Thursday, July 14, 2005

Emmy Nominations Announced - Part 1

The nominees for the 2005 Emmy Awards were released today in Hollywood. Here are a few facts and figures and comments from me, a later post will include the list of nominees in the outstanding program and acting categories (that will be a long one).

HBO led the field with 93 nominations, followed by CBS (59), NBC (54), ABC (51), Fox (49), PBS (23), Showtime (17), A&E (10). UPN earned 3 nominations, all for Star Trek: Enterprise all in technical categories (Makeup - Prosthetic, Hairstyling, and Stunt Co-ordination) while The WB won two nominations, one for Reba (Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series) and one for Smallville (Sound Editing).

HBO's main strength was in the categories of Made For TV Movies, and Miniseries. Warm Springs and The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers each earned 16 nominations and Empire Falls picked up 10. HBO series also did well, with Deadwood earning 11 nominations and the now cancelled Carnivale getting 8. Among broadcast network series, Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace each earned 15 nominations, followed by Everybody Loves Raymond with 13, Lost with 12, and Arrested Development and 24 with 12 each.

A few things worthy of note: Arrested Development earned three of the five nominations for Writing in a Comedy series, with the finale of Everybody Loves Raymond and the pilot of Desperate Housewives also in the running. Either this indicates how poorly most of comedies on Television are written or it shows that all the best writers are working on Arrested Development. Sadly I think it's more the former than the latter. Three of the lead actresses in Desperate Housewives were nominated for Lead Actress in Comedy, leaving out Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan. Sandra Oh won a nomination for Supporting Actress in a Drama for Grey's Anatomy (which earned nominations in Directing and Casting as well). Given that the series was originally intended to be on the air for just a few weeks, this is certainly vindication for ABC's decision to replace Boston Legal in that Sunday evening slot. Of course the people at Boston Legal have nothing to complain about given that the series earned nominations for James Spader as Leading Actor and William Shatner for Supporting Actor in a Drama (for the part of Denny Crane for which he won his first Emmy last year in the Guest Actor category). And while it might be the ratings winner for the past several years, CSI has only five Emmy nominations - four in technical categories (Outstanding Makeup - Non Prosthetic, Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing, and two in Outstanding Sound Editing) and one Director of a Drama for Quentin Tarentino who directed the season finale.

The Emmys air September 18 on CBS. I'll have further comments on the Emmys around that time.

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