Network comedies, cable dramas reign
LOS ANGELES -- With Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire and other prestige series, cable ruled the Emmy nominations for drama. But broadcast networks got the last laugh with their sitcoms.
Of the six nominees for best drama series only one, CBS' The Good Wife, is a network program. Of the half-dozen comedy series contenders, all air on networks.
Members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences clearly favored sitcom tradition. Modern Family, The Office and other broadcast shows have a more purely comic bent and err on the good-natured side of satire. Cable comedies are increasingly, in a word, mordant: Think Showtime's The Big C, about a cancer-stricken woman.
"There was a heyday of comedies on cable like Sex and the City, but now it's broadcast" that dominates the genre for Emmy voters, said Tom O'Neil, editor of the award websites goldderby.com and theenvelope.com.
The lack of cable comedy bids may represent "a bit of a backlash" against the hybrid comedy-drama, O'Neil said.
It also underscores the sitcom's resurgence on broadcast TV, which seemed to lose its comic touch as hits such as Friends and Seinfeld faded into memory and weren't replaced.
A winning new crop is now emerging, including ABC's Modern Family and its clever take on what family has come to mean. Crowned best comedy series after its freshman season, it received 17 nominations this time around. Nods also went to NBC's Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock, CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Fox's Glee.
They've yet to break into lofty ratings territory -- only one comedy, CBS' former Charlie Sheen vehicle Two and a Half Men, cracks the Nielsen top 20 -- but they're generating buzz and gaining momentum.
Given broadcasters fixation on franchise crime dramas such as CSI and NCIS, it's unsurprising that cable's daring, unique (and often awash in nudity and violence) series dominate the Emmys.
Besides handing AMC's Mad Men 19 nominations and a shot at a fourth consecutive best drama series trophy, the academy gave fistfuls of bids to HBO's wild Prohibition-era series Boardwalk Empire (18) and fantasy saga Game of Thrones (13). Other best drama cable nominees are DirecTV's Friday Night Lights and Showtime's Dexter.
The period melodrama Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet and based on the 1941 James M. Cain novel, grabbed a top 21 bids including best miniseries or movie in the new category that combines both formats.
Also in the category is the miniseries The Kennedys, which was dropped by the History channel and given a second chance by lesser-known ReelzChannel. It received 10 nominations, including best miniseries and, among its acting bids, one for the critically lauded Barry Pepper as Robert Kennedy.
HBO received the most nominations, 104, more than double second-place CBS' 50.
The Emmy Awards are scheduled to air Sept. 18 on Fox, with Glee star and nominee Jane Lynch hosting.