Zachary Levi and Elizabeth Mitchell
Emmy nominations will be announced Thursday morning (8:30 am/ET, check your local listings). Here are our 11th-hour picks. There are many familiar faces on the list (Charlie Sheen, Tina Fey, etc.), but with just enough new blood (Jim Parsons and, er, True Blood) to keep things interesting.
Now that we've had our say, who are you rooting for? Tell us after the jump.
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Emmy Awards statuette
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences isn't done shaking up the Emmy format: Two weeks after expanding the nomination fields from five to six in certain categories, the Academy is considering a complete overhaul of the award ceremony, Variety reports.
The first order of business for the Academy's Board of Governors will be to ...
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Defending comedy series champ 30 Rock will have extra Emmy competition in 2009.
This year, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will add a sixth nominee to the 10 major Emmy categories, including best comedy and drama series, according to Variety. The lead and supporting actor and actress categories in both drama and comedy will also include a sixth nominee.
"We're trying to increase our inclusiveness," said Academy chairman and CEO John Shaffner, who noted an increase in "bubbling under" contenders in recent years. Some of the series left out ...
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Question: I appreciate the effort to keep the Emmys under three hours, and there was plenty worth fast-forwarding through, but I feel like my reward for sitting through the "we have nothing prepared" bit at the beginning of the show should have been enjoying a little banter between Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth when they come out to present. Several times throughout the evening, we got treated to stars that looked just a little disappointed as they announced that their presentation had been cut short for time purposes and so all they really had to do was read the nominees and announce the winners. Now, I might feel differently if I was watching the whole thing in real time, but it would just have been nice to give Neil or Kiefer Sutherland the same chance that Ricky Gervais had to actually make this an enjoyable broadcast. Anyway, that's my piece.
Answer: Time management was a disaster, thanks to the bloat of the five reality-show hosts. The reason Neil Patrick Harris an ...
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Question: ABC's presentation of the 2008 Emmys was one of the poorest presentations in a long time. All the networks should learn from this. Forget reality show hosts and leave it to funny people like Ellen, Conan and Stewart. I find it ironic that Ryan Seacrest felt honored that reality hosts were finally accepted by the Emmys and their television peers, while their peers showed their displeasure with the Emmys host. The highlights definitely were Ricky Gervais, Don Rickles, Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey and all the comedians that have made the show fun.
Answer: The comics were my favorite part of the show as well. Maybe next year, if they decide a host is even necessary, they'll go back to some actual talent. Reality TV has earned its place at the Emmy table, but on a night when shows like Mad Men, 30 Rock, John Adams and 60 years of Emmy history are being celebrated, they did not deserve to be center stage.
Here's a sampling of other gripes: From Nancy: "Since when is Howie Mandel's show
...
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Question: I watched the Emmys and have some thoughts on why the show was so bad and how it can improve. First, they can take a lesson from reality programs. They connect with "real" people. Have fans of the shows introduce clips, talk about their favorite characters, and why they watch shows like Mad Men. This way, viewers see that "small" shows are loved by "real" fans, not just critics). Right now the show feels very elitist and disconnected from the fans whose passion and loyalty to shows help keep them alive. Second, the show should have less irrelevant filler and be an actual celebration of nominated performances and shows. I'm not going to watch a three-hour telecast to have my favorite show/actor only mentioned for two seconds when its category is announced. As a fan, I'd like to see more about the actual nominees: interviews with the cast, actors expressing appreciation for their fellow nominees' performances, more clips from the nominated shows. By putting the nominees up ...
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Emily Deschanel by Eric Ogden/Fox; Rocky Carroll by Eric McCandless/CBS; Katherine Heigl by Bob D'Amico/ABC
Senior editors Matt Mitovich and Mickey OConnor answer your questionsTell me that Hart Hanson is not seriously thinking of having Booths brother Jared and Bones get into a relationship with each other SharonMatt Relationship can be such a nasty word Brennan most certainly will be attracted to the upstanding Navy officer I am assured and he to her But really how en fuego can these two get in just the two episodes Brendan Fehr is signed on for I need at least four outings to get my own mojo workingNow that we know the paper NCIS Vance shredded is important Im curious does its significance relate to the content of the document actually shredded on screen it can be read in large part if you pause on it on HD or will it relate to something different MicheleMatt In this video from TV Guides after-Emmys party Rocky Carroll confirms that the doc contained top-secret information that could be incriminating for Vance He decided that if hes going to
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The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards by Tim Ogier/ABC
The tribe has spoken. ABC's presentation of the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards averaged 12.24 million viewers on Sunday night, marking a six percent dip from last year's telecast — which itself delivered the show's smallest audience since 1990 (12.3 million). What new not-so-superlative this earns the latest Emmys has yet to be number-crunched.Leading into the show, Jimmy Kimmel's Big Night of Big Stars special did 4.63 million, a 43 percent plunge from last year's regular Emmys Countdown hour.Helping take the wind out of Emmys' sails was NBC's NFL game between the Cowboys and Packers. That face-off averaged 19.17 million viewers from 8 to 11 pm, nearly doubling the audience of the Chargers-Patriots game that was pitted against last year's awards show. — Matt Mitovich
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Bryan Cranston by Mathew Imaging/WireImage.com
The 60th annual Emmy Awards set out to honor TV history and ended up making a little of its own. As expected, AMC's stylishly adult 60s-era drama Mad Men took home the best drama prize, the first ever for a basic cable series. The upstart channel delivered a much more shocking triumph in Bryan Cranston's surprise (but well-earned) win for Breaking Bad. "She's bald, too," marveled the actor, who shaved his head to play Walter White, a cancer-ravaged teacher-turned-meth dealer. Best known for outrageous comedy roles like the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston is a well-liked star who was considered an underdog in a strong field that included fellow AMC leading man Jon Hamm of Mad Men, House's Hugh Laurie (amazingly, still empty-handed), Dexter's brilliant Michael C. Hall, In Treatment's brooding Gabriel Byrne and Boston Legal's showboating James Spader.
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Conan O'Brien by Mathew Imaging/ WireImage.com
1. Best diss: "At this point I was planning on doing a few more jokes, but Katherine Heigl told me my material wasn't Emmy worthy." – Conan O'Brien.2. Best demand: Kathy Griffin ordering everyone to "GET UP!" for Don Rickles. Can we get Kathy to host next year?3. Most miscast: Josh Groban performing a medley of 30 of TV's most famous theme songs. Granted, he did Cartman and his Baywatch run superbly well, but couldn't they just have played these songs? 4. Most heartwarming tribute: Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts and Brad Garrett yelping Frank Barone's famed "Holy crap!" as part of TV's most memorable catchphrases. RIP, Peter Boyle.5. Most awkward opening: Wanting to bring "reality" to the Emmys, the five hosts — Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Jeff Probst — opened with absolutely nothing prepared and it was positively painful. Did no one get the memo that these guys aren't stand-ups? Plus, it didn't help to follow Oprah and to be ...
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