Everybody Loves Raymond, a television comedy series that is being dropped off the small screen after a nine-year run, won its category in the 2005 Emmy Awards late on Sunday, beating Desperate Housewives, which had been largely expected to clinch that prize.
The win was announced during the 57th Annual Emmy Awards ceremony, which also honoured producers of Lost, a drama series about survivors of a plane crash.
Everybody Loves Raymond, which has gained a total of 12 Emmys since 1997, also won on Sunday night the awards for best supporting actor and actress.
Desperate Housewives, which came to the ceremony with 15 nominations, did not leave empty-handed.
Felicity Huffman snatched the best-comedy-actress award for her role in the popular series, while Briton Charles McDougall was honoured as best comedy director.
”Marcia, Eva, Teri, Nicolette, I love you!” shouted Huffman before thanking her husband, actor William H Macy, for his support.
Sporting colourful dresses, the five women who star in the series went out of their way to put to rest rumours of rivalries between them that have been swirling around Hollywood since they graced the cover of Vanity Fair magazine earlier this year.
Actress Eva Longoria joked about the rumours by telling Ellen Degeneres, who was the MC at the event, that she was ”treated no differently than the other girls”, while the camera showed her sitting in the back of the auditorium, way behind her co-stars.
The satirical series about suburban life was one of the high points of the past season, beating even reality shows.
The series Boston Legal, which casts the spotlight on the travails of attorneys working for a big city law firm, was rewarded through the best-drama-actor award, given to James Spader, and the best-supporting-actor prize, which went to William Shatner, better known to viewers as Captain Kirk from Star Trek.
Blythe Danner, mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow, was declared best actress in a drama series for her role in Huff. During the ceremony, she remembered her late husband, Bruce Paltrow, and, referring to Iraq, saying: ”Let’s get the heck out of there.”
Cable channel HBO had 16 nominations before the ceremony and once again left with the most awards for television movies.
The best-television-movie award went to Warm Springs, a film about former president Franklin Roosevelt, who was stricken by polio at the age of 39 and went to win the presidency despite overwhelming odds.
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush won the best-movie-actor award for his role in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. The director and scriptwriter of that movie also ended up with prizes in their respective categories.
Hollywood veteran Paul Newman (80) won the prize for best supporting actor for his performance in Empire Falls.
The surprise of the show was the appearance of real-estate mogul Donald Trump dressed as a peasant — pitchfork in hand and delivering his own rendition of the 1960s song Green Acres.
But the piece of theatre did not help his reality show, The Apprentice. The top prize in that category went to The Amazing Race, featuring a race around the world.
The stars and guests wore magnolia flowers, a symbol of their support for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
They also gave a standing ovation to three former television news anchors — Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw.
For Jennings, who worked for ABC News and died in August from lung cancer, it was a posthumous honour. Rather (CBS) and Brokaw (NBC) were present. — AFP
