2008 Emmy Nominations Announced

The 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced this morning and the 60th edition of the premiere television awards show is shaping up to be a great one. The Blot is extremely happy to see many of The Blot Says…' favorite shows nominated for multiple awards this year including Lost making its long awaited return to the Best Drama Series category. I was also really pleased to see Best Supporting Actor/Actress nominations go to How I Met Your Mothers’ Neil Patrick Harris and Pushing Daisies’ Kristin Chenoweth in the comedy categories and Damages’ Ted Danson and Lost’s Michael Emerson in the drama category. And how can you not be excited to hear that 30 Rock led all comedies with 17 nominations. Plus, can someone tell me when was the last time someone from Saturday Night Live was nominated for an Acting award?


On the surface it appears there is some sick competition in both the Actor in a Comedy Series and Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series races, but the real story is the huge number of nominations in the Drama categories going to original programming from basic cable channels (i.e. not "pay cable channels" like HBO or Showtime). AMC’s Mad Men led all dramas with 16 nominations, while other cable dramas Damages, Breaking Bad, Saving Grace, Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck and The Closer all pulled in nominations in major acting categories.

You can watch the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards live on ABC Sunday, September 21st at 8/7c.

60th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations
COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Will Arnett, 30 Rock
Shelley Berman, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Steve Buscemi, 30 Rock
Tim Conway, 30 Rock
Rip Torn, 30 Rock

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Polly Bergen, Desperate Housewives
Edie Falco, 30 Rock
Carrie Fisher, 30 Rock
Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives
Sarah Silverman, Monk
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

DRAMA SERIES
Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
James Spader, Boston Legal

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Charles Durning, Rescue Me
Robert Morse, Mad Men
Oliver Platt, Nip/Tuck
Stanley Tucci, ER
Glynn Turman, In Treatment
Robin Williams, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Ellen Burstyn, Big Love
Diahann Carroll, Grey's Anatomy
Sharon Gless, Nip/Tuck
Anjelica Huston, Medium
Cynthia Nixon, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

NBC Announces Its Fall Series Premiere Dates

I think this is utterly bizarre! We’re not even into June yet and already NBC is announcing when their television shows will debut/return this fall. (link) I can’t think of a reason why they’re doing this now, besides maybe just trying to get a little early publicity while the other networks are off doing other things, like getting ratings. Again, NBC was fourth this year in the television season ratings rankings. (link) I guess at this point any early publicity for their scripted shows is a good thing.


Since NBC’s decided to share the dates scheduled for the launch of their 2008-2009 television season, I thought I’d pass along the info to all of you. Check out the season premieres of returning shows and the debut of brand new shows below:

NBC's Fall 2008-09 Premiere Schedule (all times ET):
(link) New Programs in UPPER CASE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS
Series Premiere - 8-10 p.m.
Returns on September 19 - 8-9 p.m. for five weeks
Then Resumes from 9-10 p.m. on October 24

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Heroes Clip Show - 8-9 p.m.
Heroes Season Premiere - 9-11 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - 10-11 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
KNIGHT RIDER - 8-9 p.m.
Lipstick Jungle - 10-11 p.m.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
My Name Is Earl - One-Hour Premiere - 8-9 p.m.
The Office - One-Hour Premiere - 9-10 p.m.
ER - 10-11 p.m.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
Chuck - 8-9 p.m.
MY OWN WORST ENEMY - 10-11 p.m.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
Life - 10-11 p.m.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9
KATH & KIM - 9:30-10 p.m.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
CRUSOE - Two-Hour Premiere - 8-10 p.m.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30
30 Rock - 8:30-9 p.m.

30 Rock – Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

“It’s boys becoming men, men becoming wolves!”

Ok, I know I'm a little late on posting this, but I just couldn't not talk about probably the best throw away line of the year. It is courtesy of Mr. Tracy Jordan, a.k.a. 30 Rock’s Tracy Morgan (Saturday Night Live, First Sunday) and I can't stop listening to it. In this particular 3o Rock episode Tracy, while going through a box of his possessions after being kicked out of the house by his wife, finds the gold record he was awarded for his novelty party song “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” (off the album An Evening with Tracy Jordan naturally).

I know what you’re thinking, it must have been a pretty good record if it sold over 500,000 copies and was awarded the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) gold record? Well now you can find out for yourself how good the song is by downloading the extended version of “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah!” Do yourself a favor and don’t pass up on this ridiculously funny novelty song. This is Tracy Morgan at his SNL best.

Tracy Jordan – Werewolf Bar Mitzvah {MP3}
(right click and choose Save Target As... to download this song)

While the song’s music video below is pretty third rate since it only took the 6 second clip from the television show and turned it into a full length music video, the song itself is fantastic. If you don’t want to download the MP3 then at least play the video below so you can listen to “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” and realize the greatness that is Tracy Morgan and 30 Rock.

The Blot On Strike With The WGA

This is one of the cooler news items I’ve seen about the recent Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Both TV Squad and the New York Post are reporting that the casts of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock are each putting on separate stage versions of their shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York as a fundraiser for the WGA strike fund on November 17th and 19th. (SNL or 30 Rock) Since many members of both shows’ casts are both actors and writers, production on both shows has stopped for the foreseeable future.

This is probably a good thing for SNL considering how bad its writing has been lately but is horrible for 30 Rock, which was riding high off their Emmy win for best comedy. Reportedly most of the casts for the two shows will be on hand for the stage version and SNL, as is tradition, will even have a host: Michael Cera from Arrested Development and Superbad. The titles of the show are creatively Saturday Night Live – On Strike! and 30 Rock – On Strike! and tickets are a pretty cheap $20 each.

This sounds like a pretty cool, once in a lifetime experience for TV fans and I’d recommend any readers in NYC to check it out…if tickets were still available. It sounds like the SNL show is already sold out, but according to the Upright Citizens Brigade website, limited tickets to the 30 Rock show will be available the day of the show. I’m interested in seeing how they pull this off and whether or not clips of the shows make it to YouTube. If so I’ll post them on here for everyone to check out.