Watching the Emmy Awards, I was struck by the fact that a show designed to promote and celebrate television programs didn't show clips from any award nominees. Rather, they read through the list of nominees like a starving man reading a menu, and announced the winner without even pausing to let the nominees sink in.

On the bright side, the telecast did run exactly 3 hours as planned, and finished precisely at 11pm as planned - so NBC's local newscast was not delayed.

The show drew roughly the same number of viewers as last year (and in today's media world, anytime you don't decline from the previous year it's a positive).

The broadcast actually had one of the best opening segments ever, with a skit featuring host, jimmy Fallon, the always wonderful Betty White, the cast of Glee, John Hamm, and Tina Fey, among others.

But then they still had 2 hours, 53 minutes left to fill. Jimmy Fallon was an excellent host, but presenting 30 awards in less than 3 hours is simply too much to allow any time to breathe. The Emmy Awards are supposed to be a celebration of television excellence, but I can't remember any of the nominees that didn't win - because they were barely mentioned.

Given the nominees, I do think the right folks tended to receive the awards. I was very happy to see the superb Archie Punjabi (The Good WIfe) and Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) take best supporting trophies.

I would like to have seen Julianna Marguiles win, but I certainly can't complain about Kyra Sedgwick winning Best Actress in a drama - she's deserved it for years, and The Closer remains one of the consistently best shows on television. It was also nice to see Top Chef break Amazing Race's stranglehold on the Best Reality Competition award. It's also hard to put up much of an argument against Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Jim Parsons, and Edie Falco taking top honors. Mad Men and Modern Family were also worthy winners.

There was a time when a low-rated series could receive an Emmy for best drama or comedy, and it would turn the show into a success (remember Hill Street Blues?). Well, Mad Men has now won three in a row, as has Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). Both continue to get low ratings (less than a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49).

As the contract with the broadcast networks expires, there has been some talk about whether it is worth it to the broadcast networks to continue airing the Emmy Awards. I believe it is, and here's how I think the networks can improve the telecast for the viewers, networks, and reward recipients.

The broadcast networks should continue to alternate broadcasting the show. It should be used as a great vehicle, not just for celebrating current programming, but for promoting the new TV season. Abandoning it would be essentially admitting they can't produce quality series anymore.

Air the broadcast from 7:30-11pm. Primetime does start at 7pm on Sunday, and a half-hour seems like plenty of time for a red carpet show. This would allow time to show program clips of nominated series. Perennial winners, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, might actually get some more viewers if the they gave us any idea what the shows are actually about.

Since the broadcast networks are essentially out of the original movie business, remove the long-form categories from the telecast. These can be awarded in a separate telecast to air on a cable network. This would also allow for devoting more time to series programming.

Change the Best Comedy and Best Drama categories to include Best New Comedy, Best Returning Comedy, Best New Drama, and Best Returning Drama. This would allow top notch series to continue winning every year, but would also allow for recognizing quality new series (This year, Mad Men and The Good Wife might both have won for Best Drama). This would ensure more broadcast series being nominated (i.e., more series that the bulk of viewers have actually seen).

Expand the Best Actor and Actress categories for comedy and drama to 10 nominees each. This might avoid such dramatic oversights as not recognizing Katy Sagal's extraordinary work in Sons of Anarchy.

Regardless of which network is airing the show, each commercial break should include 90 or 120 second previews of new fall series from every network. There is no better vehicle to promote new shows than a program devoted to recognizing TV shows. The broadcast networks still stubbornly (and foolishly) refuse to cross-promote one another's new shows. This can be the exception (and test) that might lead them to reconsider this anachronistic policy.