Emmy host has work cut out for him

September 17, 2009 Kicking off the six-month-long awards season of telecasts, Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris will have his work cut out for him at the Nokia Theatre. After last year's disjointed and critically panned telecast featuring five reality hosts, the affably understated sitcom actor turned occasional emcee has been entrusted with the task of helping rebuild the audience for the show -- and give successive awards shows hope that their telecasts too can reinvent themselves to appeal to that ever-elusive younger demo. So far, Harris, who started his career as the improbably precocious yet poignant teen doc Doogie Howser in the eponymous ABC series, has been predictably tight-lipped about his precise plans for Sunday -- other than to say he wants the CBS show to be the star and he sees his role as one of supportive facilitation.

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