HBO Dominates Primetime Emmy Nominations

By Todd Longwell

For the second year in a row, cable giant HBO outdistanced its competitors by a wide margin when the nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 15 at the TV Academy’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre. HBO received 124 nominations, including 21 for its miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize play Angels In America and 20 for its mob series The Sopranos, besting last year’s total of 109. Second place NBC was far behind with 64 nominations, followed by CBS with 44, ABC with 33 and Fox with 31.

Falco and Shalhoub (Photos by Mathew Imaging for ATAS)

The winners will be announced at The 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Garry Shandling, which will be broadcast live on ABC from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on September 19, and The Creative Arts Awards, which will be held at the Shrine on September 12 and telecast on E! Entertainment Television on September 18.

Presenters at the brief early-morning press conference were Academy Chairman Dick Askin, Academy President and COO Todd Leavitt, three-time Emmy winner Edie Falco, star of The Sopranos, and Tony Shalhoub, a winner last year for Monk (USA Network). Both Falco and Shalhoub were nominated again this year.

Falco was joined in the Oustanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category by Jennifer Garner of Alias (ABC), Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC), Allison Janney of The West Wing (NBC) and Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia (CBS). Nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series went to last year’s winner, James Gandolfini of The Sopranos (HBO), Anthony LaPaglia of Without a Trace (CBS), Martin Sheen of The West Wing (NBC), James Spader of The Practice (ABC) and Kiefer Sutherland of 24 (Fox).

Michael Seligman and Academy President Todd Leavitt

In addition to Shalhoub, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nominees included John Ritter of 8 Simple Rules (ABC), who died last year, as well as Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Kelsey Grammer of Frasier (NBC) and Matt LeBlanc of Friends (NBC). Female comedy lead nominees were Jennifer Aniston of Friends (NBC), Bonnie Hunt of Life with Bonnie (ABC), Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City (HBO), Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS) and Jane Kaczmarek of Malcolm in the Middle (Fox).

Nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series went to Arrested Development (Fox), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), Sex and the City (HBO) and Will and Grace (NBC).

Falco, Academy Chairman Dick Askin, and Shalhoub

The Sopranos received its fifth nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, an award it has yet to win. Other nominees in the category include last year’s winner, The West Wing (NBC), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS), 24 (Fox) and dark horse entry Joan of Arcadia.

"That was really a surprise," said Askin of Joan’s nomination, "because it’s a first-year series and everyone has been complaining about how stratified and stagnant the process can be and that really just blew all the assumptions and the rhetoric out the window, because here’s a series on broadcast television that gets recognized right off the bat."

Falco and Shalhoub

In an effort to ease such stagnation, real or imagined, Emmy rules were changed this year to allow voters to cast up to ten votes in each program category, up from the previous five.

Is it working?

"I think you’re seeing some impact, certainly," says Leavitt, citing Joan of Arcadia as a program that might’ve locked out by more established programs in previous years. "Typically changes like that take several years to manifest themselves. It’s the start of a process. Our whole mission here is to salute excellence and to be reflective our industry and to figure out how to best do that. Every year we’re trying to make it better."

After Falco and Shalhoub completed their presentation, Askin stepped forward to announce the nominees for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, which this year graduated from a special class area award to a full-fledged Emmy category.

"In the past, it’s been in a catch-all category with specials, etc., so we defined it and set it aside so it would have its own focus," said Askin after the announcement. "And, actually, it turned out to be a very interesting category this year, with The Apprentice in there along with Last Comic Standing (both NBC)" which were joined by fellow nominees The Amazing Race (CBS), American Idol (Fox) and Survivor (CBS). "Reality is a part of television whether you like it or not and you might as well recognize it because a lot of the work is really excellent."