TV hits fuel hype for Sunday’s Emmys

There’s a new kind of buzz in Hollywood this week, the kind typically reserved for a guy named Oscar and his movie stars. But this time, surprisingly, it’s all about television.

Unlike movies, which have been in the doldrums, it’s been a big year for the small screen, with viewers flocking to sexy new shows such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.” Which means that the Emmy awards on Sunday are generating more heat than usual -- and perhaps losing some of its stepchild status to the Academy Awards.

“There certainly seems to be a sense of fun about this year,” said Deborah Barrow, director of special projects for TV Guide and Inside TV, sister magazines that are throwing “the big party,” on Emmy night at the town’s “it spot” of the moment, the renovated Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “People are needing a good time. There’s a young aspect to a lot of the shows and the talent. People are excited about the nominations.”

The Emmy awards come, though, while the nation is only beginning to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which brought devastation to New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. For the producers of the Emmy night show on CBS, it means having to balance entertainment -- including some new, offbeat features -- with respect for the tragedy.

“This is an evolving kind of situation and what might have been appropriate a week ago might not be appropriate this week,” said Ken Ehrlich, a longtime Grammy producer tapped by CBS to spice up the Emmy show. “Having Ellen DeGeneres as the host, who is from New Orleans, sets the tone right away that there will be a balance. One of the first things Ellen said to me after Katrina hit was that we still need to make people laugh without forgetting about what’s going on and not in any way taking away from its meaning.” It was DeGeneres who was lauded for how she handled hosting duties for the postponed post-9/11 Emmys in 2001.

At the Emmys, presenters and performers will wear magnolias, the state flower of both Louisiana and Mississippi, and information about donating to the recovery effort will be displayed throughout the telecast.

While moderating the tone of the show, Ehrlich hopes to add some sizzle to the Emmy broadcast which, like other award shows, has been sliding in the ratings in recent years. For example, the broadcast will have a viewer-participation contest called “Emmy Idol” that will pair the unlikeliest of performers to sing renditions of popular TV theme songs: Donald Trump and Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) will serve up “Green Acres”; William Shatner and opera star Frederica von Stade will sing the theme to “Star Trek”; Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”) will perform “Fame”; and Macy Gray and Gary Dourdan (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”) are going gospel with “Movin’ On Up” from “The Jeffersons.”

Ehrlich predicted that when viewers hear Trump sing a line from the “Green Acres” theme (“Keep Manhattan, just give me the countryside’), “that should be huge. This is all just for fun, and people need to have fun.”

The 57th Emmy broadcast also will feature a tribute to the late Peter Jennings and retired news anchors Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, as well as a special homage to Johnny Carson.

“We will have plenty of laughs as well as poignant moments,” Ehrlich said. “I think this year in particular, not only due to world events, but also that there’s a fresh crop of nominees and some people that are probably going to walk up there and win their first Emmy, it sets the table for a pretty exciting show.”

Janice Min, editor in chief of Us Weekly, which is sponsoring the “Hollywood Hot 20” bash at club LAX on Friday, said she expects that “a lot of people would be tuning in this year who probably haven’t watched the Emmys in a few years because they suddenly have all these new favorite shows. In earlier years, you had ‘Friends,’ and ‘Sex and the City,’ but TV had such a great past 12 months, where you have these shows that really came in and filled the void.”

The guest list at the Us Weekly party includes some of the year’s breakout stars such as Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”) Jeremy Piven (“Entourage”) and Kristin Cavalleri (“Laguna Beach”). It’s the first of a number of such events over the weekend, including Entertainment Weekly’s bash at Hollywood’s Cabana Club.

For awards-show doyenne Joan Rivers -- who will once again take her place on the red carpet for a pre-Emmy show -- the new faces offer “more people to make fun of, or to be in awe of,” including the residents of “Housewives’ ” Wisteria Lane (three of whom are nominated for an Emmy) and newly minted sex symbol Hugh Laurie of “House,” (also nominated). Rivers and daughter Melissa will muse about fashion and gossip for TV Guide Channel.

“We can do so much more on cable,” Joan Rivers said. “There’s so much to look forward to. You’ve got all these movie stars coming out too, because they’ve done specials or they’ve been on series this year. Glenn Close (nominated for her role in “The Shield”), that’s terrific. That adds total class. Glenn Close will balance out me.”

After the long day of preparing and sitting through a three-hour show, Emmy attendees have the parties to look forward to. But choosing which one to go to and when could prove vexing.

The TV Guide/Inside TV celebration at the Hollywood Roosevelt will feature a Missy Elliott performance and a 40-foot-long serpentine bar in the middle of the pool. HBO will host its annual soiree at the Pacific Design Center, and Twentieth Century Fox Television and Fox Broadcasting Co. return to Spago for their celebration. Showtime is hosting a casual, yes-you-can-wear-jeans affair at Katana in West Hollywood.

One of the hottest tickets will be the “Entertainment Tonight”/People bash at the Mondrian Hotel, where Earth, Wind & Fire is performing and where there will be a Godiva Lounge, with walls painted with real chocolate stripes and cocktail tables encased in chocolate.

“Things change very quickly in Hollywood and the ‘Desperate Housewives’ have brought a lot of momentum,” said “Entertainment Tonight” executive producer Linda Bell Blue. “There’s new life and new blood from producers and writers to directors and actors. It’s great for the industry and great for Hollywood.”