Neil Patrick Harris, "Mad Men", "30 Rock" big hits at this years Emmys

The 61th Emmy Awards hosted by Neil Patrick Harris proved to be the best broadcast in recent years. Harris, who also hosted this years Tonys, seemed to bring new life to the usually boring awards show. The producers cleverly tried a new format and grouped the awards into genres this time out. There was also a taped look back at the year, broken into the genre segments reality, comedy, drama, variety and movies and mini series. The band, who are usually invisible in a pit underneath the stage,  was live onstage and in an welcomed twist, the directing team was on stage behind a see through booth, allowing them to be a part of the show as well.

Once again Harris was the perfect choice of host as the kidded Jon Cryer who beat him out for best supporting actor on a comedy for Two And A Half Men. As Jon was backstage in the press room, Neil interrupted him, asking him what it felt like to win and what was going on in his mind as he went on stage to accept his Emmy. “All I kept thinking was screw you Neil Patrick Harris!”, Cryer shot back.

Harris performed a great opening number, worked in sing along blog with Castle’s Nathan Fillion. The show ran so smoothly, that is only ran 4 minutes long.

30 Rock and Mad Men repeated as winners this year having also won last year for Best Comedy Series and Best Drama Series, respectively. Jon Cryer of Two And A Half Men and Kristen Chenowith of Pushing Daisies won for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock and Toni Colette of The United States Of Tara won for Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series.

Michael Emerson of Lost and Cherry Jones of 24 won for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress in a Drama Series while Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad and Glenn Close of Damages won for Best Actor and Actress in a Drama Series. For a complete list of winners visit: EMMY Winners.