Emmys release top ten lists for drama and comedy; Heroes out, Family Guy and The Wire in
For the first time in its history, the Emmy academy went along with the pleas of entertainment journalists worldwide and released its list of the top 10 shows competing for five finalist spots in the Best Comedy and Best Drama awards. The actual finalists won't be announced until July 17; Emmy voters are expected to begin voting this weekend.
In comedy, the surprise is HBO newbie Flight of the Conchords in the running, alongside popular freshman series Pushing Daisies. And Fox's Family Guy -- which has always seemed to me like a crasser less funny version of The Simpsons -- is also in the running. Otherwise, the comedy list includes all the series nominated for best comedy last year, proving that Emmy can be as predictable as ever.
In drama, the impact of cable's growing quality is felt even more, with upstart AMC's buzzed-about drama Mad Men in the running alongside Showtime's Dexter and the Tudors. The big news here may be that HBO only has one nominee in the running, much-overlooked The Wire. The only two shows from last year's nominees not included in this top 10 list is the defunct Sopranos and Heroes -- which offered a strike-shortened season so bad it might as well have been canceled.
So which shows would you like to see take home the brass ring? My predictions for the five finalists in each category are in bold. See if you can pick better!
Top 10 Comedy Series Finalists
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds
Top 10 Drama Series Finalists
Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
Mad Men
The Tudors
The Wire
The Feed is a blog on TV, media and modern life by St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans. Possibly the most critical guy at the Times, he has served as music, media and TV critic at various times over 10 years.
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who makes these lists? seriously "fri night lights" is always on the chopping block, "greys" has not been good since season 1 (meredith is just unbearable), and "boston legal" has not been good since it stopped being "the practice" and stopped have dylan mcdermott to distract me from what horrible plot lines it had. "heroes", "csi", "ncis" - these are the quality dramas
Posted by: Missy | June 30, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Not many quibbles with your picks for the eventual nominees -- they're not necessarily my choices (I'd take Friday Night Lights over House or Grey's and Weeds or Flight of the Conchords over Two and a Half Men) but they seem to be in keeping with the way the Emmy voters skew.
Posted by: jane | June 29, 2008 at 08:29 PM