The plane crash Lost parody The opening sequence of the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards show depicted host
Conan O'Brien wearing a tuxedo, sitting in luxury on a plane, sipping champagne and mentioning to the flight attendant that this would be the second Emmy's ceremony that he would be hosting. O'Brien then rhetorically asked the flight attendant, "What could possibly go wrong?" Immediately after that, the plane began to experience turbulence and then was portrayed as having crashed on (or near) an island. O'Brien is then seen walking ashore on the beach and onto the island still wearing his (now drenched) tuxedo.
Hurley appears and then follows O'Brien to a hatch. When O'Brien asks if he wants to come along, Hurley says that they "weren't exactly invited". O'Brien enters the hatch and arrives on the set of
The Office. The intention of this opening sequence was to parody the premise of the
ABC series
Lost. However, the sequence reportedly disturbed some viewers because of the
Comair Flight 5191 disaster that had occurred earlier in the day. Cincinnati NBC affiliate
WLWT-TV had the unfortunate coincidence of running a "Breaking News" scroll about the crash at the same time as the scene was airing. Entertainment industry critics, such as
LA Weekly columnist
Nikki Finke, lambasted
NBC's decision to not pull the plane crash portion of the opening sequence, in light of the aforementioned crash earlier that day. Finke stated that she believed NBC could have—with relative ease—instructed their writers to come up with a different sketch at the last minute, which could have been used as a substitute.
Other parodies The skit also parodied shows such as
The Office,
24,
House,
South Park, and
Dateline NBC (specifically, the "
To Catch a Predator" segments). An animated
Tom Cruise from the
South Park episode "
Trapped in the Closet" appears in a skit where an animated O'Brien hides in
Stan Marsh's closet, only to run away when he discovers Cruise has already occupied the closet. ==Tributes==