TVSquad

The Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards -- affectionately known as the Shmemmys to Kathy Griffin fans -- has at least one more viewer this year. I will be watching the other Emmy presentation, the awards that come before the Primetime Emmys. The big one with all the major categories, musical numbers, clip montages and near-mandatory attendance by the nominees is the Emmys. The other one is the technical awards. But I will be watching for a very good reason: Neil Patrick Harris and Sarah Chalke will be co-hosting the Creative Arts Emmys this year on the E! channel, September 20.

Neil, an Emmy nominee for How I Met Your Mother, and Sarah, who is also a guest/semi-regular on Mother as well as a permanent regular on Scrubs, are a great choice for this gig. They're smart, funny, quick, attractive and maybe even unpredictable.

I mean, wouldn't it be a hoot if Neil came on stage in his Dr. Horrible gear and asked Sarah if her Hanes undies were riding up or doing their job? She should then counter and ask him about that smell, you know ... the Old Spice? Hey, maybe they should get Bruce Campbell to confront Neil about the Old Spice deal -- that was Bruce's commercial before Neil took over!

And let's face it, the Creative Arts need the funny stuff. My Life on the D-List's Kathy Griffin, has made her shocking reaction to losing the Emmy in 2006 at the show -- which is how she came to call them the Shmemmys - part of her act. She made a scene in the audience when Ty Pennington and crew won for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It was the most exciting thing to happen to that show ever.

Because the show does cover the more technical categories, the less glamorous, it's harder to draw stars to sit in the audience, and thus rate viewers tuning in. That means the presenters and hosts are even more important.

I suspect that Harris and Chalke will be encouraged to be impromptu and fun, even while keeping the action moving. If Neil is as loosey-goosey as he was in the Emmy announcements (with Pushing Daisies' Kristin Chenoweth), he should make the Creative Emmys must-see award TV. Sarah will just have to keep up, which I'm sure she will.