NBC comes in second only to HBO with 77 nominations including Friends (11 nominations) and Will & Grace (12), going head-to-head for best comedy series, while tried-and-true best drama contender The West Wing got 15 nods. The long running Law & Order gets bumped off the list for the first time in 12 years.
Last year’s Emmy winner Friends didn’t have nearly as eventful a season as the previous one, but it was enough to get the series its fourth nomination. Matt LeBlanc gets his second nomination for lead actor, while Jennifer Aniston, who won the Emmy last year, snags a second nod for lead actress.
Of the fab four on Will & Grace, Debra Messing goes for her fourth try as lead actress in a comedy series as the neurotic Grace, while cohorts Sean Hayes as the flamboyant Jack and Megan Mullally as boozy rich woman Karen, both of whom won supporting category Emmys in 2000, get nods as well. And after winning the award for lead actor in 2001 and then being omitted from the list in 2002, Eric McCormack as snarky Will is back to try for a second win.
Rounding out NBC’s nominations in the comedy acting categories, Frasier‘s David Hyde Pierce as the uptight Niles makes it on the supporting actor list for the 10th time (he’s won three times) while John Mahoney as the Crane brothers’ father goes for his second try in the same category. Emmy staple Kelsey Grammer is noticeably left off the list this year, as is the show, which is obviously on its last legs.
The White House drama The West Wing is once again the peacock’s heavy hitter. Last year, it took the best drama series Emmy for the second year in a row but faces stiff competition this year from HBO’s Six Feet Under and The Sopranos and Fox’s frenetic 24.
Nominated in the lead acting categories are favorites Martin Sheen (his fourth try as the too-good-to-be-true President Josiah Bartlet) and Allison Janney, who has now won an Emmy three years running for her sharp-as-nails Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (twice as supporting actress and once as lead actress). This could be the year she is dethroned. Other major West Wing-ers nominated in the supporting categories includes John Spencer as loyal Chief of Staff Leo McGarry and last year’s supporting actress winner Stockard Channing as the ever-patient First Lady Abigail Bartlet.
NBC also has found a niche in the variety, music or comedy series category with three out of the five nominations including Late Night with Conan O’Brien (for the first time), Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It’ll be tough to beat ol’ Dave, though.
CBS
With 59 nominations in total for CBS, perennial favorite Everybody Loves Raymond may have received 13 nods this year, including best comedy series, but it still has yet to take home the Emmy in that tough category.
Ray Romano, the show’s centerpiece, finally won his first Emmy last year for lead comedy series actor in and is going for a two-year winning streak with his fifth nomination. Patricia Heaton as Ray’s long-suffering wife Debra gets her fifth nomination as well in the lead actress category (having won it twice already), as does supporting actress nominee Doris Roberts as Raymond’s endlessly annoying mother Marie (she’s won once). Brad Garrett as the jealous older brother Robert also won for the first time last year for supporting actor and gives it a second go-around this year. Only five-time supporting actor nominee Peter Boyle as Ray’s couch-potato dad has managed to walk away empty-handed thus far.
It looks like CBS has cornered the market in the Emmys’ newly formed category for outstanding reality/competition program, with three out of five nominations (The Amazing Race, Survivor and AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions: America’s Greatest Love Stories).
Judging Amy‘s Tyne Daly snags her fourth nomination for supporting actress in a drama series, while that show’s star Amy Brenneman, who had been nominated the previous three years, was conspicuously absent from the lead actress category this year. CBS’ ratings winner CSI: Crime Scene Investigation pulled out the punches again, getting its second nod for best drama series, as did star Marg Helgenberger for lead actress in a drama series.
And then there’s Dave. Late Show with David Letterman, which moved from NBC to CBS in 1994, is a CBS Emmy staple year after year in the best variety, music or comedy series category. Of course, for the first few years when it was up against NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, it couldn’t win the award. But since 1998, it’s taken home the Emmy each time.
FOX
The youngest network of the Big Four, Fox received a total of 37 nominations. No one show dominated for the network, which this year collected nods in three major categories. Bernie Mac earned a nomination for lead actor in a comedy series for his hit sitcom The Bernie Mac Show while Bryan Cranston received a nom for best supporting character in a comedy series for his role as Hal in Malcolm in the Middle.
Fox also earned a nomination in the newly formed, but yet rather bizarre, reality/competition category that pits Fox’s hit American Idol, in which young adults from around the country audition for entertainment music industry professionals, against a Bob Hope memorial special.
The network’s other strong contender is Keifer Sutherland, who earned a nomination for best lead actor in a drama series for his role as Jack Bauer on the spy series 24. The show, which debuted in 2001, was picked up for a third season.
ABC
The Alphabet Net didn’t walk away empty-handed either, but none of its drama or comedy series landed a single nod. ABC comes in last of the major networks with 33 nominations overall, its main ones for the stars of the hit spy series Alias.
The show stars Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a young woman working as a spy while trying to hide her occupation from her estranged father and her boyfriend. Garner received a nod for outstanding lead actress in a drama while her co-stars Victor Garber and Lena Olin grabbed supporting noms.
Click here for the breakdown of cable channel nominations.
