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2009 Emmy Awards

EW Home // News // 2009 Emmy Awards // Emmys: 2008's Best/Worst Moments

Emmys: 2008's Best/Worst Moments

The heartfelt, the funny, the political, and the agonizingly awkward: The high and low points of the 60th annual TV awards ceremony

By Gary Susman | Aug 31, 2009
Gary Susman
Gary Susman
Actor | Authors | Directors | RolesClass | Awards by Franchise | Emmy Awards | Media Awards & Events | TV Awards and Events | Primetime Emmy Awards 2008 | Individual | Heidi Klum | Tom Bergeron | William Shatner
Image credit: Mathew Imaging/WireImage

MOST PAINFUL BANTER: THE INTRODUCTION

Remember just a few short months ago when the writers were on strike? Without writers, there'd be no quips like the classic lines of TV dialogue, doled out to various actors, that opened the show. Without writers, TV would look and sound like that unwatchably awkward confab of five reality hosts that marred the opening. ''We have absolutely nothing,'' Jeff Probst said as the superfluous quintet stammered awkwardly for several minutes. ''This is not a bit,'' confirmed Howie Mandel. Finally, in a move smacking of desperation, two men ripped off Heidi Klum's tuxedo to reveal a skimpy, sparkly getup underneath. As Entourage's Jeremy Piven, the evening's first winner, put it, ''What if I just kept talking for 12 minutes, what would happen?'' Now we know.

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