Emmy Noms Don't Favor Emmy Winners

It was not a good morning to be a distinguished resident of Wisteria Lane. Or a castaway on a South Pacific island. And most of all, it was not a good morning to be a defending Emmy champ.

Nominations for the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced Thursday, and while the TNT miniseries Into the West made a play for the headlines with a field-leading 16 nods, more than ever the news was in what--and who--didn't make the cut.

One year removed from its Emmy win as Outstanding Drama Series, Lost wasn't nominated in the category. One year removed from his Emmy win as Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Boston Legal's James Spader wasn't nominated. One year removed from her Emmy win as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Medium's Patricia Arquette wasn't nominated. And one year removed from her Emmy win as Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman wasn't nominated. And neither were Huffman's star castmates--Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan.

On a morning of out-of-the-blue picks and brand-name snubs likely the result of a new nominating procedure, the old guard managed to dominate the Outstanding Drama Series category, where perennial contenders The Sopranos, 24 and The West Wing were joined by first-timers Grey's Anatomy and House.

The Outstanding Comedy Series category likewise held true to form, with past favorites Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Scrubs all nominated. Also in the game: the low-rated but acclaimed The Office and the popular but previously unheralded Two and a Half Men.

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Overall, 24 was the most nominated series, with 12 nods, including one for star Kiefer Sutherland. Grey's Anatomy scored 11, followed by Will & Grace with 10.

If the new Emmy way--wherein, a select panel of voters determined the nominations, rather than the general TV academy populace--was designed to shake things up, the plan worked. To a point.

On one hand, legacy no longer seemed to count for much. Joining James Spader, Patricia Arquette and Felicity Huffman on the outside looking in were The Sopranos--just about all of them. Save for Michael Imperioli, not one other actor from the awards-show favorite--not James Gandolfini, not Edie Falco--was nominated.

On the other hand, It Shows still weren't it. Grey's Anatomy couldn't break through in the lead acting categories, where the likes of Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo were snubbed. My Name Is Earl couldn't score a best series nod, much less an acting nod for star Jason Lee. Entourage couldn't crash the comedy series race, and it couldn't improve on its annual Jeremy Piven nomination.

Cult TV favorites Gilmore Girls, Everybody Hates Chris, Smallville and Veronica Mars, all of the belated WB and/or UPN, couldn't move up to the glamour categories. Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, in fact, couldn't nab nominations for anything. Neither could CBS' much watched crime shows CSI: Miami, Without a Trace and Cold Case. (CSI and CSI: NY combined for four nominations in technical categories.)

A perhaps unexpected beneficiary of the new voting system was Charlie Sheen. The actor scored his first-ever Emmy nod, as Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Two and a Half Men, and saw his old-school sitcom pick up more nominations (seven) than the trendy HBO comedies Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm (five each).

The even older-school Martin Sheen had an even better day than Charlie Sheen, earning two acting nominations--Lead Actor in a Drama Series for The West Wing and Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Two and a Half Men.

TOP CONTENDERS
Show
Nominations
Into the West
16
Elizabeth I
13
24
12
Mrs. Harris
12
Grey's Anatomy
11
Bleak House
10
Will & Grace
10

For all the newness that the new Emmy rules was supposed to engender, canceled or recently retired series--from Will & Grace to Six Feet Under to Malcolm in the Middle--were dominant players.

Nowhere was being off the air a bigger advantage than in the Lead Actress in a Comedy Series race, where four of the five nominees hailed from deceased shows: Stockard Channing of the canceled Out of Practice; Lisa Kudrow of the likewise canceled The Comeback; Jane Kaczmarek of the retired Malcolm in the Middle; and Debra Messing of the likewise-retired Will & Grace. Rounding out the field: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of the actually still-running The New Adventures of Old Christine.

In the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, Allison Janney of the termed-out The West Wing and Geena Davis of the impeached Commander in Chief will vie for the Emmy against Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under), Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer).

With Spader out of the way, Martin Sheen will compete for the Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy against Kiefer Sutherland, Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Denis Leary (Rescue Me) and Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU).

Arguably even more than Spader, House's Hugh Laurie was the most notable exclusion from the lead actor contenders. A nominee last year, he failed to make the field in a year when his series became a Top 10 hit.

Among last year's series winners in the lead acting categories, only Monk's Tony Shalhoub made this year's nominee field. To nab another Emmy as Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Shalhoub will have to best Charlie Sheen, Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and first-time nominees Kevin James (The King of Queens) and Steve Carell (The Office).

Elsewhere, Grey's Anatomy dominated the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series field, where staffers Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson are nominated against Boston Legal's Candice Bergen, 24's Jean Smart and defending champ Blythe Danner of Huff.

The Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category race pits The Sopranos' means-well mobster Christopher Moltisanti, Michael Imperioli, against 24's smarmy, scheming President Logan, Gregory Itzin. Rounding out the lineup: Oliver Platt (Huff), Alan Alda (The West Wing) and William Shatner (Boston Legal), who Emmy'd last year.

For the last time, Will & Grace's supporting players loomed large in the supporting comedy categories. Sean Hayes will seek his second career Emmy opposite Entourage's Piven, Arrested Development's Will Arnett, Malcolm in the Middle's Bryan Cranston and Jon Cryer from the Two and a Half Men juggernaut.

Likewise, Megan Mullally can score her second Will & Grace Emmy if she can outpoll Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines, My Name Is Earl's Jaime Pressly, Weeds' Elizabeth Perkins and Desperate Housewives' Alfre Woodard.

As the lone Wisteria Lane regular to rate a nomination, Woodard, also up for her work in the made-for-TV movie The Water Is Wide, won't have to worry about cold shoulders from her fellow cast members--she ditched the neighborhood in the series' season finale. (Shirley Knight scored Housewives' other acting nod for her guest turn as Bree's mother.)

In the end, Desperate Housewives' much chronicled sophomore slump was much more pronounced at the Emmys than in the Nielsen ratings. Whereas viewership was down a mere 5 percent, nominations were down more than 50 percent, from 15 nominations last year to seven this year.

Lost, meanwhile, slipped from 12 nominations to nine, with its most high-profile one coming for hatch-dweller Desmond, Henry Ian Cusick, who made the cut for Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Other notable nominations (or non-nominations):

If Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Isaac Hayes are Emmy voters, then South Park's bid to be named best half-hour animated series, over the likes of Family Guy and The Simpsons, may be doomed. The Comedy Central 'toon is in the running for its Scientology-skewering episode, "Trapped in the Closet." The Amazing Race will vie for its fourth straight reality-competition Emmy against old foe American Idol and new foe Dancing with the Stars. Also nominated: Project Runway and Survivor. Should the reality show--non-competition--division make the prime-time Emmy broadcast, producers will face a challenge: How to get the name of one of the nominees, Penn & Teller: Bulls--t, past the network censors. Oscar loser Martin Scorsese will try to Emmy for his direction of the PBS American Masters documentary, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home. Scorsese has three prior Emmy nominations--and, because he's him, three prior Emmy losses. Prison Break broke out with its first-ever nomination--for theme music. Gillian Anderson scored her first nod since The X-Files--an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie one for the PBS Masterpiece Theatre production of Bleak House. To win, all Anderson has to do is best lightweights Kathy Bates (Ambulance Girl), Helen Mirren (Elizabeth I), Judy Davis (A Little Thing Called Murder) and Annette Bening (Mrs. Harris). HBO's Extras was the new Will & Grace, notching guest-star nominations for three of its famous stunt players: Patrick Stewart, Ben Stiller and Kate Winslet--all for playing themselves. Will & Grace went out in style with guest-star nods for Alec Baldwin, Leslie Jordan and double-Emmy nominee Blythe Danner. Eric McCormack did not go out in style. He was the only Will & Grace star not nominated. Jon Stewart was not nominated for hosting the Oscars, nor was he nominated for anchoring The Daily Show. (He is nominated as a Daily Show writer, and possibly as a producer, too--the Emmys did not specifically note who will be honored if the fake-news broadcast wins the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series.) Stephen Colbert was nominated for anchoring The Colbert Report. In All About Eve fashion, his new show will go up against its elder benefactor, The Daily Show, in the comedy/variety category. Also in the running there: Late Night with Conan O'Brien; Late Show with David Letterman; and Real Time with Bill Maher. The odd-show out: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jay Leno was the odd-man out in every category, failing to pick up a nomination as a host, a writer or an anything. Leno rival David Letterman was nominated for hosting Late Show. His far-flung competition in the variety/music category: Colbert; Barry Manilow, up for a PBS special; Hugh Jackman, up for the Tonys; and Craig Ferguson, up for the late-night show Letterman hired him to host. President Bush was not nominated, but President Bartlet (The West Wing), President Allen (Commander in Chief) and President Logan (24) were, thanks to the nods for Sheen, Davis and Itzen, respectively. A&E's Flight 93 and Discovery Channel's The Flight That Fought Back, two 9/11 movies about the same 9/11 incident, both will vie for top made-for-TV movie honors. With an overwhelming 95 nods, HBO turned in another league-leading performance. Per usual, it cleaned up in the made-for-TV categories thanks to the royal biopic Elizabeth I (13 noms), the true-crime biopic Mrs. Harris (12) and the G8 summit-set love story The Girl in the Cafe (seven). In the TV documentary race, the HBO look about Rosie O'Donnell's gay-family cruises (All Aboard!) will vie for the Emmy against the History Channel examination of Captain Kirk's humble alter ego (How William Shatner Changed the World). Extras star Ricky Gervais will vie for a writing Emmy against the American-ized version of his made-for-UK-TV hit, The Office. Not known for its dancing, Malcolm in the Middle nonetheless notched a choreography nomination, one of its four overall nods. Despite their not-small casts, not one series regular from Big Love, CSI, ER and Scrubs were nominated.

The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, to be hosted by Conan O'Brien, are scheduled to be presented Aug. 27 in an NBC telecast from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium.

Get the complete list of Emmy contenders.