[IMG:L]It was a beautiful morning to be Ugly Betty, while The Sopranos have one more chance to whack their Emmy competition.
In a field filled with brand new faces in the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards race, ABC’s freshman comedy featuring style-impaired but sweet-hearted Betty Suarez’s misadventures among flamboyant fashionistas topped the comedy series flock with 11 total nominations. Meanwhile HBO’s much beloved saga of the dysfunctional Mob family was number one with a bullet among dramas with 15 total nods.
On the Scene
After stepping out on stage at the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre at the ungodly hour of 5:40 a.m. for the live announcement to the East Coast, actress Kyra Sedgwick’s wee hours foray into hair and makeup paid off handsomely. The Closer star had only read off the very first list of nominees when actor Jon Cryer announced Sedgwick’s name among the nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Caught off guard, Sedgwick struggled to contain her excitement but flubbed one of her next line readings. “She’s all ruffled!” explained Cryer. “She didn’t know that was coming!”
Sedgwick admitted to being totally gobsmacked when she heard her name announced, despite a nomination the previous year. “It was kind of awful to have that reaction in front of everybody,” she told Hollywood.com. “But I was happy to be here anyway and just trying to show up for the honor of being asked to just be here. It was a lovely gift.”
“I wasn’t expecting to get nominated for anything or win anything or anything at all,” Sedgwick said when asked if she thought her role could possibly lead to trophies (she won a Golden Globe earlier this year) when she first read the script. “I just knew that I loved the character and I wanted to be involved. I actually had trepidations about taking the part because it was in Los Angeles, which is far away from home, but it really has been an endless gift, the show. I’m amazed that we keep adding viewers in the third year”
[IMG:R]Cryer giggled like a schoolboy when his series Two and a Half Men and his co-star Charlie Sheen’s nominations were announced and was also richly rewarded for jumping out of bed before 5 a.m. with a nomination. Although Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series isn’t typically included in the live announcement Television Academy President Dick Askin made a point to tell Cryer before the cameras stopped rolling.
Cryer, who was nominated last year, told Hollywood.com he wasn’t entirely shocked. “I thought that it was a possibility, sure,” he said. “But it’s a really good field of supporting actors again this year – unfortunately for me – but I was expecting after the ceremony that I would then corner Dick Askin and rip the list out of his pocket. Thankfully I did not have to do that. It was not necessary. So that was good.”
While Cryer, who had his new wife of 32 days, Lisa Joyner, at his side, tried vainly to awaken Charlie Sheen with a cell phone call, Sedgwick had yet to collect a congratulatory call from her famous husband Kevin Bacon. “I’m not sure if Kev was on his way to work or not. He’s in New York so I don’t know.”
Cryer said until he got in touch with Sheen, he’d have no way to commemorate their nominations, as the show has yet to start production. “If I went to the set it would be very lonely. It would be me standing alone in an empty studio. ‘Hey guys…we’re nominated for an Emmy.’ That would be kind of sad and pitiful.”
But he did promise a rather interesting celebration. “There is, of course, going to be naked Yahtzee,” he joked, then added his congratulations to castmates Holland Taylor and Conchata Ferrell, both nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Comedy Series Category. “What’s great is that every year that they both get nominated they have an awesome catfight. They just oil up and go at it, and that’s a great thing and something to look forward to for the rest of us. ”
The Nominees
The Television Academy, which has long been criticized for honoring the same shows and stars year in and year out, took particular pains to point out that its Emmy Class of 2007 featured “a 60 percent rate of fresh faces and shows,” with 33 of 54 nominations in the major comedy and drama categories new to the race this year.
[IMG:L]Ugly Betty and America Ferrera lead the pack of freshman nominees, and as producer Marco Pennette told Hollywood.com earlier in the week, Ferrera’s nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series marks the first time in history a Latina has been nominated in that category. The show’s other high profile nominations include nods for Vanessa Williams as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Judith Light and creator Salma Hayek, both as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Heroes also soared into the Emmy spotlight in its first season with eight nominations, including nods for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Masi Oka, much to the pleasure of series creator Tim Kring.
“This kind of show is a hard show for the Emmy voters to wrap their brain around,” Kring told Hollywood.com prior to the nominations. “It has some sci-fi elements which traditionally isn’t the most praised by the Emmy voters, but clearly when you set out to do something bold and from your heart you hope that people appreciate it.”
Though it’s yet to rack up incredibly impressive ratings, freshman comedy 30 Rock also ranked high with Emmy voters with 10 nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Among the show’s most notable nods: creator/star Tina Fey for Outstanding performance by a Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series; Alec Baldwin for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; and Elaine Stritch (Playing the mother of Baldwin‘s character) as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Some of television’s most popular shows also fared well. Grey’s Anatomy’s prognosis looked promising with 10 nominations, bolstered by nods for its acting ensemble. Along with placing in the Outstanding Drama Series category, the medical melodrama scored with a trifecta of noms in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series field for Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh and Katherine Heigl (her first nomination), as well as for T.R. Knight as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama, and Kate Burton (Dr. Ellis Grey) and Elizabeth Reaser (“Jane Doe”), both as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
The Office also stands to add some Emmy trophies to the cubicle, landing nine nominations. A contender in the Outstanding Comedy Series category, it also scored nods for star Steve Carell as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, as well as first time nominations for castmates Jenna Fischer (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series) and Rainn Wilson (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series).
And yes, there were more than a few familiar faces in the Emmy race among this year’s crop of newbies: leading the pack among the veterans were Kiefer Sutherland, who racked up his tenth nomination as Outstanding Lead Actor in a drama series for 24, winning in 2005 and 2006; recent Oscar winner Helen Mirren, another 10-time Emmy nominee with three wins to her credit, now in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Prime Suspect: Final Act; nine-time nominee William H. Macy, as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Nightmares & Dreamscapes; From the Stories of Stephen King; and nine-time nominee Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The New Adventures of Old Christine.
[IMG:R]Sally Field, who garnered her seventh nomination since 1977 as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Brothers & Sisters; Tom Selleck also grabbed a seventh nomination, as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries for Jesse Stone: Sea Change; as did Gena Rowlands, as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for What If God Were the Sun.
Other Emmy friendly stars slated to make their latest return trip to the ceremony include Debra Messing (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, The Starter Wife), Tony Shalhoub (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Monk), and The Sopranos’ Edie Falco (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) and James Gandolfini (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series).
[IMG:R]The Sopranos raised its cumulative Emmy nomination total to a whopping 111 (with 18 wins to date), and yet that feat was exceeded this year among current shows by ER, which raised its series-long tally to 120 nominations (24 wins to date), breaking Cheers’ long-held record of 177.
The Mafia family’s home network HBO continued its traditional reign as the network with the most nominations this year, with a grand total of 86 among its series, movies and specials, bolstered by particularly strong showings from The Sopranos, Entourage (seven nominations) and the miniseries Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (topping all TV entries with a staggering 17 nominations). ABC was its closest competitor with 70 nominations, with NBC a close third with 69.
There were other intriguing additions to this year’s Emmy pantheon, including How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, Lost’s creepy Other Michael Emerson, Queen Latifah for the HBO film Life Support, veteran actor Eli Wallach for his guest stint on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Justin Timberlake for writing his much-downloaded Saturday Night Live song “Dick In a Box,” Best Actor Oscar winner Forest Whitaker for a guest turn on ER, Sir Ian McKellen playing himself on Extras, Hollywood icon Leslie Caron for a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit appearance and the legendary crooner Tony Bennett for his performance on the music special Tony Bennett: An American Classic.
For a complete list of the Emmy nominees, click here.
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Ceremony will be broadcast live on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007 on Fox.
