Apparently there is a home-field advantage in awards shows; as CBS took its turn with the Emmys, “Everybody Loves Raymond” walked off with the Best Comedy award. I was rooting for “Arrested Development,” of course, but took a perverse satisfaction that “Desperate Housewives” got upset. The undeserving beaten by the really undeserving — that’s Emmy justice. To be fair, “Lost” — not as deserving as “Deadwood,” but easily the best show with any real chance of winning — did win, giving us the pleasing spectacle of the cast of a theme-song-less show taking the stage as the orchestra had nothing to play.
The big acting awards were more puzzling. Emmy had the choice of honoring the most critically praised performances or rewarding huge ratings, and in most cases it split the difference and chose neither. Felicity “The One Who Can Act” Huffman did, unsurprisingly, win for blockbuster “Desperate Housewives,” but then we were faced with… Patricia Arquette? (She gives a better performance than “Medium” deserves, but that’s really not saying much.) Tony Shaloub? (Yes, the OCD thing is a tough act, but it didn’t need a second Emmy.) James Spader? Ditto the why-the-second-Emmy point; his “Boston Legal” lead is actually a pretty good performance, but mainly one-note (and as much a comedy as a drama role). But between his and William Shatner’s win — honestly, does anyone on the planet believe “Boston Legal” is the best-acted show on TV?
And in the most-anticipated win of the night, Donald Trump walked off the winner of “Emmy Idol” — the losers, of course, being every one of us who had to sit through it. Good night.