I think these might be the saddest words in the English language: "This is Howie Mandel's first Emmy nomination."
This morning's announcement of the 60th Emmy nominees started with the big news but quickly moved on to the conventional. The full list of categories, however, is packed with eye-openers starting with this one: AMC, 20 nominations!
To no one's surprise, an HBO mini led the nominations with 23 for "John Adams." Kind of a surprise for "Pushing Daisies" to garner 12 for fourth most and "Bernard and Doris " to pull in 10 - I mean, did YOU watch that movie?
Dexter, of course, was a pleasing pick to many critics - not me - but you would be looking at long odds if you bet on a win for Showtime in a major category.
In the battle of the premium channels, HBO 85 nominations, Showtime 21 nominations, Starz uno. Among basics, AMC 20, Sci Fi 15, Bravo 11.
Here is a strange: History got four nominations. History Channel VOD got one nomination. The heck for, you ask. The category "Short-Format Nonfiction Programming" featured not one but two too-good-for-actual-TV entries: "Great Moments from the Campaign Trail" on the aforementioned pick-and-click service; and "Jay Leno's Garage," an admittedly very entertaining web program on JayLenosGarage.com.
In fact, a whole bunch of off-air entities got nominated this year thanks to short-format categories. In the live-action one, NBC.com (Kenneth the Web Page), ComedyCentral.com (Sarah Silverman Nugget), ABC.com (Lost:Missing Pieces), SciFi.com (something Battlestarry) and NBC.com again (Friday Night Lights:Spotlight on Austin). I'm not sure if JayLenosGarage.com getting the nomination instead of NBC.com is supposed to signal something ominous about the "Tonight Show" host's future ... but what the hell, let's call it an ominous sign.
Another lint trap for single nominees is Original Main Title Theme, which this year included "Canterbury's Law" (Fox, in case you missed it), "Disney Phineas And Ferb" on Disney Channel, "Kid Nation," "Pirate Master" (a non-hit for Mark Burnett on CBS) and TNT's "Saving Grace." That's right, the theme from "Mad Men" was not one of its 20 nominations. Hard to believe. However, Mo Ryan points out that this opening title sequence did get nominated, which strikes me as an almost Talmudic distinction:
Related: I discussed the Emmy nominations this morning on KNX Radio in Los Angeles:
mad men might just take home the actual best drama win too if Boston Legal doesn't steal it.
poor House, i'd like to finally see mr. laurie and the show itself win.
ditto neil patirck harris
and best comedy---is there any reason why 2 and 1.2 men can't actually win this year? all the other shows nominated had off years....
Posted by: matt stechel | July 17, 2008 at 05:09 PM