A spoonful of sugar makes the reality hosts go down

The Emmys made history last night, with AMC's Mad Men becoming the first basic cable series to take a best series award. Cable networks dominated all the drama categories: Bryan Cranston of the network's Breaking Bad pulled a best actor stunner, while Glenn Close predictably scratched out her foes with a win for FX's Damages. Zeljko Ivanek of that same show nabbed supporting actor, upsetting co-star Ted Danson, and Dianne Wiest of HBO's In Treatment nabbed Supporting Actress.

Other records: HBO's John Adams won 13 Emmys, besting the 11 won by Angels in America in 2004. Oh, and this year's Emmycast was the lowest-rated ever, with fewer than 13 million viewers.

On the comedy side, things were much more predictable: 30 Rock won comedy series and best actor, as well as actress and comedy writing (both Tina Fey). Jeremy Piven won again for Entourage, while Jean Smart received her third career Emmy for Samantha Who?

THE HOSTS
The five hosts – Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Tom Bergeron, Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest, who were all nominated for the new Best Reality Show Host award – stumbled from the beginning. The five stood around for the opening monologue with no clear plan of what to say, and it showed. Over the course of the evening, it was hard to tell what was worse: Klum's mugging or Mandel's jabbering. It's always a bad sign if the hosts are openly mocked by presenters and award winners.
THE VENUE
The re-creation of retro sets in the otherwise glitzy arena was often bizarre. And why bring back the M*A*S*H swamp but no cast members, and then make Don Rickles walk out of it? Another beef: ditch the giant screens above the podium that showed the nominees. When the winners were revealed, the cameras were too far away to make out any faces, and as a result most nominees went unnoticed by viewers.
THE BEST AND WORST
Best Impression of a corpse: David Boreanaz
Most inspired pairing: Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin, who yelled "GET UP!" at the audience when she walked out with Rickles
Best presenters: Ricky Gervais, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
Cutest veteran presenters: Mary Tyler Moore and Betty White
Best impression of a heroin addict: Jimmy Kimmel
Worst skit: Laugh-In revisited, which made me wonder if the show was ever funny
Best surprise: Josh Groban's giddy TV theme montage
Most in need of new glasses: Tom Hanks
Best mother-son reunion: Tom Hanks and Sally Field of Forrest Gump fame

Same time next year, Folks.