New shows dominate Emmys
2008-07-17 19:04
Los Angeles - Two new cable TV shows, Mad Men and Damages, claimed Emmy nominations for best drama series on Thursday, marking a turning point in the 60-year-old competition for US television's highest honours.
Mad Men, the AMC network's 1960s period piece set in the world of advertising, and Damages, the freshman legal hour on FX starring Glenn Close, are the first two shows airing exclusively on a cable network other than HBO that were nominated for best drama series.
They will be competing against the serial killer drama Dexter, from Showtime and CBS, as well as the Fox medical drama House and ABC's castaway thriller Lost, which won the best-drama Emmy in 2005 for its first season.
But NBC's show-within-a-show 30 Rock was the most recognised series overall with 17 nominations, including a nod for best comedy, a category it won last year, and best-acting bids for its two stars, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. Mad Men was close behind with 16 total nominations.
HBO shut out
30 Rock, a spoof of network television, will compete in the comedy series race against fellow NBC workplace sitcom and the 2006 comedy winner The Office, the bawdy CBS hit Two and a Half Men and a pair of HBO series, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.
But HBO, home of such past Emmy darlings as The Sopranos and Deadwood, was shut out of the best drama derby for the first time since 1998.
Still, the heavy presence of contenders from a variety of cable channels reflected the recent flourishing of cable TV as an incubator for high-quality dramas.
Emmy watchers said that phenomenon was made more pronounced by the shortened season on broadcast TV this year due to the Hollywood writers' strike.
"This represents the changing of the guard in a lot of ways," said Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the upcoming Emmy telecast. He said the inclusion of shows like Mad Men, Damages and Dexter in top categories heralds the arrival of "some really fresh new shows."
Cable dominated the drama-acting contests as never before.
Four of the five nominees for best actor were from cable - Mad Men star Jon Hamm, Michael C Hall of Dexter, Bryan Cranston from AMC's Breaking Bad and Gabriel Byrne on HBO's In Treatment. House star Hugh Laurie rounds out the race.
Networks dominate comedy
Three of five contenders for best-drama actress hail from cable: Damages star Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgwick in TNT's The Closer and Holly Hunter in Saving Grace.
They will vie against two past winners, Mariska Hargitay from NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Sally Field from ABC's Brothers & Sisters. Field won last year.
The comedy performance races remained the dominion of broadcast networks, with only one actor and one actress from cable making the cut - past winner Tony Shalhoub from USA's Monk and Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds on Showtime.
Other comedy actress nominees were America Ferrera from ABC's Ugly Betty, Julia Louis-Dreyfus from CBS's The New Adventures of Old Christine and Christina Applegate from ABC's new Samantha Who?.
The comedy actor candidates also included past winner James Spader from ABC's Boston Legal, Steve Carell of The Office, Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men and Lee Pace of ABC's new supernatural fantasy Pushing Daisies.
While 30 Rock was the most nominated series, HBO's mini-series John Adams, about the second US president, claimed the most nominations of any single programme - 23.
The 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on September 21 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on ABC.