TV Rerun: Emmys Mob the White House

After two years of getting snubbed come trophy time, David Chase's acclaimed HBO Mob drama will try, try again at the 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, as it picked up a field-best 22 nominations Thursday, including Outstanding Drama Series.

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· Emmy Scorecard: Complete rundown of all the contenders
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· Emmys 2000: Relive E! Online's complete coverage
· Sopranos Savvy?: 30 bada-bing things you better know
Facing off against the New Jersey family is (no big shocker here) last year's Emmy monster, The West Wing, which scored 18 nominations this year, including a surprising Outstanding Lead Actor nomination for Rob Lowe. Last September, Aaron Sorkin's Oval Office drama broke the record for most Emmy wins by a TV series with nine.

Otherwise, the Outstanding Drama category remains unchanged from last year, as The West Wing and The Sopranos compete with ER, The Practice and Law & Order. That's despite heavy lobbying for other critically hailed dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, rookie breakout hit C.S.I. and Once and Again.

But once again, it was The Sopranos that had the biggest score. Last year's Emmy winner James Gandolfini notched another lead acting nod for his role as the tubby family patriarch, while Edie Falco and Lorraine Bracco each picked up nods for Outstanding Lead Actress.

The showering of nominations doesn't always mean victory, as The Sopranos can attest. Two years ago, the Peabody Award-winning series won just four awards out of 16 nominations. And last year, the lone trophy out of 18 nominations went to Gandolfini for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama.

THE TOP CONTENDERS
Program
Emmy Noms
The Sopranos
22
The West Wing
18
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows
13
61*
12
Will & Grace
12
In fact, many of the categories will feature The Sopranos--appropriately enough--battling within the family. Aside from Falco and Bracco's Lead Actress nods, Michael Imperioli and Dominic Chianese are both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor. (The pair will face three other nominees from The West Wing: Last year's Emmy winner Richard Schiff, John Spencer and Bradley Whitford.)

The Sopranos also picked up four of the five nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. The fifth nominee? Why, The West Wing.

On the comedy side, Fox's Malcolm in the Middle picked up its first nod for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as the first-ever nomination for its lead kid, Frankie Muniz. The series will face off with last year's Emmy winner Will & Grace, as well as return nominees Frasier, Sex and the City and Everybody Loves Raymond.

The pint-sized Muniz, meanwhile, joins a batch of Emmy vets for Lead Actor in a Comedy, including Kelsey Grammer for Frasier, John Lithgow for 3rd Rock From the Sun, Eric McCormack for Will & Grace and Ray Romano for Everybody Loves Raymond.

Malcolm's TV mom, Jane Kaczmarek leads the list of Outstanding Lead Actress nominees, joining Debra Messing for Will & Grace, Sarah Jessica Parker for Sex and the City, Patricia Heaton for Everybody Loves Raymond and Calista Flockhart for Ally McBeal.

Muniz isn't the only Emmy newcomer. On the drama side, Marg Helgenberger received her first Lead Actress in a Drama nomination for CBS' rookie crime hit, C.S.I. (she was previously nominated for Supporting Actress for ABC's China Beach), while former Homicide Emmy winner Andre Braugher is back with a Lead Actor nod for ABC's not-so-big hit, the now-defunct medical drama Gideon's Crossing.

Braugher's Lead Actor competition in the drama category includes Gandolfini for The Sopranos, Lowe and Martin Sheen for The West Wing and Dennis Franz for NYPD Blue.

For lead actress, it's Falco and Bracco nominated alongside Helgenberger, Amy Brenneman for CBS' Judging Amy and Sela Ward for ABC's Once and Again.

In what adds another bright spot to an otherwise troubling year, Robert Downey Jr. was handed an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role on Ally McBeal, as Ally's lawyer love interest Larry Paul. The role has already won him a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award this year.

For Outstanding Miniseries, ABC's Judy Garland biopic Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows is nominated alongside ABC's Anne Frank, Showtime's Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City, A&E's Horatio Hornblower and TNT's Nuremberg.

Aside from The Sopranos and The West Wing windfall, Life with Judy Garland followed behind with 13 nominations overall, including Outstanding Lead Actress for Judy Davis. Will & Grace and Billy Crystal's HBO baseball feature 61* scored 12 nominations apiece.

Based on Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's race to beat Babe Ruth's home-run record, 61* was nominated for Outstanding Made-for-TV Movie alongside an all-premium-cable lineup, including HBO's Wit, For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story and Conspiracy, as well as Showtime's Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor.

Overall, HBO topped the network scorecard with 94 nominations, followed by NBC with 76, ABC with 63 and CBS with 46.

Included in CBS' haul was a nomination for the "reality series" categories, as Survivor picked up a nod for Outstanding Non-Fiction Program (Special Class), which honors shows that involve a game-show element. Executive producer Mark Burnett is actually nominated twice in the category, also for his USA series Eco-Challenge: Borneo. Other nominees include VH1's Bands on the Run, TLC's Junkyard Wars and MTV's latest installment of Road Rules.

The Emmys added the "reality" categories this year in response to the recent deluge of new nonfiction shows. Another new category, Outstanding Non-Fiction Program (Reality), honors documentary-style reality shows, with nominees including Fox's American High (now on PBS), Bravo's The Awful Truth with Michael Moore, E!'s own True Hollywood Story, HBO's Taxicab Confessions and TLC's Trauma: Life in the ER.

Other Emmy tidbits:

Holly Hunter is nominated for two different performances. The actress scored a nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her touchingly humorous role as tennis great Billie Jean King in ABC's When Billie Beat Bobby. And she also picked up a nomination for Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, for Showtime's Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her.
Hey, anyone remember Freaks and Geeks? In the "better-late-than-never" department, NBC's critically acclaimed but short-lived high school comedy picked up a nod for Outstanding Writing for its "Discos and Dragons" episode.
Steve Martin's first time hosting the Oscars didn't go unnoticed. The erstwhile Wild and Crazy guy scored a nod for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Speaking of China Beach, Helgenberger's former costar Dana Delany also picked up an Emmy nomination Thursday for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama, for her role on CBS' Family Law.
Jean Smart, meanwhile, scored Outstanding Guest Actress nominations for both drama and comedy categories, for a guest stint on CBS' The District and for an appearance on NBC's Frasier.
The West Wing's creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin got into a recent Internet message board spat with one of his former writers, primarily over his failure to let the scribe say something during their Emmy acceptance speech last year. But this year, Sorkin won't have to worry--he's nominated for Outstanding Writing alone for "In The Shadow of Two Gunmen (Parts I & II)."

The Emmys, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, will be broadcast live from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on CBS September 16.

Complete list of nominations