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!"

Stephen Colbert comes across as so comfortable in the skin of his "Colbert Report" arch-conservative pundit persona that it's easy to forget he's playing a character that has been developed by him and the writer-producers on his Comedy Central skein.

Chief among those "Colbert Report" truthiness-deciders is Allison Silverman, who was upped last month to exec producer of the show along with Colbert and Jon Stewart. Silverman, whose resume includes stints as a writer-producer on "The Daily Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," has worked closely with Colbert during the past two years to fine-tune the character that walks a fine line between arrogant jerk and arrogant-but-lovable-jerk. (And arrogant-but-lovable presidential candidate as of Oct. 17, so long as those pesky Federal Election Commission rules don't drum him out of the race.)

"In the beginning we were conscious that he could turn out to be a real jerk of a character, and we still think about it a lot. We've always wanted him to be arrogant and willfully ignorant, but not someone you'd just hate," says Silverman, who joined "Colbert" shortly after it was picked up to series in 2005. "A lot of times it's all about the tone. Sometimes he'll do something that comes off as too repugnant. He'll say the exact same things but change the tone just a little bit and it makes all the difference."

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.