Stephen Colbert the thesp-comic loves TV Christmas specials. Never missed 'em when he was a kid: Andy Williams, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," etc.

TV's Stephen Colbert is a reverent Christian and, of course, proud foot soldier in the war on Christmas, fighting the scourge of "happy holidays" and "season's greetings" in public schools, department stores, city halls and wherever else the PC police may patrol.

Put the two sides of Colbert together, throw in seven original songs, a few pounds of fake snow, six notable guest stars and -- shazam! -- you've got a very funny Christmas spesh. "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!" bows Sunday at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.

"We tried to make it strangely sincere, but also sincerely strange," Colbert says.

"The Colbert Report's" frontman is always raving about "how there's a war on Christmas and we've got to do something about it. So how would he fight the war on Christmas? He'd have a Christmas special," Colbert explains.

Unlike the Democrats, "The Colbert Report" had plenty to crow about this past week.

Fresh off of its Peabody win, "Colbert" demonstrated its anything-but-faux clout in the contempo political landscape, drawing brief appearances by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and a sit-down with Michelle Obama. How desperate are these candidate for the approval of "Colbert's" youthful affluent/educated/urban hipster (dare we say elite) aud? Really desperate.

For "Colbert," the show's weeklong stand in Philadelphia (aka the special "Doritos Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphia -- The City of Brotherly Crunch!" edition) added up to the most-watched week in its two and a half years on the air. An average of 1.5 million viewers tuned in Monday-Thursday -- not bad for 11:30 p.m. on cable. It averaged a winning 1.8 rating with the men 18-34 that Clinton, Obama or McCain would love to see in their column on Election Day.

Most important, Stephen Colbert was on fire, taking the foul air out of the gaseous pre-primary atmosphere in Pennsylvania by skewering what the show aptly dubbed "Democralypse Now: The delightful dismemberment of the Democratic hopescape!"

"Shameless!" Colbert inveighed in one of his commentary segs on Obamamania. "Scoring political points using footage of Hillary being booed for scoring political points using comments Obama made to score political points. Who does he hope he is?"

On Friday, Comedy Central was kind enough to send along a highlight reel for the week:

And since they did the same for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," what the heck, give it a spin. Stewart was in fine form too. On Thursday he added his pointed critique to the chorus savaging the perf of moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos in Wednesday's Democratic debate on ABC.

"The first hour of last night's debate was a 60-minute master class in questions that elevate out of context remarks and trivial, insipid miscues into subjects of national discourse ... which is MY job!"

First thing that jumps out at me is there are a lotta TV stars on the presenter roster already, not to mention our host with the most, Jon Stewart, who's already off to a nice, low-key but irreverent start.

Post show thoughts: Stewart wasn't just good, he was great. Very Carson-esque. Not too showy, didn't hog the spotlight, looked like he was having fun. Very little schtick, just a few good lines peppered in here and there. Stewart's bit about watching "Lawrence of Arabia" on an iPod screen was funny and brief. Overall, Gil Cates deserves another round of applause (after delivering the director's cut last month on the studio contract that broke the logjam of the writers strike) for keeping the show moving, and keeping the focus on the business at hand.

Jennifer Garner, who'll always be Sydney Bristow of "Alias" fame to us, delivered the costume design honor. George Clooney intro'd a nice clip package, and we claim Clooney as a guy with TV roots (after all those pilots.) Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway came out to announce the animation honor ("Ratatouille" won, as it should have) to the theme of "Get Smart" (Carell toplines the upcoming feature remake of the 1960s Mel Brooks-Buck Henry sitcom.)

And "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl, who looks absolutely stunning in an old-school platinum blonde way, handled the makeup honors, appropriately enough. No doubt Oscar announcer was carefully drilled in the proper pronunciation of Heigl (Hi - gelle), after Heigl pulled a total Izzie at the Emmys last September and scolded the announcer for mispronouncing it.

Oh look, here comes Jennifer Hudson announcing best supporting actor kudo. She's the ultimate made-by-TV star -- plucked from obscurity via "American Idol." BTW, winner Javier Bardem proves he's nothing like his "No Country" character by sweetly acknowledgling mama with a little Espanol in his remarks.

Seems like Gil Cates is making liberal use of all those best-of Oscar clip segments assembled for the worst-case-scenario telecast if the writers strike had still been going and there had been no stars at the Kodak. oscar's salute to binoculars and periscopes.

6:21 p.m.: Well, now we know. "Dancing with the Stars" gets the first house ad on the show, with ABC plugging the show's return next month.

6:23 p.m.: Stewart confirms our suspicions, intro'ing a clip package, "Oscar's salute to binoculars and periscopes" which would have been used for a four-and-a-half-hour writer-free telecast, he quips. "Thank god we didn't have to show that," Stewart sez.

6:24 p.m.: And here comes Felicity, aka Keri Russell, intro'ing a song nominee, the gospel-flavored "Raise It Up" from her pic "August Rush." She looks fabulous too.

6:28 p.m.: Presenter Owen Wilson handles the short film honors. He looks a little nervous but otherwise healthy. Good to see.

6:31 p.m.: Jerry Seinfeld in his "Bee Movie" guise handles the animated short film honors. Sorry to typecast, Jerry, but even in CG animation -- you hear that voice, you think of that apartment set and look around for Kramer, George and Elaine to come barging in.

6:34 p.m.: These vintage Oscar clip package are proving my point about the TV-wattage of the Oscars these days. In these older clips it would seem as if TV stars (other than Johnny Carson) weren't even allowed in the auditorium.

6:38 p.m.: Tilda Swinton wins supporting actress for "Michael Clayton." I was pushing for Amy Ryan of "Gone Baby Gone," and not just to gather for further evidence for my TV star theory. Swinton gives Endeavor's Brian Swardstrom the first on-air mention of an agent of the night, noting that Oscar's physique looks just like his, including the rear end.

6:42 p.m.: Interesting ad trend we're seeing. Diet Coke just ran a spot urging people to run to the web to enter a contest to win the red dress that Heidi Klum wore on the red carpet. Earlier, Dove ran a spot feature thesp Amy Brenneman asking viewers to vote on one of two non-pro created commercial spots for one of their new products. I know this isn't a brand-new thing just for tonight, but it's interesting nonetheless.

6:44 p.m.: Jessica Alba intro's the sci-tech awards. She's intro'd as the "always fantastic" Jessica Alba, but she was merely a good-looking gal from Pomona, Calif., before James Cameron made her a star on the Fox sci-fi skein "Dark Angel." Need we say more? Yes, as soon as we get more.

6:49 p.m.: Not a trace of writer-strike, writer-solidarity, writers-rock messages during the presentation of adapted screenplay honors. Winners Joel and Ethan Coen, for "No Country for Old Men," looked a bit bemused. I guess they're a bit weary from the circuit. But it might not be the last time they come up on stage tonight so maybe they're holding back something for the rest of the picture.

6:51 p.m.: Here's a segment on How the Oscar Winners are Determined, with your host Sid Ganis. Boy, these guys really did prepare for every possible contingency. Stewart's demeanor sez as much when the clip is over. "Wow, that was amazing," he said, very nearly rolling his eyes. "I always thought it was superdelegates."

6:52 p.m.: Now here comes the queen of kidvid, Miley Cyrus, intro'ing nommed song "That's How You Know," from "Enchanted." And who's singing it? Kristin Chenoweth, who admittedly made her name on Broadway but for the past few years has been kept busy on the small screen, at the moment on ABC's "Pushing Daisies."

7:00 p.m.: "Oprah's Big Give" gets the top of the hour promo plug. No surprise.

7:02: Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill doing a riff on which one of them is more like Halle Berry and which is like Judi Dench (which frankly seems like it could've run on last night's "Saturday Night Live"). Rogen's hot as can be as a comedy pic star of the Judd Apatow school...but where'd he get his laffer street cred? A little NBC dramedy called "Freaks and Geeks."

7:13 p.m.: Marion Cotillard wins for best actress -- the true dark filly in the category. Cate Blanchett's gape-mouth reaction, one of genuine and gracious excitement for another person's good fortune, is why you watch these things. Cotillard's remarks were totally from the heart, and when these things are delivered with a French accent from a teary-eyed beauty, us Yankees turn to mush. "You rocked my life," Cotillard informed the director of her Edith Piaf biopic "La Vie en Rose." "It is true, there are some angels in this city." Sure to be on clip reels for years to come.

7:18: Colin Farrell tells us he's "chuffed" to intro the singers of the nommed song "Falling Slowly" from "Once." We certainly get what he means but would love it if someone could provide a precise definition -- I'm already dying to use it in a sentence. BTW, what a beautiful song and perf by "Once" stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova -- I gotta see this movie.

7:22 p.m.: Jack Nicholson is at the podium declaring "I love the movies" as he intro's the clip package detailing the past 79 years of best pic winners. Guessing this one would've gone longer, way long, in other circumstances. Jack seemed to supress a laugh when he read the line "Movies are a common link that touches the humanity in all of us." I'm guessing he was thinking about all the humanity he's touched in other ways -- golf clubs, etc.

7:29 p.m.: "Bourne Ultimatum" wins for editing, duh. Christopher Rouse mentions that his dad won one nearly 50 years ago, nice touch. "Someone just took the lead in their Oscar pool, based on a guess," Stewart quips as he reclaims the spotlight.

7:31 p.m.: Nicole Kidman comes out to prove that she looks better pregnant than any other woman on the planet (and there was quite a pregnancy sweepstakes going on tonight with Cate Blanchett, Jessica Alba and Angelina Jolie also in the family way) -- with the possible exception of Katherine Heigl. It's time for the honorary Oscar tribute to production designer Robert Boyle. Goodness knows, he's done some good ones, for "Hitch" (who he credited with introducing him to his wife, screenwriter Beth Taffel), Norman Jewison, Don Siegel, et al. "I have had the good fortune to be a part of this, and I thank you all for being there for me." Very classy.

7:43 p.m.: Austria bags the foreign language pic award for "The Counterfeiters." Penelope Cruz intro's the category, looking gorgeous but a little mermaid-ish in her black frock.

7:45 p.m.: McDreamy (aka Patrick Dempsey) intro's the last nommed song, "So Close," from "Enchanted." And we have another dance number, a recreation of the ball scene from "Enchanted." So far, so good, nothing too nutso. It probably helps that I really enjoyed that movie.

7:50 p.m.: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova win for best song. "What are we doing here, this is mad," Hansard sez. "We made this movie for 100 grand." Loved the way he said kept saying "ting" and closed with "Make art, make art." I really gotta see this movie. A finger-wag to telecast producers for playing Marketa off before she could say a word.

7:57 p.m.: How cool! Jon Stewart (and Gil Cates) amend the error by bringing Marketa back out on stage for her due. Nobody sounds as passionate as the Irish (whoops, I now realize she's from Czech Republic). She dedicated her win to all the other independent musicans out there who spend most of their time struggling. And "no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. The song was written from a perspective of hope...Hope at end of the day connects us no matter how different we are." This was worth her getting an encore.

7:54 p.m.: ABC's "A Raisin in the Sun" telepic gets a plug.

7:59 p.m.: Cameron Diaz raises suspicions that she's never actually pronounced the word "cinematography" as she reveals the winner of the d.p. sweepstakes, Robert Elswit for "There Will Be Blood."

8:02 p.m.: Hilary Swank intro's the package paying homage to those who passed during the last 12 months. Notable applause for Jack Valenti, Deborah Kerr and, at the end, Heath Ledger.

8:07 p.m.: "Eli Stone" plug

8:11 p.m.: Tom Hanks, Hollywood's go-to good guy, intro's a satellite clip of fresh-faced servicemen and women in Baghdad to announce the winner of docu short subject. "Freeheld," about the struggles of same-sex couple, brought up two teary documentarians, Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth, who were no so overcome that they forgot to plug the upcoming Cinemax airing of their doc, and they gave a shout-out to HBO's Sheila Nevins. "Even a 38-minute movie can change minds and lives," said Roth.

8:15 p.m.: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner's "Taxi to the Dark Side" wins the feature doc award. Gibney delivers the first overtly political statement of the night in condemning the Iraq war and what it has wrought. "Let's hope we can turn this country around and move away from the dark side and back to the light," he said. Now we know why the military folks didn't intro this category.

8:21 p.m.: Another "Raisin in the Sun" plug.

8:22 p.m.: Great line from Stewart in intro'ing presenter Harrison Ford. "He's either an internationally acclaimed movie star or an auto dealership."

8:25 p.m.: Diablo Cody's charmed year with "Juno" is complete. She's probably the only Oscar winner, male or female, to ever accept her trophy with a big tattoo of a girl in a bikini visible. Which only made it that much cooler. "What is happening?" she asked, not rhetorically. She was crying, for reals, and probably thinking about all those days on the picket line when she proclaimed "This is for the writers." She thanked a list of folks, including "Juno" helmer Jason Reitman, and sweetly thanked her family "for loving me exactly the way I am." And when she walked off stage she looked like she didn't know what state she was in as she was gently turned around toward to stage left -- you can't ask for much more in an Oscar moment than that.

8:34 p.m.: Daniel Day-Lewis gets the milkshake (and lucky him, he gave George Clooney a peck on the cheek as he walked up to the stage.) "That's the closest I'll get to a knighthood," Day-Lewis quipped after genuflecting when Helen Mirren handed him his gold for lead actor for "There Will Be Blood." He seemed to be channeling his "Blood" character in observing that the award "sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson." OK, so it sounded a bit rehearsed, but his twinkly eyes and grin, and the nod to his grandfather and father, put it over.

8:41 p.m.: Joel and Ethan Coen get the call back, with directing honors "No Country for Old Men." "I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you," Ethan said. Joel had a bit more in him, relating a story of how as kids they went to Minneapolis International Airport with a Super-8 and a suit to make a movie about shuttle diplomacy, "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go." "What we do now doesn't seem that much different from what we were doing then," he said.

8:45 p.m.: Whaddya know, "No Country" claims the top prize. Doesn't seem to get much of a rise out of Ethan and Joel as they quickly turn around back stage. "No Country" producer Scott Rudin has also done this before. It's kinda hard to believe him when he calls it a "complete surprise." But he does come up with a nice way to close out the night in noting something he learned from Sydney Pollack: "With the opportunity to make movies comes the responsibility to make them good."

Amen, Shalom, Salaam to that. Good night.

Post-credits plugs: Long roundup spot for ABC's midseason slate ("Ugly Betty," "Grey's Anatomy," "Samantha Who," "Desperate Housewives," "Dancing With the Stars," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Boston Legal," etc. Theme is "Spring is here" and emphasis on "New episodes." And another plug for "Raisin in the Sun."

Some Emmy tidbits I really should have written up Sunday night before going off to parties:

Consistency, thy name is David Chase. "It's open to interpretation," the "Sopranos" creator said backstage at the Emmys when asked, inevitably and more than once, about the series' famed blackout finale. In a convoluted way, after being pressed by multiple questioners, Chase seemed to say that he knew in his mind what happened to the family, but he had no intention of sharing it with the intimate room full 200 or so reporters. Chase did say that he'd had the notion to take the show out in the way that he did for a long time....

Earlier in the night Alan Taylor told us backstage scribblers that Chase was pleased by the fact that even members of "Sopranos'" production crew debated what the finale really meant. Chase wanted it to be something people would chew over and talk about, Taylor said...

And as for the Emmy snub of James Gandolfini after the tour de force he turned in? Paulie Walnuts had his back, backstage on Sunday. "I think it was a shame. He should've won tonight...but we won all around (for drama series)," Tony Sirico (pictured right) said. "We've been honored. I speak for Jimmy when I say he can handle it." .....

America Ferrera was such a doll in the backstage quip room. She displayed her usual humility and gratitude for the career-making break that "Ugly Betty" has been for her. And she's happy that her star turn has come on a show that is light and frothy on the outside but meaningful on the inside, where it counts, by challenging the conventional notions of beauty and body image for women.
"It's fun and it's funny and entertaining and I feel so incredibly blessed," Ferrera said. "To be acknowledged for it, to know peep are watching it and enjoying it -- it's just a dream for me. This is what I have wanted to do since I was 5 years old. It just reassures me in the power of dreaming. Now I can set my (career) heights even higher." And she was channeling the self-assured Betty Suarez when a questioner tried to pry into her love life. "I don't talk about my personal life. Thank you," she said in a Betty-esque polite-but-firm tone....

Don't ask Terry O'Quinn what's going on in "Lost" in its upcoming fourth season, because he doesn't know. Is John Locke really Jacob? Is he going to somehow kill Jack? Will he ever get near a shower again? I'm telling ya, don't ask because Quinn doesn't know. (And no, winning an Emmy doesn't entitle him to a few free plot points.) Backstage after his win for supporting drama actor, Locke showed off his hot pink shirt and black tie with glittery rhinestones. When asked, Quinn admitted that early on in the show's run he would go on the Internet to see what the fans were speculating about the Deeper Meaning of it all and where the castaways were headed. But not any more. "I'm sated," he said....

Sally Field was feeling strong, confident and not ready to suffer any cliches on Sunday. She made fast work of a question about actresses of a certain (out-of-the-demo) age enjoying a renaissance on cable ("The Closer," "Damages," "Saving Grace," etc.) and why aren't there better roles for women in features and blah blah blah...."I don't listen to any of that stuff. You guys are the ones who are listening to that," Field shot back.

Where fore art thou, Oscar? Jon Stewart had a cheeky response for the reporter who just had to know what it meant to him to be asked to host the Academy Awards a second time. "Whatever emotional hole I had in my soul vanished at that moment and I was complete," he deadpanned. "That's why I decided to do it."...

And thus brings to a close this inaugural edition of live blogging at the Emmys. I'd be remiss without giving a special thank you to the shooters of WireImage, who moved Emmy photos lickity-split last night and thus livened up this blog considerably. Honorable mentions go out to Steve Granitz, Jeffrey Mayer, John Shearer, Jeff Vespa and Todd Williamson.