The September 18 Emmys are still a long time away, but the nominations were announced last night. Here’s our expert analysis on who will win, who should win, and who got snubbed.
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men
Who Will Win: Mad Men. This is there year to break through the Breaking Bad wall. Boardwalk has a strong chance as well, but I think the boys at SCDP are going to be happy come Emmy night.
Who Should Win: Friday Night Lights. The final season of FNL was not its best (season 1 or 4), but was still very good, and getting a symbolic win in its last season would be great to see. Don’t hold your breath though.
Who Was Snubbed: Justified. Seriously, how was this show forgotten?
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Big Bang Theory
Glee
Modern Family
The Office
30 Rock
Parks and Recreation
Who Will Win: Too Close to Call. This is a really tight category, where any of these shows could take the statue, but…
Who Should Win: Parks and Recreation. Hands down the funniest show with the best cast. The show went nuts this year, with no weak episodes, and if it doesn’t win, I’ll go on a hunger strike (or probably just be mad for a few days).
Who Was Snubbed: Community. The show had a few brilliant episodes this season, including a few that were light on the wacky humor that helped build the shows fanbase, but heavy on tremendously done storytelling. A shame it didn’t get a nod.
BEST DRAMA ACTOR
Timothy Olyphant, Justified
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Who Will Win: Jon Hamm. It’s his year to hold the statue before Cranston comes back. And honestly, if you saw the episode “The Suitcase,” you’ll have no problem agreeing with me.
Who Should Win: Kyle Chandler. Like FNL in the Drama Series category, this would be symbolic, though Chandler was pitch perfect in his final season as Coach Taylor, and deserves it outright.
Who Was Snubbed: This category is surprisingly tight. Not much you can argue here.
BEST DRAMA ACTRESS
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law
Mariska Hargitay, SVU
Mirelle Enos, The Killing
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Who Will Win: Elisabeth Moss. If you saw Hamm in “The Suitcase,” you know Moss deserves an Emmy for her work too. She’s past due, and this will be her year.
Who Should Win: Connie Britton. If I had a vote, I’d vote for Moss, but Britton spent five years doing phenomenal work as Tammy Taylor, and it’s sad to see her come away from it all empty handed.
Who Was Snubbed: January Jones, Mad Men. I’m not the biggest January Jones fan, and Betty didn’t have much to do this season, but when she was on screen, the whole mood of the scene changed. Betty was fascinating to watch this year, thanks in large part to Jones.
BEST COMEDY ACTRESS
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope
Amy Poehler, Parks & Recreation
Who Will Win: Amy Poehler. Tina Fey might surprise, but I think this is Poehler’s year. She was very good all season, and I think that will be hard to ignore.
Who Should Win: Amy Poehler. Seriously. She was great.
Who Was Snubbed: Alison Brie, Community. Annie is one of the sweeter, more fun characters on TV right now. Just watch her try and be someone else in the bar night episode, you’ll see what I mean.
BEST COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Steve Carell, The Office
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Louie C.K., Louie
Who Will Win: Steve Carell. He hasn’t won an Emmy yet for playing his most iconic roll, and this is the last chance. Voters won’t forget that.
Who Should Win: Louie C.K. It seems like an odd nomination, but it’s sort of Louie‘s consolation prize.
Who Was Snubbed: Joel McHale, Community. The longer he’s on Community, the better he’s getting.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY
Chris Colfer, Glee
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
Ed O’Neill, Modern Family
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Who Will Win: Ty Burrell. It’s gotta be someone from Modern Family, and it might as well be the most consistently funny.
Who Should Win: If not Burrell, Eric Stonestreet. After Phil, Cam is among the funniest characters on TV.
Who Was Snubbed: A long list here, including Danny Pudi, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Rainn Wilson, all of whom did fantastic work this season on shows that were not Modern Family.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Josh Charles, The Good Wife
Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
Walton Goggins, Justified
John Slattery, Mad Men
Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age
Who Will Win: John Slattery. Like I said, it’s Mad Men’s year to break through the Breaking Bad wall.
Who Should Win: Walter Goggins or Peter Dinklage. Both were fantastic, but will certainly be forgotten come voting time.
Who Was Snubbed: Not to bring in more Mad Men, but the more the show has gone on the more I like Vincent Kartheiser as Pete, who has yet to get a nomination.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY
Jane Lynch, Glee
Betty White, Hot in Cleveland
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
Who Will Win: Kristen Wiig. This will be her anointment into stardom, much the same way Tina Fey (and hopefully Amy Pohler) got her first Emmy en route to a successful movie career. She deserves it too.
Who Should Win: Julie Bowen. Claire isn’t a likable character without her.
Who Was Snubbed: Rashida Jones, Parks and Recreation. Poor, beautiful Anne.
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Margo Martindale, Justified
Michelle Forbes, The Killing
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Who Will Win: Christina Hendricks. This is a really tight category full of deserving actresses, but she’ll have the Mad Men luck behind her.
Who Should Win: Margo Martindale. If you’ve watched Justified, you know why.
Who Was Snubbed: No one here. Fantastic group of actresses.
OUTSTANDING MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Cinema Verite
Downton Abbey
The Kennedys
Mildred Pierce
The Pillars of the Earth
Too Big to Fail
BEST VARIETY SERIES
The Colbert Report
Conan
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Real Time with Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live
OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
Antiques Roadshow
Undercover Boss
OUTSTANDING REALITY COMPETITION
The Amazing Race
American Idol
So You Think You Can Dance
Top Chef
Good news today for fans of Manic Pixie Dream Girls and bad news for fans of White Sox-loving cops. With the fall season coming to a close and network upfronts on their way, Fox has picked up four new shows, including The New Girl, a Zooey Deschanel vehicle that features Mrs. Ben Gibbard as a suddenly single teacher who moves in with three guys. Also picked up were J.J. Abrams’ Alcatraz, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, and a Bones spin-off, Finder. To make room, the network is dropping poor performers Breaking In, The Human Target, Lie to Me, Traffic Light, and Sean Ryan’s cop drama The Chicago Code. Rumor is the rest of their lineup will be filled with shows with singing and Seth McFarlane. [Ed. Note: That was a startlingly accurate joke]
It’s that time of year again when everyone gets nervous that their favorite show that no one watches is going to get cancelled. To help ease (or feed) your fears, we’ve come up with this handy list and scale to help you out. The scale is 0-10, with 0 meaning the show is gone, 5 meaning it’s on the fence, and 10 meaning it’s a sure bet to return. So without further ado, here we go:
What started out as a chaotic, melodramatic show, Parenthood has become one of the best ensemble dramas on TV. It’s no coincidence that its gotten better as executive producer Jason Katims wrapped up Friday Night Lights, and any fan of the football drama that isn’t watching Parenthood needs to do so immediately. That aside, the strong ratings opposite CBS’ popular The Good Wife and the critical acclaim (rare for an NBC drama in recent years) will probably come back for a third season, even though there hasn’t been a renewal yet.
Surprised to see this one on here? The show hasn’t been renewed yet as FOX and the show’s studio, NBC Universal are haggling over contracts, but the long running show has ratings to back it up. Ultimately the biggest issue for TV fans is whether or not House will still be quality entertainment for another season or two. I love the cranky doctor as much as the next guy, but after seven seasons, the jokes are stale and the insane medical crisises aren’t exciting. House will be back, rest assured, but maybe its time to start thinking about pulling the plug.
For a show that most people didn’t like at first, it has steadily improved as its become less and less reliant on Matthew Perry making sour faces and brought the excellent supporting cast into the spotlight a bit more. The show has been ABC’s best new comedy, despite airing opposite American Idol and frequently after low rated Modern Family reruns. This isn’t a perfect show, but there’s potential, especially if its paired with Cougar Town, which shares a similar quirky vibe. If ABC finds something better, it’ll get the axe, but if not, expect to see it on the lineup in the fall.
Shawn Ryan had a rough fall with Terriers, and his cop drama on FOX hasn’t exactly done stellar this spring. Still, the show has been slowly getting stronger and has been up against lighter, popular comedies on CBS, and FOX really needs it. The network has had a rough stretch when it comes to new dramas in the past few years, and their two popular franchises in the genre, House and Bones have lost the shine they had a few years ago. It wouldn’t be uncharacteristic of the network to drop The Chicago Code and start fresh in the fall with four new dramas, but the prevailing notion is that unless something better comes along, you’ll hear more ridiculous statements about the White Sox being better than the Cubs.
To be clear, Perfect Couples isn’t a good show, but Outsourced is atrocious. The former should be cancelled because it isn’t fresh or entertaining enough to watch week to week, and the latter has spent an entire television season insulting smart viewers and the entire nation of India with jokes about diarrhea and culture clashes. The two shows are the weak links in NBC’s three hour comedy block, but they aren’t necessarily signs that the experiment failed. 10:00 is a good spot for 30 Rock, and renewals for Community and Parks and Recreation have proven they work in their time slots. This is ultimately an issue of quality instead of quantity, but NBC will probably run for cover and put an hour long show back in at 10. Despite this fact, it’ll be nice to get rid of Outsourced and barely noticeable that we’ll be rid of Perfect Couples.
Since Mad Men is traditionally a late summer-early fall show, it already feels like forever since its been on. Making matters worse, AMC and show creator Matthew Weiner have been engaged in heated contract talks to keep the show runner attached to the hit series. Today brought both good news and bad news, with AMC announcing it had authorized production on the show, with early 2012 as an air date. The only hitch is that Weiner doesn’t have a deal yet, meaning the show could go on without his guidance. Apparently, AMC is asking for a few things, including reducing two minutes off the show’s run time to run more ads and cutting back on the screentime of some major characters, while Weiner is reportedly asking for somewhere in the range of $30 million, which would make him one of the highest paid showrunners in television. No matter whose side your on, it sounds like a mess that could jeopardize the quality of one of the best shows on television. Stay tuned for more.
Good news everyone! The Comedy Central reincarnation of Matt Groening’s Futurama has been renewed by the network for another 26 episodes to be split into two half seasons for another two years. All of the original cast will return to the show, which has been a big hit for Comedy Central, not only since it began airing new episodes last year, but also with reruns from the show’s original five seasons that aired on FOX. The renewal will take the show into 2013, meaning new episodes will be airing 10 years after its cancellation, which is pretty damn awesome.
The Steve Carell Exit Tour just got a little more star power. Will Ferrell has signed on to do a multiple episode arch on The Office as a visiting branch manager from Dunder-Mifflin’s main office. Quipped writer Paul Lieberstein, “We found Steve Carell when he was nothing but a movie star and we turned him into a television star. We are proud to continue The Office’s tradition of discovering famous talent, and we hope that once America gets a good look at Will, they’ll see what we see: tremendous raw sexuality.” Could Ferrell secretly be Michael Scott’s replacement? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. At least it’s a reunion of this winning team.
Most of our coverage of the Golden Globes came 
It’s that magic time of year again where the Golden Globe nominations come out and get us excited for the Oscar race, and remind us of all that good TV we’ve been watching. The big guns movie wise got a plethora of nods in the categories that mattered, though True Grit was shut out, perhaps because no one has seen it yet, though it hasn’t stopped some other awards. Thanks to the odd Musical or Comedy category at the Globes, we get a nomination for The Tourist, the “thriller” that got nearly universal critical scorn which made nothing at the box office. Boy, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sure are tastemakers! The TV nominations are also fairly predictable, but the results should be interesting. Ricky Gervais will host the ceremony January 16. The nominations:
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