Neil Patrick Harris has been tapped to host the Emmys for a second time.  CBS announced today that the How I Met Your Mother star will emcee the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards this fall, marking a return to the program after hosting the 2009 Emmys to widespread critical praise.  Harris is an excellent showman and will no doubt do an excellent job hosting the ceremony.  This news comes on the heels of the announcement that Harris will also be hosting the Tony Awards June 9th on CBS, marking his fourth time overseeing the Broadway-geared ceremony.  Hit the jump to watch Harris’ opening musical number from the 2009 Emmys.  The 65th Annual Primetime Emmys will air on September 22nd on CBS.

The 2012 Emmy Awards air Sunday at 8pm on ABC during all of your other programming (set those DV-Rs!), so is the show worth watching?  Will there be any upsets?  Or will it just be worth it to sit there smugly as Bryan Cranston wins again for Breaking Bad, turning to your friends, significant other or Siri and saying “I totally called that.”  Hit the jump to see my predictions for who will win and whoshould win Sunday night based on Vegas odds, rumors, secret handshakes, the predictability of Emmy voters, with maybe an upset or two thrown in to keep things interesting.

The 2012 Emmy nominations are here, and there are plenty of predictable results, a few pleasant surprises, and a slew of snubs (I hear you, Parks and Rec and Community fans, I hear you!).  I mentioned in my piece on underrated series and performances this year that there were plenty of shoo-ins from shows I shouldn’t even bother mentioning, most especially Justified and the aforementioned comedies.  Apparently I was dead wrong.  But there were a few nice additions, including Michelle Dockery for Downton Abbey(what’s with all of the Downton noms this year?  It had a lackluster second season aside from Dockery) as well as Christine Baranski for The Good Wife and Mark Margolis for Breaking Bad (ding ding ding!).  For the list of nominees, hit the jump.

Before the 2012 Emmy Nominations are officially announced (July 19th), I wanted to jump in and highlight some of what I believe to be some of the best underrated performances on television this year.  Putting aside some of the perennial winners, the following discussion for each of the major categories is likely to mention plenty of names who won’t get Emmy mentions this year, but certainly should (and others who may get a nod, but likely won’t win).  Hit the jump for the (spoiler-free!) list that is not meant to be exhaustive (after all, I do watch an unhealthy amount of TV but I’m not caught up on everything), but hopefully brings at least a few of those dark horses to light with the recognition they deserve.

The nominations for the 2011 Primetime Emmys have been announced.  HBO, as always, led the pack as the miniseries Mildred Pierce picked up 21 nominations, Boardwalk Empire picked up 18 nominations, and Game of Thrones nabbed 13 nominations.  Also, as usual, Mad Men held the most nominations of any dramatic series by picking up 19 nods.  The Emmys also once again overlooked Community in favor of garbage like Glee, but they also finally showed Parks and Recreation some love.  It’s also cool that Louis C.K. (Louie), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), and Walton Goggins (Justified) picked up nominations, but overlooking Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) was just one of the many snubs that the Emmys have become known for.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced Sunday, September 18th at 8/7c on Fox.

To the average observer, Emmy voters are a capricious bunch.  Within every seemingly unpredictable mass of data, however, lies a pattern.  Greendale Community College student Abed Nadir thinks has run the analysis, and is using the knowledge to predict which show will win Best Comedy at the 2011 Emmys.  The pattern is actually quite simple: A represents “shows that have won an Emmy, so it seems like they’ll win again,”  B denotes “shows that haven’t won yet, so it seems like their turn.”  In classifying all the Best Comedy winners since 1953, Nadir noted a recurring sequence “ABBA”:

B A B B A B A B B A A B B A B B A A B B A A A B A A B B A B B A B A B A A B B A A A A B B B B B B A B B A A B

Nadir concludes that The Big C, led by Laura Linney, is the inevitable victor.  Read his explanation after the jump.

She’s been sailing smoothly on television as ruthless, insulting coach Sue Sylvester on Glee, and now Fox has decided that her talents are exactly right to spice up an awards ceremony as host of the 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 18th. Standard publicity fluff comes from executive producer Mark Burnett who says, “Jane was my first – and only – choice as the host for this year’s Primetime Emmys, and I am glad she said ‘yes.’ She has incredible comedic timing, and is a charismatic, talented actress whose energy leaps off the screen and stage. I am thrilled and excited to have her as our host.” Of course, considering her work outside of Glee in other series like Party Down and films like The 40-Year Old Virgin, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and more recently Paul, Lynch is the perfect choice to host the awards ceremony and make the long telecast that much more tolerable. Nominations for the Emmys will hit on Thursday, July 14th, so stay tuned.

After worthy but small amounts of miniseries and made-for-TV movies have been nominated in their respective categories at the primetime Emmy awards, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has decided to make things interesting this year. Deadline reports this time the two programming types will be pitted against each other in a combination category that will honor the best in TV miniseries and made-for-TV movies with 6 nominees being allowed for the category.

Not only will this make the category more competitive, but it just makes sense. For the past two years only two miniseries have been nominated in its respective category. Last year it was The Pacific and Return to Cranford while the previous year had Little Dorrit facing off against Generation Kill. The only downside I can see if the sheer volume of work that goes into several episodes of a miniseries as opposed to a two-hour film and that the two may not be on even footing against each other. I guess we’ll find out later this year.

It’s officially Emmy weekend, folks, with the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards broadcasting live at 8PM EST (5PM PST) this Sunday on NBC.  There are a lot of questions to be answered: Can Mad Men pull off a threepeat?  Will Hugh Laurie finally be recognized for six seasons of brilliance on House six seasons?  How will the presenters of Supporting Actress pronounce Archie Panjabi?

After the jump, Ethan Anderton and I take a look the major drama categories at decide which nominees have the best chance of winning, as well as who we think is the most deserving regardless of the results.  (Check our comedy picks here.)

It’s officially Emmy weekend, folks, with the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards broadcasting live at 8PM EST (5PM PST) this Sunday on NBC.  There are a lot of questions to be answered: Can 30 Rock pull off four in a row?  Will Modern Family‘s Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, and Ty Burrell cancel each other out in the Supporting Actor category?  Will Jane Lynch modestly pretend like she didn’t know she was going to win?

After the jump, Ethan Anderton and I take a look at the major comedy categories and decide which nominees have the best chance of winning, as well as who we think is the most deserving regardless of the results.  (Check our drama picks here.)

A very interesting and possibly very awesome thing might happen this Sunday at the Emmys.  For those of you that don’t know, the short-lived but excellent Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien is nominated in the “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series” category.  This is especially great and dramatic given that O’Brien walked away from the talk show franchise and NBC earlier this year after the network tried to push The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. in order to accommodate Jay Leno’s failure of a show at 11:35 p.m.  O’Brien was able to walk away with a $45 million deal, which also came with a “non-disparagement” clause between him and NBC that doesn’t expire until September 1^st.  This has led a lot of Team Coco members to wonder about what just might happen this Sunday if O’Brien and his staff of writers end up winning, since the awards show is broadcast by NBC.

Hit the jump to find out the details on what O’Brien can and can’t say this Sunday, along with my thoughts on why nothing too dramatic will happen.

Last week NBC stirred up a little controversy surrounding a Mad Men themed promo meant to hype the live telecast of the Emmys hosted by late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon. Though Fallon himself usually creates a stir of confusion as to why people think he’s funny, this time the issue wasn’t his material, but rather the fact that the spots gave Mad Men the spotlight during Emmy voting time. It wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if Mad Men wasn’t nominated for Outstanding Drama, but this situation is akin to equal screen time for presidential candidates.

However, ballots for the Emmys were due on August 17th, and now all three of the hilarious Emmy promo videos starring Fallon (as Don Draper) and Mad Men‘s voluptuous star Christina Hendricks are available online. You can check them all out for yourself after the jump.

Of course it’s a crime that Neil Patrick Harris didn’t win for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy at last night’s Emmys (click here for a list of who won in the major categories).  But it’s okay because judging from all the coverage of last night’s broadcast, he won the night.  The response he’s gotten hasn’t just been a shrugging “Well, it was better than last year’s endless torture of five reality-show hosts…” but a standing ovation for his energy and humor.  It makes me wish I could watch the broadcast but without the awards.  Just let it be the “Neil Patrick Harris Variety Hour(s)”.

Well, I kind of got my wish because some clips featuring NPH’s great work have started popping up online so if you want to see his opening song-and-dance number or Dr. Horrible breaking into the live feed, hit the jump.

Imagine if the same six or seven movies and their actors, writers, directors, etc. kept getting nominated for Oscars every year.  There would be slight deviations but for the most part, Academy members would just take their ballot from last year, peruse a couple of For Your Consideration ads, maybe read a critic’s list or two as a second source to make sure they weren’t making any selection deemed interesting, and you’d wonder if they just showed a repeat except they somehow replaced Jon Stewart with Hugh Jackman.

“TV’s Finest Night” is always a repeat and you cherish just about anyone who hasn’t won an Emmy in the past no matter the quality of the show.  Yes, “Mad Men” and “30 Rock” are excellent shows but barring a steep decline in quality, I already know who’s going to win next year because the Emmys are a bunch of lazy wimps who don’t watch anything outside the ten shows they already love.  Hit the jump for a list of tonight’s winners and only grumbling since this farce isn’t worth the energy of a blinding rage.

Even if you didn’t think it was catchy or funny-and I find you a strange human being if you didn’t-Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was a significant moment in the development of content produced exclusively for online distribution.  Produced during 2008′s WGA Strike, it was a major case for why revenue from digital content was so crucial to writers.  Also, it looked professional, featured great performances, and had Whedon’s singular wit.  And now he has an Emmy Award for it.  Hit the jump but know that the Emmy is not his penis.