While the Emmys are the television industry’s most important awards show, the primetime broadcast also is one of TV’s most important promotional platforms, airing on the eve of the launch of the fall TV season.

And CBS milked that platform for all it was worth on Sunday night, with almost every CBS show getting some promo time during the broadcast, and some shows getting a little more than their share. Each of the Big Four networks gets to air the show in turn, and each of them try to use it to its best advantage as they get ready to launch their fall line-ups.

“How I Met Your Mother"’s Neil Patrick Harris hosted the show, and that sitcom, now entering its last season, reaped the promotional rewards. Harris’ co-stars, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders (who is doing double duty this fall with a cameo appearance on ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) were Emmy presenters. “HIMYM"’s entire cast appeared in a long in-show skit that promoted both that show as well as CBS’ new syndicated late-night talker, “The Arsenio Hall Show,” with Hall jumping in at the end.

The “HIMYM” cast poked a little fun both at Harris, who has hosted the Tony Awards four times, worrying that he suffered from “Excessive Hosting Disorder.” The “spot” was ostensibly an ad for “The Ryan Seacrest Center for Excessive Hosting.”

Almost every CBS show got its moment in the sun, with promos airing for everything from “Survivor,” to “Person of Interest” to “Elementary,” “The Good Wife” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

The comedies seemed to get an extra push, with spots promoting “The Mother of All Mondays,” starting with “How I Met Your Mother,” which premieres tonight with two episodes at 8 and 8:30 p.m., and then next week heading into “We Are Men,” followed by “2 Broke Girls” and Chuck Lorre’s latest, “Mom,” starring Allison Janney and Anna Faris, both of whom also presented.

The Thursday night comedy block, which launches this Thursday, Sept. 26, with an hour-long “Big Bang Theory” also got plenty of promotion on Sunday night, with show star Kaley Cuoco joining TV Academy President Bruce Rosenblum at the podium and Jim Parsons, who plays super-nerd Sheldon Cooper, taking home his third win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy.

Besides “Big Bang,” CBS also is banking on Will Arnett’s “The Millers” and Robin Williams’ “The Crazy Ones” leading into the 11th season of “Two and a Half Men.” Williams appeared on the show speaking about his “Mork and Mindy” co-star Jonathan Winters, who passed away in the past year. Arnett and his new co-star, Margo Martindale, also were presenters, with both managing to get in plugs for their new program.

Two spots aired for CBS-related shows: Showtime’s “Homeland” and “Masters of Sex,” both of which premiere Sunday, Sept. 29. Those were not actually promotions, per se, but paid commercial time.

Even CBS boss, Leslie Moonves, got in a little promo time, with the former actor and now CBS CEO appearing briefly as a security guard in the show’s opening bit.

While CBS certainly got the lion’s share of whatever promotional perks were to be earned on Emmy night, other network and brands also tried to take advantage.

Samsung TV placed its smart TVs in and around the Emmy stage, and got a promotional mention early in the telecast. The brand also was the second 30-second spot out of the first break, following Hulu.

And while not intentional, the awards themselves serve as a promotional opportunity for the show’s biggest winners, including HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, The Newsroom and Veep; ABC’s Best Comedy Winner for the fourth year in a row, Modern Family; and AMC’s Breaking Bad, which won Best Drama for the first time while airing the penultimate episode of the series directly against the Emmys.

Helped by a juicy lead-in from NFL football, CBS’ airing of the 65th annual Primetime Emmy Awards drew its largest audience in eight years, with 17.6 million viewers and a 4.9 rating among primetime’s key demographic of adults 18-49. That’s up 33% in viewers and 26% in the demo compared to ABC’s telecast last year.

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