'Raymond,' 'Lost' win top Emmys

Nominee Charlize Theron arrives at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in LA. Picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - ABC's new castaway thriller "Lost" won the award for best drama, and beloved sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," which recently ended its nine-year CBS run, clinched an upset victory as best comedy at the Emmy Awards today.

The surprise triumph for "Raymond," which also claimed the top comedy prize in 2003, was in keeping with Emmy voters' preference for older shows and past winners over newcomers and came at the expense of another ABC breakout hit, "Desperate Housewives," that was seen as a virtual shoo-in to win.

First-season programs, even popular ones, have a tendency to get overlooked at the Emmy Awards, but newly departed shows are even more rare in the winners circle.

"Raymond" was one of only a few TV series in the past 30 years -- comedy or drama -- to claim an outstanding-series prize in either category after going off the air. Two others were "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Barney Miller."

But the "Raymond" victory marked a clear sentimental nod to a much loved show that some TV critics have bemoaned was one of the last true sitcoms left in the Nielsen ratings' top 10.

"All year long they've been asking us, do you think now that your show is going that this means the end of the sitcom, and I want to say, 'Yes,'" said "Raymond" co-creator and producer Phil Rosenthal. "Beyond that, it's the end of laughing, and soon the end of smiling. But we want to thank all of you for nine wonderful years."

"Raymond" also garnered repeat best-supporting acting awards for co-stars Brad Garrett and Doris Roberts, who took the stage with two grandchildren in tow to exclaim, "Wow, this is the icing on the cake."

SURPRISED "HOUSEWIVES"

While the loss to "Raymond" was a disappointment for "Desperate Housewives," which ranked as the highest-rated new show last season, the series earned a best-actress prize for one of the ladies of Wisteria Lane, Felicity Huffman.

ABC, which airs "Housewives" and "Lost" walked away with one of its best Emmy nights in years, winning six major awards overall.

Along with "Lost" and Huffman, ABC's winners included James Spader as best actor in a drama for his role as lawyer in the courtroom series "Boston Legal" and co-star William Shatner, for best supporting actor.

Veterans Paul Newman and Jane Alexander, won supporting actor and actress awards for miniseries and TV movies for their respective work in HBO's "Empire Falls" and "Warm Springs," the latter about Franklin Roosevelt's struggle with polio.

In other major awards, Tony Shalhoub was named best actor in a comedy for his role as an obsessive-compulsive private detective in "Monk," his second Emmy win for that role. Patricia Arquette was a surprise first-time winner in the category for best actress in a drama for playing a psychic detective in NBC's "Medium."

The 57th edition of the Emmys opened with Louisiana-born host Ellen DeGeneres paying tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in her opening monologue.

"New Orleans is my hometown, and our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected," said DeGeneres, recalling that she also hosted the Emmys four years ago in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

"I'm really, really honored because it's times like these that we really need to laugh," she said, adding on a more humorous note: "And look for me next month when I host the North Korean People's Choice Awards.

DOWN THE DRESS

But the evening's funniest moment was the star of HBO's "Lackawanna Blues," S. Epatha Merkerson, who took the stage to accept her award for best lead actress in a TV movie and lost her thank-you notes down her dress.

"I wrote something, and I put it in my thing (bra) and it went down and I can't get it," the flummoxed actress said when accepting her award. "It's probably stuck to me."

Another emotional highlight was an Emmy salute to Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and the late Peter Jennings, the longtime evening news anchors of the rival Big Three Broadcast networks -- NBC, CBS and ABC.

"We were competitive, but we were always bound by a shared devotion to being reporters first," said Brokaw after taking the stage with Rather to a rousing standing ovation.

Winning best made-for-TV movie was HBO's "Warm Springs" and the miniseries winner was "The Lost Prince," a Masterpiece Theater presentation.

- REUTERS