At least someone fell hard for American Music Awards

Ahhh, the American Music Awards, gotta love 'em. OK, actually not so much. Mostly you just have to endure them.

The three-hour broadcast on Sunday -- a night on ABC we're more accustomed to enjoying a little weirdness on Wysteria Lane or some weepiness with the Walkers than an endless parade of "American Idol'' alums and that helmet of black meringue Gene Simmons calls hair -- was a sleeper.

"One of the hottest bands in the world ... '' Maroon 5. Zzzz.

"Christina ...'' Aguilera? Nope. Applegate. Figures.

"America's busiest host ...'' Ryan Seacrest. Gag.

And if there's any doubt that there's a writers' strike in Hollywood -- beyond host Jimmy Kimmel's painful lack of jokes -- check out this intro for James Blunt: "A British singer/songwriter who has many hits.'' (Not only pedestrian, but incorrect, since the "hits'' pretty much started and stopped with the ultra-annoying "You're Beautiful.'')

In the spectrum of awards shows, the AMAs are one Kid Rock/Snoop Dogg appearance above the People's Choice Awards. Not exactly the pinnacle of prestige. Awards are handed out based on sales and radio airplay, which explains why it felt like "Groundhog Day'' at the podium: Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Underwood, Daughtry, Underwood. And look, there's Kellie Pickler on her feet in the crowd cheering on her "Idol'' family!

Underwood, who got plenty of practice perfecting the art of the insincere acceptance speech at the Country Music Association Awards earlier this month, at least looked less uptight and worried about winning this time around. After thanking "MY people'' and "MY entourage'' earlier, she accepted the award for Country Album from members of Velvet Revolver: "If anybody would've told me that Scott Weiland and Slash would ever have presented me an award, I really don't know what I would have thought about that.'' Thud.

During his acceptance speech for Breakthrough Artist, Daughtry said, "I want to thank my wife ... for doing the real work at home,'' at which point the camera showed a close-up of his wife's very-there cleavage in the audience. Nice bit of unintentional humor.

It was almost as good as when Joe Jonas took a major header at the start of the Jonas Brothers' performance. (See it here.) Speaking of 'tweener power, "High School Musical 2'' beat out "Dreamgirls'' and "Hairspray'' for Favorite Soundtrack. There's a shocker. Miley Cyrus showed up to present, and somehow managed to shake her dad long enough to do it all by herself. Now that was a shocker.

Poor Duran Duran must've felt like the designated '80s dinosaurs of the night. But the "do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo'' of "Hungry Like the Wolf'' at least was a welcome infusion of fun. For as awkward as Beyonce's collaboration with Sugarland was (the much-hyped "appearance everyone will be talking about''), performances by Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Chris Brown (who should hire himself out as a professional awards show perker-upper) managed to give the show some cred.

Of course, not as much as "one of the hottest bands in the world'' and the guy with "many hits.''

-- Kendra Meinert, kmeinert@greenbaypressgazette.com