The Morning After: Emmy Nomination Reactions

Yesterday I presented reactions to the nominees in the eighteen categories I predicted. Now I’d like to take a quick look at the nominations overall, pointing out a few observations. FYI, this year I scored 68/106, or 64%. Last year, my percentage was inflated by guessing some of the easier variety and reality categories, but this year I didn’t do that, so therefore my score on these eighteen categories went up from 61% last year. My only perfect category this year was Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

- In the minor categories, get a load of these awesome nominees: “Bored to Death,” “Human Target,” and “The Pacific” in Best Main Title Design; “Human Target,” “Justified,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Warehouse 13” in Best Main Title Theme Music; and “Flash Forward,” “Lost,” “Psych,” and “24” in Best Music Composition for a Series.
- “Rescue Me” earns a nomination for “How Lovely to Be a Vegetable,” the weirdest song ever sung by Steven Pasquale as Sean in the “Disease” episode last season.
- The magnificent television presentation that was “Virtuality” got one nomination, for Best Special Visual Effects. It contends against two installments of “The Pacific.”
- A whole bunch of shows earned a whole bunch of acting nominations. Counting the guest categories, the totals are as follows: “Glee” (7), “Mad Men” (6), “Modern Family” (6), “30 Rock” (6), “Damages” (5), “The Good Wife” (5), “Lost” (4).
- Both “Mad Men” and “Glee” earned nominations in all four major acting categories.
- Plenty of double nominees this year, including Christine Baranski, Tina Fey (more than that, actually), Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, and Jon Hamm.
- Tony Shalhoub has now been nominated for every single season of “Monk.” I’m pretty sure the last person to do that, at least for a long-running show, was David Hyde Pierce, for “Frasier.”
- This is the first time in the show’s history that “Entourage” does not have a nominee in both (as well as either) the Best Supporting Actor and the Best Directing categories. After four successive Best Comedy Series bids, the show earned only one nod this year – for Best Sound Mixing.
- Anything else interesting about the nominees! I’m curious – post about it in the comments!

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the nominees. The most exciting inclusion by far is “True Blood” for Best Drama Series, and I’m not sure there’s anything else that quite comes close (besides Amy Poehler, which isn’t as surprising). If I were a “Friday Night Lights” fan, I’m sure I’d be ecstatic about it breaking into a couple of categories. It seems that there were most surprises this year than in the past – Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Andre Braugher, Sharon Gless, “Nurse Jackie” – but none of those are particularly that fantastic. And there are still so many snubbed performers, particularly Jenna Fischer and John Goodman, who seemed like good bets, and other programs altogether ignored like “Sons of Anarchy.” It’s bittersweet that Amy Poehler and “The Office” earn nominations while Nick Offerman and Jenna Fischer are ignored, since it’s abundantly clear that voters are aware of the shows’ existence. I’m hopeful that the pool of nominees this year can offer up some fun winners on August 29th.

Coming up here at TV with Abe: the top 25 Episodes of 2009-2010 begins next week, followed by the 4th Annual AFT TV Awards, my personal choices for the best of the season. After that, it will already be time for Emmy Winner Predictions!

Stick around through the summer – you won’t be bored!