It seemed like the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences had relegated its big musical moments to the Creative Arts Emmys held last week, where work featuring Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and Eminem received honors, but even our sister blog The Set agrees one of the major highlights of last night's 63rd Annual Emmy Awards was a heavily edited-for-prime-time medley of songs from the Lonely Island that were originally featured on Saturday Night Live. Michael Bolton joined the trio for "Jack Sparrow," John Stamos, Ed Helms, and Maya Rudolpoh filled in for Andy Samberg, Justin Timberlake, and Lady Gaga on "3-Way (The Golden Rule)," and Akon proudly belted "I Just Had Sex."
All three tracks were actually nominated for Original Music & Lyrics... and were defeated by JT's "Not Gonna Sing" monologue song from SNL. Timberlake may not have showed up in person, but he loomed large of the festivities anyway -- in a hilarious nod to how often he appears on SNL, the show replaced photos of its writing staff with a dozen of the singer/actor's head shots. William H. Macy did show up, and was subsequently "freaked" in his seat by Samburg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer.
The Emmys' other musical interludes included an opening tune from host Jane Lynch, a brief rap from NCIS: Los Angeles star James Todd Smith (also known as LL Cool J), and awkward segues sung by the Emmy Tones (also known as six actors who probably just fired their agents: Zachary Levi, Cobie Smulders, Taraji P. Henson, Kate Flannery, Wilmer Valderamma, and Joel McHale).
In related news, a Michael Bolton flash mob recently hit Belmar, New Jersey: