When it was announced that Charlie Sheen would be presenting the award for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series,” many viewers likely cringed and/or salivated over the likelihood that the former Two and a Half Men actor would make a scene, perhaps groping or setting someone on fire.

But, as it turned out, he was an incredibly classy and gracious presenter, wishing his show the best as it unveils its newest season (and its first without him).

Bad news for Emmy viewers who were hoping to catch Alec Baldwin tonight– an off-color phone hacking joke seems to have prompted the actor of abandon the project, leaving a trail of angry tweets behind him. The drama started last Thursday, when Baldwin was notified that a joke about the Murdoch phone hacking scandal may have been cut from an introductory comedy bit. With that rumor confirmed tonight, the actor is boycotting the Emmys and, apparently, spending the night at his trusty keyboard instead.

Handsome funny person Will Arnett visited Jimmy Fallon Tuesday to discuss, among other things, how he is rooting for his wife Amy Poehler‘s show to do well at this year’s Emmy Awards. As it turns out, Arnett has quite a bit of experience losing at the Emmys.

Emmys host Jimmy Fallon‘s musical talents didn’t end at the opening Glee number.

He brought his guitar through the audience to introduce each mass category (drama, comedy, reality, etc.), but he also whipped through three costume changes for a farewell song to departing dramas – where he portrayed, among others, Elton John.

It didn’t take long for Emmys host Jimmy Fallon to turn to the up-and-comers of Glee for an opening musical number. (Fallon has taken his musical talents to Glee-related material before.)

But it wasn’t just the host and the high schoolers – Fallon’s opening included a bevy of TV stars…and Kate Gosselin.

Robert Halderman, the former CBS producer now serving jail time for his failed attempt to blackmail David Letterman, finally received some good news in his cell today, but, unfortunately for him, it had nothing to do with his sentence: he’s nominated for an Emmy.

A few months back, the animated show Family Guy fell onto the political radar when it featured a character with Down Syndrome whose mother was “the former governor of Alaska.” Now that episode’s soundtrack is up for an Emmy award. Bill O’Reilly asked guests Margaret Hoover and Gretchen Carlson to speculate on whether the motive for the nod was political, as an attack on Sarah Palin.

The TBS-supported Emmy campaign by Conan O’Brien regarding his former show, NBC’s The Tonight Show, worked brilliantly: O’Brien’s version of the show got four nominations this morning.

NBC entered The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – which got zero nominations. This could get awkward when the Emmys air August 29 on, um, NBC.

TBS is not afraid of doing some collateral good to a competitor in the name of supporting their own talent. Several months removed from the debut of Conan O’Brien‘s new late-night program on their network, TBS is doing some unorthodox advertising, buying up ad space in Hollywood magazine Variety to endorse NBC’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien for an Emmy nomination.

new TWTR.Widget({search:’Emmys’,id:’twtr-search-widget’,loop:true,title:’Mediaite TweetFinder:’,subject:’#Emmys’,width:450,height:400,theme:{shell:{background:’#e7e7d1′,color:’#cc0000′},tweets:{background:’#ffffff’,color:’#000000′,links:’#004e6d’}}}).render().start();

The “Horrible Emmys” puns will be beaten to death before the night is through, but even before the broadcast begins tonight on CBS it’s a pretty good bet what the high point of this weekend’s obligatory awards show will be.  Yesterday, Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello breathlessly reported on EW.com that “Sources confirm…exclusively that host Neil [...]

David Javerbaum is the “Consulting Producer” of The Daily Show, which is what they call you when you’ve been writer, Head Writer, Supervising Producer, tried to quit to write the lyrics for a Broadway musical, got called back to be Executive Producer, did that for a few years, got nominated for a Tony for that [...]

Neil Patrick Harris is a magician, literally. He does magic tricks (video inside). But Harris’ career has also been magical: a child star turned grown-up award host; an anxious closet case turned poster boy for “content” gay actors. All eyes on Harris at this weekend’s Emmy awards.

  Fresh off the Tonys on June 7, Neil Patrick Harris (and hopefully one of his shiny suits ) will take the stage to host the Emmys on September 20. Coming off two consecutive nominations for the supporting actor in a comedy series category for How I Met Your Mother, NPH will also be working as a [...]