Cable Series in Running for Emmys
  
By BILL CARTER
New York Times TV Writer
Published: July 18, 2008
        
                                       A scene from AMC's "Mad Men"

The nominations for television’s biggest award, the Emmy, were released Thursday morning, adding further fuel to the argument that the much of the best creative work in the medium is now being done on cable channels — and to the perception that shows do not necessarily need big audiences to be celebrated by the television academy.

The latter point was underscored by the emergence of the little-watched (but much-written-about) drama “Mad Men” on the AMC cable channel, which received nominations in the categories of best drama, best actor (Jon Hamm), best direction, best writing (two episodes from the series creator, Matthew Weiner), best supporting actor (John Slattery) and best guest actor (Robert Morse). No other drama on television had as many major nominations.

In comedy, NBC’s “30 Rock” still struggles in the ratings, but certainly not in the Emmy race. The show racked up more nominations than any other series, scoring for best comedy, best actor (Alec Baldwin), best actress (Tina Fey), best directing, best writing (two, including Ms. Fey again) and a staggering seven of the 11 total nominations for best guest actor and actress. Ms. Fey herself achieved an Emmy coup by being nominated in three separate categories, adding another for best individual performance in a variety series for her turn as host of “Saturday Night Live” for a week.

Though “30 Rock” made a strong showing, cable channels in fared well in competition against their richer, more celebrated colleagues on the broadcast networks in the major categories, especially in drama. And not, for once, because of dominance by HBO.

That network, which muscled its way to Emmy glory in the past with series like “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” was humbled a bit this season. Its pay-cable competitor, Showtime, shined for the first time with nominations in drama (“Dexter” and that show’s star, Michael C. Hall) and comedy (Mary-Louise Parker for “Weeds”). More galling perhaps for HBO was the huge haul for “Mad Men,” a show HBO passed on even though its creator, Mr. Weiner, had been in house as a writer and producer on “The Sopranos.”

HBO could have been the network taking kudos for the next prestige drama on television; instead, it is AMC, heretofore an Emmy outsider. That network also managed some impressive nominations for another drama, “Breaking Bad,” including one for Bryan Cranston as best actor. With Mr. Hamm, that gave AMC more nominees in that category than any other network. The others were Mr. Hall; James Spader, the perennial winner for “Boston Legal”; the always praised but so far unrecognized Hugh Laurie of Fox’s “House”; and Gabriel Bryne of HBO’s series “In Treatment.”

HBO fared much better in the categories where it always stands out, like movies and mini-series, where “John Adams” was nominated for just about everything, and it had two of the five comedy show nominations in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage.” The latter show’s actors Jeremy Piven and Kevin Dillon were also nominated.

Comedy remained a bit of a safe haven from cable invasion for the broadcast networks, as three of the nominees for best series, “The Office,” and “30 Rock” on NBC and “Two and a Half Men” on CBS, were from the networks, as were four of the best-actor nominees: Mr. Baldwin, Steve Carrell of “The Office,” Charlie Sheen of “Two and a Half Men” and Lee Pace of “Pushing Daisies” on ABC.

Four of the best comedy actresses joining Ms. Parker were from network shows: Ms. Fey, Christina Applegate of “Samantha Who” on ABC, America Ferrara of “Ugly Betty” on ABC, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Old Christine” on CBS.

But in drama, more women nominees came from cable. The best actress category included Glenn Close of “Damages” on FX, Holly Hunter of “Saving Grace” on TNT and Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer” on TNT. The networks had Mariska Hargitay of “Law & Order: SVU” on NBC and Sally Field of “Brothers and Sisters” on ABC

ABC had the best year of any of the broadcast networks, with many nominations in the major categories, but its two biggest shows, “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” were snubbed as series, and picked up only a couple of supporting actress nominations.

Among the late-night hosts, cable again was strong with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central. David Letterman got a nomination for host, but Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien did not. As has been the recent trend, NBC’s “Tonight” was shut out again, despite being by far the most popular of the late-night shows — again proving that Emmy voters do not see things quite the way television audiences do.