What’s on? Reruns.

The lineup of winners on last night’s Emmy Awards telecast was nearly a copy-and-paste job of last year’s list. Again, “Mad Men’’ was best drama, “30 Rock’’ was best comedy, Bryan Cranston was best dramatic actor, Glenn Close was best dramatic actress, and Alec Baldwin was best comedic actor. All strong additions to TV, no doubt - although Close needs to go on a scenery diet, as she chews far too much of it on “Damages.’’ But still, over the years, Emmy repetitiveness makes the telecasts less than suspenseful.

Indeed, “The Amazing Race’’ won for the seventh year in a row as the best reality-competition show last night. Apparently, Hollywood law has decreed that “Race’’ must win every time.

This year the number of entries in several major categories were expanded, and thankfully, there were a few small surprises along the way. Toni Collette, Jon Cryer, and Kristin Chenoweth all walked off with gold, despite not being favorites in their comedy categories. On a quality level, their wins were off-base, especially Collette, whose performance as a woman with multiple personalities, on “United States of Tara,’’ isn’t very funny. But their victories did succeed in bringing on a hint of unpredictability early in the night.

Also thankfully, a few new winners were welcome. Cherry Jones won for playing the president on “24,’’ and Michael Emerson won for his fantastically ambiguous performance on “Lost.’’ Also pleasing: The big wins for “Grey Gardens,’’ and “Little Dorrit’’ (go, WGBH).

And our host? Neil Patrick Harris opened the night singing “Put Down the Remote’’ and making jokes about that newfangled thing called TiVo and that magical image maker known as Hi-Def TV. Along with the horn-heavy arrangement, the song was like a variety-show circa 1960. It was an enormously unpromising start to the event.

But then, miraculously, the show unfolded with a looser, more Golden Globes-like feel than usual. Of course, it wouldn’t have been hard to beat last year’s reality-host Emmy debacle, which Jeff Probst cited in his acceptance speech last night, saying, “Neil Patrick Harris - THIS is how you host the Emmys. Nice job.’’

There was a pleasingly goofy tone running through the night. Harris moped and obsessed about losing to Cryer in the best supporting actor category. Sarah Silverman applied a fake mustache when her nomination was announced. Jimmy Fallon did an auto-tune singing bit that was actually funny. Harris brought out his Dr. Horrible character to goof on watching TV on the Internet. In an enjoyably sly allusion to NBC’s “The Jay Leno Show,’’ Tina Fey accepted the “30 Rock’’ award by thanking NBC for “keeping us on the air even though we’re so much more expensive than a talk show.’’ When the supporting actress nominees were announced, each of them wore funny eyewear at Amy Poehler’s suggestion, except for Vanessa Williams.

Scandale! Us Weekly, get on it.

And as the announcer of the night, John Hodgman deconstructed his role, delivering fake facts - Ken Howard, winner for “Grey Gardens,’’ is 35 years old? - as the winners approached the stage. “Alec Baldwin’s favorite show is ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ’’ he said softly, as Baldwin stood to accept his best actor prize for “30 Rock.’’ When “The Daily Show’’ won, Hodgman whispered, “This is their 900th Emmy, and frankly, that’s too much.’’ His comments were twisted tweets running through the night.

At times, it seemed as though the stars were longing for a Kanye West-like disruption. But really, no stunt was needed, as Ricky Gervais goofed on how the Emmys are better than the Oscars because you can be a big fish at the Emmys: “Steve Carell is considered handsome!’’

The structural overhaul of the telecast was mostly positive. The Academy had hoped to pre-tape and edit some awards presentations, but they scrapped the idea due to industry opposition. So the show was reordered, with all the genres grouped, so that the comedy awards were presented together, as were reality, variety, and so forth. That meant we saw an awful lot of the “30 Rock’’ and “Office’’ folks in a short amount of time; but it also meant the night seemed less aimless. Streamlining is always a good thing when it comes to awards shows.

Among the stranger moments - not including Kiefer Sutherland’s I’m-an-intellectual-now glasses - was Chenoweth’s acceptance speech. It was gracious - as were many of the night’s winners, notably Jessica Lange - but Chenoweth was sobbing convulsively with no tears. What’s up with that?

Those poor red-carpeters! It was a red-hot evening in Los Angeles, and you know what that can do to the skin (shiny!) and hair (frizzy much?). On the preshow circuit, sweat was dripping onto E!’s autograph cam, and Ryan Seacrest may have thrown some sweat onto Amy Poehler’s cheek during an air kiss. “We’re like ants under a 12-year-old’s magnifying glass,’’ Jon Stewart told Seacrest.

As the stars vogued for the cameras, pretending to laugh at no one in particular, the publicists dabbed noses. And someone undoubtedly dabbed Blake Lively’s chest-to-belly region.

E! reporter Giuliana Rancic was sweating up a storm, particularly when she was one-on-one with Stephen Moyer of “True Blood,’’ who did some veddy British gushing about his fiancee, costar Anna Paquin. Wait, did Rancic ask Julia Louis-Dreyfus to name her favorite body part? It was almost as cringe-worthy as when Seacrest told Sarah Silverman that he’d dreamed about running his fingers through her hair. Blame it on the heat, Ryan.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.