Going Out With a Bang & a Bleep

As the crowd's cheers for Gore persisted, Hyatt said to Gore onstage, "That's a nice tribute to you." Gore said such participatory channels on the Internet could help "reclaim American democracy by talking about the choices we have to make."

In addition, Emmys went to programs appearing on such basic cable networks as USA (Judy Davis, best supporting actress in a drama, for "The Starter Wife") and AMC, once called American Movie Classics, which won in three categories for its original western movie "Broken Trail," including Robert Duvall as best actor in a miniseries or movie.

NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" won for best writing of a variety, music or comedy series. As usual, a comic highlight of the program was the tapes submitted by the writing staffs of the nominated shows. Writers for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," named best variety or musical series a little later in the evening, had all their names inserted after the phrase "I don't recall," as repeated by former attorney general Alberto Gonzales in testimony before a congressional subcommittee.

Only the feet of writers for HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" were seen, glimpsed from under the doors of stalls in a men's room, a reference to the scandal that recently disrupted the political career of Sen. Larry Craig.

Jeremy Piven, who has won widespread praise for his performance as the hard-charging agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage," won for best supporting actor in a comedy series; Jaime Pressly, of NBC's "My Name Is Earl," won the female side of that category.

Ryan Seacrest, who hosts "American Idol" on Fox, proved a poor choice to emcee this year's Emmys; his material was weak, and Seacrest tried to keep up a hipper-than-thou attitude that fell flat. When he introduced former hosts in the audience, such as Ellen DeGeneres, many viewers may have wished that DeGeneres could grab the microphone and replace Seacrest before any more time was wasted.

For the first time, the show was staged "in the round," with the audience surrounding a circular stage in the center of the vast hall. The consensus among presenters and performers appeared to be that they didn't like having their backs to half of the audience. This gimmick probably won't be back next year -- and most likely, neither will Seacrest.

More than 60 other Emmys were awarded a week earlier at the "creative arts" ceremony, which cited technical achievement and bestowed awards in minor categories. Honored for guest-acting roles on drama and comedy series were Elaine Stritch for "30 Rock," Leslie Caron for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," John Goodman for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Stanley Tucci for "Monk."