NPH talks Emmy hosting with NYT

Neil Patrick Harris hosted last year’s Creative Arts Emmys which take place later today (I’ll be there live-blogging so check the site this afternoon!). This year, he’s moved up to the big show: The Primetime Emmys on Sept. 20.

Neil, who is nominated for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for the third year in a row, talked to The New York Times this week about the upcoming gig which follows his successful stint hosting The Tony Awards this year.

Here are some excerpts:

“You go from the Tonys to the Emmys, and there’s only one big one left,” he said, then took a well-timed breath. “The Telemundo awards.”

“It’s fun to helm the ship,” Mr. Harris said in a telephone interview during a break from filming his sitcom. “It’s fun to keep everyone’s attention shifting from place to place. It’s a very fragmented evening, an awards show, and so the host needs to be amusing without being a stand-up.”

As awards shows go, Mr. Harris pointed out, the Emmys can feel like a particularly scattered experience. There’s not that much dramatic buildup when the awards are handed out in what can seem a completely random order: supporting actress in a mini-series or special, say, followed by writing in a variety or music program. So this year the telecast will be divided by genre: all the dramatic awards, then all the comedy awards and so on. The other three categories will be variety, long form (meaning mini-series and movies) and reality.

“It’ll feel sort of like five different shows,” Mr. Harris said. “I think that structure will kind of help keep moving things along.” And during the comedy section, people who are nominated in the drama categories can relax and not worry about the imminent stress of being thrilled or humiliated. “This will allow the audience that’s there, if it’s not their time, to enjoy the show,” he said.