC | 7 |
| ABC | 6 |
| HBO | |
| AMC | 3 |
| PBS |
| Program | Category | Network | No. of Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broken Trail | Miniseries | AMC | 3 |
| Prime Suspect: The Final Act | PBS | ||
| The Sopranos | Drama | HBO | |
| Tony Bennett: An American Classic | Variety | NBC | |
| Ugly Betty | Comedy | ABC | 2 |
- Notes
- ^ a b "Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories.
Presenters
editThe awards were presented by the following:
Interactive TV
editAl Gore's Current TV was presented with the Interactive TV Emmy by Masi Oka of Heroes with the help of MySpace's president Tom Anderson. This was the first year the Emmy was presented during the Primetime awards ceremony.[7]
In Memoriam
edit- Jane Wyatt
- Tige Andrews
- Joseph Barbera
- Roscoe Lee Browne
- Edward Albert Jr.
- Yvonne De Carlo
- Mike Evans
- Sidney Sheldon
- Calvert DeForest
- Glenn Ford
- Arthur Hill
- Bob Carroll Jr.
- Beverly Sills
- Ed Friendly
- Mel Shavelson
- James Glennon
- Don Herbert
- Stan Daniels
- Barbara McNair
- Stuart Rosenberg
- Tommy Newsom
- Steve Irwin
- Joel Siegel
- Peter Boyle
- Charles Nelson Reilly
- Jack Palance
- Jane Wyman
- Tom Poston
- Tom Snyder
- Ed Bradley
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Merv Griffin
Memorable moments
editThe stage design for the ceremony was created with seating surrounding platform creating a theatre in the round with a "catwalk" style walkway for winners and presenters to exit the stage to. A trap door was placed in the center of the main stage. Some TV critics viewed this as a reference to Fox's American Idol.[8] During his acceptance speech, James Spader made a comment about the seating design, stating that "I've been to thousands and thousands of concerts in my life and I can tell you these are the worst seats I've ever had."[9]
Opening number
editAs part of the opening number of the ceremony, Brian and Stewie Griffin, two characters of the Fox animated series Family Guy and both voiced by Seth MacFarlane, sang a song: recapping memorable moments of the past television season while noting the variety of programming that will come to the future in the song "You Can Find It on TV", a television-themed version of the song "The FCC Song" from the show's Emmy-nominated episode "PTV".
The Don't Forget the Lyrics mock-contest
editAnother segment occurred during the presentation of the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program award. There was a competition between singer Kanye West (who attended the ceremony in retaliation for his loss at MTV's Video Music Awards earlier that month) and The Office actor Rainn Wilson similar to Don't Forget the Lyrics! (which, like the 2007 Emmys, airs on Fox) with host Wayne Brady presiding. West sang the last line of the chorus in the song "Stronger" as "That how long I've been on you" which was supposed to be "That how long I've been on ya", losing to Wilson. West jokingly retorted "I never win", poking fun at his losses at award ceremonies and presented the award alongside Wilson.[10]
Steppin' Out With My Baby
editTony Bennett and Christina Aguilera sang "Steppin' Out With My Baby" from Bennett's award-winning special.
Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
editJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The award went to Ricky Gervais for Extras, but after reading his name, Jon Stewart was informed that Gervais was not at the ceremony. Stewart immediately announced, "Ricky Gervais couldn't be here tonight, so instead we're going to give this to our friend Steve Carell" (who had been nominated for his role on The Office). Carell ran onto the stage and hugged Stewart and Colbert as they all screamed in mock celebration, then ran off together with the award.[11] As a joke, in 2008, at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, Ricky Gervais showed a video of the moment, commenting, "Look at [Carell's] stupid face," accusing Carell of "stealing" his award, and demanding it back. He approached Carell, who was sitting straight-faced in the front row, and repeated, "Give me my Emmy," over and over, even going so far as to tickle Carell, until Carell produced the statue from under his seat.[12]
Censorship controversy
edit
During the Fox telecast, some presenters and award winners were censored while making statements. When Ray Romano delivered a comic monologue about the change of television in the years since he left his own show, he mentioned that "for one, from what I hear, Frasier is screwing my wife?". On Fox, all that was heard was "for one, from what I hear, Frasier is" before Fox cut the audio and replaced the feed with pre-recorded material of an LED display ball with text scrolling around it. When viewers saw the ball through a high camera angle, it is revealed that the ball covered the entire stage. This lasted approximately 10 seconds before Fox returned to Romano. The reason for the censorship of this comment has been debated between vulgar language or revealing an important plot line to the show.[citation needed]
When Katherine Heigl accepted her award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, she accidentally used profanity in her speech, causing Fox to cut the audio and once again replaced its feed with the pre-recorded shot of the display ball, only to return a moment later.[citation needed]
The biggest censorship controversy was when actress Sally Field accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. After giving an acceptance speech which included anti-war statements, partially as a tribute to her Brothers & Sisters character Nora Walker, the audience applauded before she was finished and Field, finding herself lost for words, couldn't remember what she was going to say. When she regained her words, she concluded her speech with "If mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn wars in the first place." Fox had cut to the display ball as she began to say "goddamn". This remark, and Fox's censorship of the remark, caused controversy in the days following the ceremony, leading critics to wonder if Fox had censored "Goddamn" or "Goddamn wars".[citation needed] Field's remarks caused Fox to implement a four-second delay for the remainder of the telecast. All of these comments were left uncensored on CTV in Canada, and other international simulcasts.[citation needed]
Also, at the Creative Arts Awards ceremony eight days earlier, Kathy Griffin, who won for Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List caused controversy in her acceptance speech after she denounced celebrities who thank Jesus for their awards. She later concluded her speech with an off-color joke that included "Suck it, Jesus! This award is my God now!" The Catholic League condemned her comments and successfully convinced E! to censor her speech during the telecast the following Saturday.
References
edit- ^ [1] [dead link]
- ^ "American Idol's Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick Named Executive Producers For 59th Primetime Emmy Awards". Zap2it. Archived from the original on 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2007-05-08.
- ^ "Emmy "Sopranos" send-off ranks as ratings dud". Reuters. September 17, 2007. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ "Academy of Television Arts & Sciences". Archived from the original on 2009-03-07. Retrieved 2008-02-18. Retrieved 2007-09-16
- ^ "HBO Tops 59th Creative Arts Emmys, NBC Leads Nets". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2007.
- ^ "Nominees/Winners". emmys.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
- ^ Al Gore joins Emmy parade Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, Variety, Sep. 13, 2007, 4:56pm PT
- ^ Wyatt, Edward (September 17, 2007). "Parting Gift: 'Sopranos' Wins Emmy for Drama". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
- ^ McNamara, Mary (September 17, 2007). "Go ahead and pick a host, any host". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
- ^ "Kanye West and Rainn Wilson's Emmy Rap - Celebrity-gossip.net". celebrity-gossip.net. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ^ paperserenade (17 September 2007). "Stewart & Colbert Presenting at Emmys 2007 (Full)". Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017 – via YouTube.
- ^ room312b (21 September 2008). "Ricky Gervais takes his Emmy back". Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017 – via YouTube.
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