For those of you watching the other channel, or otherwise indisposed, here’s what happened at the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

5:01 p.m. Host Neil Patrick Harris takes the stage with a cabaret number extolling us to “put down the remote … don’t touch the dial … don’t hit the loo.” 

5:06 p.m. ”Here’s hoping Kanye West likes ‘30 Rock,’” Harris jokes, referring to the rapper’s wee contretemps with Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday.

5.12 p.m. BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS: KRISTIN CHENOWETH (”PUSHING DAISIES), her first win. 

5:13 p.m. “I’m unemployed now, so I’d like to be on Mad Men. I also like ‘The Office’ and ‘24,’” says the co-star of the canceled show, which picked up three Emmys at the “creative arts” portion of the Primetime Emmys last Saturday. 

5:21 p.m. BEST WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES: MATT HUBBARD (”30 ROCK”). His “Reunion” episode beat three other “30 Rock” episodes.

5:25 p.m. BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR: JON CRYER (”TWO AND A HALF MEN”). His first win after four Emmy nominations. “I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity,” he said. “But now, I realize they are the only true measure of a person’s worth as a human being.”

He said the show’s nominated star, Charlie Sheen, should get an Emmy, too. “This is yours,” he said to Sheen. Interestingly, fellow nominees such as Harris (”How I Met Your Mother”) and Jack McBrayer (”30 Rock”) got louder applause when the nominations were read out.

5:35 p.m. First shock: BEST COMEDY ACTRESS: TONI COLLETTE (”UNITED STATES OF TARA”). First win by Australia this year. “This is insanely confronting,” she says. Justin Timberlake, the presenter, clearly was not expecting the win. Tina Fey was hoping for a second consecutive win, but she did win a statuette last weekend for her guest role on “Saturday Night Live.” Nominee Sarah Silverman wore a mustache. “That’s what hormones will do,” Timberlake says.

5:39 p.m. Fey and Timberlake on the stage to give acceptance speeches for their guest-starring Emmys last weekend, both for turns on “Saturday Night Live.”

5:41 p.m. “THE OFFICE” finally gets some Emmy recognition this year as JEFF BLITZ win for BEST COMEDY DIRECTING. The show has nine nominations overall. “30 Rock” had three nominations in this category. It’s only the fourth Emmy ever for “The Office.”

5:50 P.M. BEST COMEDY ACTOR: ALEC BALDWIN (”30 ROCK”), for the second year. He dedicates his award to the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels — “the greatest boss you could ever have.” The award was presented to the portly actor by the svelte Rob Lowe. “To be honest, I’d trade this to look like him,” he says. Baldwin’s co-star Jane Krakowski struggles to hold back tears.

Best comedy will be announced at the end of the ceremony. ”30 Rock” leads the field with 22 nominations overall. The NBC comedy picked up two awards last Saturday, and added two at the main event. It will fall short of last year’s total of seven, which included best comedy.

“Mad Men,” with 16 nominations this year, grabbed one last Saturday, and is up for nine nominations in six categories. The AMC drama won six Emmys last year, including best drama, but none for acting. This year, Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery will hope to break that dry spell. 

5:58 p.m. REALITY SHOW HOST: JEFF PROBST (”SURVIVOR”). Noting last year’s disatrous co-hosting gig by reality-show hosts, Probst says to Harris: “This is how you host the Emmys. Nice job.” He implores everyone to live their dreams because life is short.

6:06 p.m. BEST REALITY SERIES: “THE AMAZING RACE” continues its unbroken, seven-year streak. Says Harris: “Unbelievable. Upsets at every turn.”

6:10 p.m. Now it’s onto the miniseries/TV movie section. Big contenders are ”Little Dorrit,” “Grey Gardens” and “Into the Storm”

6:11 p.m. SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN MINISERIES/MOVIE: SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO (”HOUSE OF SADDAM”). Her first win, first nomination. The Tehran-born actress is wearing a green wristband in support of protesters in her native country.

6:13 p.m. SUPPORTING ACTOR IN MINISERIES/MOVIE: KEN HOWARD (”GREY GARDENS”). Also his first win and nomination. Second Kanye West joke with a political bonus: “I’ll make my speech short in the the hope that it won’t be interrupted by a congressman or a rapper.” He thanks a stuntwoman who gave him a spare kidney. This is the fourth win for “Grey Gardens,” which scored 17 nominations overall.

6:22 p.m. LEAD ACTOR IN MINISERIES/MOVIE: BRENDAN GLEESON (”INTO THE STORM”). The Irish actor wins the project’s second award, for playing Winston Churchill. He thanks the producers for allowing his mother to watch an early cut just before she died. The WWII drama has 14 nominations overall.

6:24 p.m. “LITTLE DORRIT” wins its fifth Emmy as absentee winner Andrew Davies is honored for BEST WRITING. 

6: 26 p.m.  Make that six wins for “LITTLE DORRIT” thanks to DEARBHIA WALSH for BEST DIRECTOR. And another win for Ireland. She thanks her partner for watching the cuts and giving her notes. “It looks like there’s three of us in the bed tonight.”

6:32 p.m. JESSICA LANGE wins BEST ACTRESS IN MINISERIES/MOVIE for “GREY GARDENS.” She beats co-star Drew Barrymore. She thanks, among many people, Albert Maysles, the co-director of the documentary that inspired the HBO show, and the eccentric subjects, Big Edie and Little Edie.

6:41 p.m. Another win for “GREY GARDENS” with BEST TV MOVIE. It ended up with five awards overall, from 17 nominations.

6:44 p.m. A 50/50 chance of winning BEST MINISERIES, as “LITTLE DORRIT” predictably beats “Generation Kill.” That makes it seven for the BBC/PBS Dickens adaptation.

6:45 p.m. The show moves into the variety section where there are four categories.

6:50 p.m. “AMERICAN IDOL” wins the DIRECTING award, with Briton BRUCE GOWERS accepting for the first time after seven nominations. Did he really direct the Queen video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”? A Google search says, Yes. Mamma Mia!

6:54 p.m. After half of the Manhattan phone book is read out, the winner for BEST WRITING is “THE DAILY SHOW.” Jon Stewart was the designated speaker, but he was beaten to the mike by a speechless colleague who eventually said, “I haven’t had anything to say since George Bush left office.”

7:00 p.m. Jimmy Fallon and his Autotune device take the stage for the MUSIC AND LYRICS award, which goes to the crew for the 81st annual Academy Awards. The one with Hugh Jackman. A great day for “the dumbest, dumbest ugliest people.”

7:06 p.m. Ricky Gervais on the stage, with the best jokes of the night. Here’s what he said. “This the greatest awards ceremony in the world … The thing about the Oscars and the Golden Globes is they’ve got film stars there, with their jawlines and chiseled looks, making me feel bad. But in this room, I’m probably above average. Yeah, definitely. (Tom Hanks jokingly shakes his head). Steve Carell is considered handsome. Think of that! Rainn Wilson, well. … We’ve got to be honest. He is weird, even in this company. I can have a go at ’The Office’ because I’m executive prodecer, whatever that means. I’ll tell you what it means. It means I created the show so I sit at home and wait for the checks to come through. Oh yes. Syndication. They said, ‘Oh syndication’s not what it used to be.’ Take another look. Audit.  That joke just for the 5,000 people in this room, not for the 5,000 people watching at home. I’ve pissed off two networks in one minute. That is good going.”

7:08 pm. “THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART” wins VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES. Stewart offers more kudos to Harris, but it’s not easy  following Gervais.

The end is near. Drama series now.

7:19 p.m. MICHAEL EMERSON wins SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA for “LOST.” “I feel like I’m living out a character actor’s dream,” said Emerson, who previously won an Emmy for his guest role as a killer in “The Practice.”

7:21 p.m. Hail to the Chief! CHERRY JONES wins SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA for “24.” It’s only the second acting statuette for the veteran drama, following Kiefer Sutherland’s best actor win in 2006.

7:22 p.m. Sarah McLachlan sings “I Will Remember You” during the In Memoriam section. Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Paul Newman get the loudest cheers. Honorable mentions to Ron Silver, Dominick Dunne, Michael Jackson, Larry Gelbart and Farrah Fawcett.

Six awards left.

7:33 p.m. Michael J. Fox and Ellen Burstyn, winners last weekend of drama guest acting Emmys, present the DIRECTING and WRITING awards. ROD HOLCOMB (”ER”) is the absentee winner of the former, while KATER GORDON and MATTHEW WEINER win for writing the “MAD MEN” episode “Meditations in an Emergency.” It’s the first win tonight for 16-time nominee “Mad Men,” which previously won a prize at the creative arts portion. Weiner says he may be the only person at the venue who has “complete creative freedom … When you get something like this, it makes writing look fun. But it’s not!” He offered a piece of advice to struggling writers. “If you’re out there, just hang in there and remember that when you look down the row at that guy at Starbucks with the computer, it’s probably one of us.”

7:39 p.m. GLENN CLOSE (”DAMAGES”) wins for LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA for the second year. “We all go where there’s great writing,” she says. It’s her third Emmy overall.

7:48 p.m. Life is unfair? BRYAN CRANSTON wins the LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA prize for “BREAKING BAD” for a second year. “I’m thankful for so many things. Lee Trevino was struck by lightning twice and now I know how he feels,” he says. “I’m a poor kid from the (San Fernando) Valley. I don’t know what I’m doing up here. I feel like Cinderfella.” And that means no acting prizes, yet again, for “Mad Men.”

7:53 p.m. For the third consecutive year, “30 ROCK” is named BEST COMEDY. Star/creator Tina Fey thanks the network suits for “keeping us on the air even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show.”

Final award still to come, best drama…

8:00 p.m. Shock! “MAD MEN” wins BEST DRAMA for second year. “We worked very hard to not have it stink the second year,” creator Matthew Weiner says. “It is an amazing time to work in TV and I know that everything is changing but I’m not afraid of it because I feel like all these different media, it’s just more choice and more entertainment and it’s better for the viewers in the end, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

What's that? Jay Leno is moving to prime-time? You don't say!

Frankly, it's hard to remember the last time there was such hubbub about a TV show. It was, after all, the cover story in Time magazine. Not to be outdone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP, and probably every local news outlet between New York and Hollywood had a story about the talk show host -- more often than not raising the question of whether he's going to save network TV.

(You've got to give it to the public-relations machine on this one. They really worked the story. Of course, their spinning was augmented by a huge marketing effort. Stuart Elliott of the New York Times today estimated that NBC put out more than $10 million in promoting the show).

But there is more to the fall TV season than Jay Leno. The media buyers and planners over at  RPA offer a useful road map to the season in a recent report.

Their take on the fall season is fairly upbeat (maybe network TV doesn't really need Leno to save it).

"For the first time in two years, network fortunes will not be held hostage to the industry's labor problems, but will be determined, as they used to be, by content quality and scheduling... Based on what we've seen, the overall quality of that content looks better than it has in the past two seasons," the report says.

Here, according to RPA, are some things to keep in mind heading into the season:

• The five broadcast networks will debut 21 shows, accounting for 22 percent of scheduling hours.

• Dramas and dramedies (a mix of comedy and drama) will increase from 43 percent to 48 percent of the schedule's hours. Comedies will rise from 10 percent to 17 percent.

• Not a single new fall show is a foreign co-production (which had been looking like a trend until now).

• Medicine is hot, with three hospital dramas debuting this fall and a fourth starting midseason ("Trauma," "Mercy", "Three Rivers," and "Miami Trauma").

• Paranormal is big, too. Four new shows built around that theme will land this fall ("V," "Eastwick," "Flash Forward," and "Vampire Diaries").

Oh, and Jay Leno is moving to prime-time.

American TV fans are being offered the chance of a seat “next to some of the biggest stars in Hollywood” at the annual prime time Emmy television awards next month.

CBS, which will broadcast the Emmy ceremony live from Los Angeles on Sept. 20,  has invited fans to enter a “best seat in the house” contest by submitting a 30-second video explaining why they are “TV’s Number One Fan.”

One prize winner, over the age of 18, will attend the Emmy Awards and will be seated  among the stars for the glitzy three-hour award ceremony.

Bill Binenstock, vice president of CBS.com, said the contest was a “great way to get fans involved” in the TV industry’s biggest night.  Actor Neil Patrick Harris, star of the  TV comedy “How I Met Your Mother”, will host the ceremony, and comedy “30 Rock” and drama series “Mad Men” are expected to be  be among the big winners.

A year ago, the big story around Emmy nominations was the acclaim showered on cable programs like "Mad Men" and "Damages." A quick glance at today's nominations indicates little has changed.

Just look at the best drama category, where Fox's "House" and ABC's "Lost" will face stiff competition from cable's "Big Love" (HBO), "Mad Men" (AMC), "Damages" (FX), and "Breaking Bad" (AMC).

While the Emmy awards aren't everything -- ratings are still the holy grail -- they certainly don't hurt. Particularly when it comes to cable networks, which have built a reputation for developing more sophisticated, bolder programs than the broadcast counterparts.

While ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox are under heavy pressure from advertisers (and their corporate parents) to show immediate results, the cable networks can take more care with their programs. After all, they draw some revenue from carriage deals and subscriptions, which buys shows like "Breaking Bad" some time to develop.

That seems to be paying dividends -- and not only when it comes to awards. While broadcast TV advertising rates are still at a sizable premium to cable, most advertising executives say the gap is shrinking. Couple that with carriage fees and a generally lower cost structure and you see why TV executives like NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker spend so much time talking up their cable assets.

Keep an eye on:

• Google will be under the spotlight when it reports second quarter earnings later today. How much of a toll has the downturn in advertising and the competition from Microsoft taken on the web leader? (Reuters)

• Speaking of Microsoft, its share of the U.S. market increased in June as it rolled out Bing (Reuters). And its not just focussed on search and Google -- the company plans to open some retail stores "right next door" to those of Apple Inc. (Reuters)

• Don't get too comfortable watching your favorite TV show on the web with only a few commercials. Media companies are pressing ahead with plans to put more ads in web videos. (Wall Street Journal)

Carrie Underwood has become country music’s biggest star since she exploded onto the scene after winning American Idol in 2005, but so far she’s been passed over as the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year, which has gone to only six women in 39 years.

In fact in recent years, country superstar Kenny Chesney has had a lock on the Entertainer of the Year award, taking it home in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

But this could be the year for Carrie, who has achieved enormous crossover success, winning four Grammy awards already in her short career. She is the lone woman nominated in 2009, facing off against Brad Paisley, George Strait , Keith Urban and – of course – Chesney. (Updates to four Grammys).

And remember, Chesney touched off a country music furor last year when, after winning Entertainer of the Year for the fourth straight time, he criticized the Academy for allowing the award to be chosen by fans voting on the Internet.

“I don’t think its right that they picked the one award that means the most, that all the artists sacrificed the most for, and turned it into a … sweepstakes,” Chesney said at the time.

Those remarks prompted some wags to suggest that he should give the trophy back.

The suspense ends on Sunday night at the 44th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which will be handed out at a ceremony hosted by Reba McEntire at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and broadcast live on CBS.

Whether Carrie wins or not, one thing is certain. She has come a long way from Checotah, Oklahoma and her appearance on “American Idol” — where judge Simon Cowell predicted during that season that she would not only win the competition but outsell all previous winners.

The American Film Institute unveiled its list of the “10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres” in a three-hour CBS Television Network special this week. A jury of 1,500 film artists, critics and historians named the following films as the very best in their genres but do you agree?:

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Science Fiction) - CITY LIGHTS (Romantic Comedy) - THE GODFATHER (Gangster) -  LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Epic) - RAGING BULL (Sports) - THE SEARCHERS (Western) - SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (Animation) - TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Courtroom Drama) - VERTIGO (Mystery) - THE WIZARD OF OZ (Fantasy).

For a full list of the honorees in each category go to the AFI Web site.
 

The reviews for “Swingtown” may not have been great, but U.S. television audiences — at least those not watching the National Basketball Association championship game — didn’t seem to mind as some 8.6 million total viewers tuned in to Thursday night’s premiere of the new CBS program about sexual adventurism in 1970s suburban America.

“Swingtown” garnered 8.6 million total viewers and a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49, while a rival program in the same 10 p.m. hour, ”Fear Itself,” had 5.2 million viewers and a 2 rating among adults 18-49.

On the east coast, “Swingtown” competed with the widely-watched NBA game between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, which won first-place and relegated “Swingtown” to second. “Fear Itself” came in third.

“Swingtown” replaced “Without a Trace” in the 10 p.m. slot for CBS. By comparison, last week’s episode of “Without a Trace,” which was a rerun, had 8.5 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen. 

“Swingtown” has won a lot of media attention because it covers a topic – married couples with multiple sex partners — that typically would not be on a broadcast network like CBS and would likely show up on cable TV where standards over what can be put on TV are less restrictive.

While reviews were rough, several of our Fan Fare readers seemed to like it. You can check out the comments on the blog posting from yesterday “‘Sex’ sold, but will ‘Swingtown’? Reviews are in.”

“David” writes “I don’t care what those stuffy newspapers say, I loved Swingtown!”

That old advertising axiom, “sex sells,” certainly held true for the film “Sex and the City,” which debuted at No. 1 in U.S. movie theaters last weekend with $56 million in ticket sales and has since added about another $12 million.

But a new “sex sells” question mark will be raised Thursday night when the CBS broadcast network debuts ”Swingtown,” about suburban sexual adventurism in the 1970s, complete with orgies, drug use and a touch of nostalgia.

The show has caused speculation over whether a broadcast network can truly do justice to the idea of a lifestyle with multiple sex partners because broadcasters face far greater restrictions than cable networks over the amount of sexual and other adult content in programs.

So far, a few critics are weighing in and several have expressed doubt.

The New York Times said: “Just because an era is amusingly kitsch does not mean it is ripe for dramatic exploration.” The paper noted that cable TV show “Mad Men,” a similar sort of program set in the 1960s that has been a hit with critics, ”plays with all the familiar cues of the period — the music, clothes and raffish ambiance — to frame a mystery that holds viewers’ attention.” “Swingtown,” it said, “has ’70s mystique, but not much mystery.”

The Boston Globe writes that “the older-skewing CBS is almost as far as you can get from HBO … And so while “Swingtown” is racy by network standards, and includes not just sexual situations but all kinds of drug use, it still doesn’t have the freedom to get into the nitty-gritty of a subject that is nothing if not nitty-gritty.”

“For all the industry chatter, the new CBS drama might as well be called ‘That ’70s Sex Show,’” the Los Angeles Times wrote in its review. “A network daring to tread in the R-rated territory previously left to the cable stations — imagine!”

USA Today says: “The show itself, sad to say, is not done well enough to work. But it’s not dull, and it’s worth watching if only to try to figure out what CBS could have been thinking.”

But critics are not the final word; audiences are. Tonight at 10 p.m. est, CBS will begin to find out if it’s risky experiment in the world of swinging 1970s sex will, in fact, sell on network TV in the 2000s.  

When a California court granted Britney Spears’ father control of her business and personal affairs on Feb. 1, the troubled 26 year-old pop star had just been released from a Los Angeles hospital after being held for psychiatric evaluation.

It was the second time in one month that her mental state had been questioned by doctors, so there was little question at the time as to whether the court was acting in her best interests. That control — legally known as a conservatorship — has been extended until July 31, and a host of attorneys have been brought in to make decisions for her and audit her business deals.

Yet, this week news has surfaced that Britney is back at work. She released a new video, and is rehearsing and taping an episode of U.S. television comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” Less than 45 days since she was first considered legally unable to make her own decisions, she’s evidently okay to take a job and function on a TV set. One has to wonder just how sick she really is. Put another way, is she back “In the Zone,” which was the name of her 2003 record.

New details may emerge about her mental state at a hearing set for this coming Monday, March 17. It deals with a temporary restraining order against her former self-styled manager Sam Lutfi , who was the man controlling her life until her January hospitalizations. Some people think he is to blame for her problems, but others source her problems to her current handlers including her father. 

What will be said at those hearings is anybody’s guess. But for now, Britney says in a statement she is “having a blast” on the set of “How I Met Your Mother.” And to be sure, it has been weeks since the Louisiana native has been photographed outside her home in Los Angeles wearing those pink wigs and talking in a British accent.