Critics Have Spoken: 'Earl' and 'Office' Are In, 'Housewives' Are Out

By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, June 2, 2006

Television critics have jilted their former sweetie "Desperate Housewives," which last year they crowned the best television series.

"DH" received nary a nomination for the 22nd Annual Television Critics Association Awards.

Critics showered fourth-place NBC with 10 nominations -- the most of any network -- six of which are split between the comedies "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office."

They totally nicked CBS, the country's most watched network -- are you sensing the critic-viewer disconnect? -- with two nominations, and those for aged "Hallmark Hall of Fame" and "60 Minutes."

Former critics' darling HBO had to settle for just four nominations this time around. That's the It's Not TV network's puniest haul in a while. Most of those noms went to "The Sopranos," though "Big Love" is in the running for new program of the year.

Though critics write volumes about the end of comedy on television, they seem to be pretty optimistic about the genre: Three of the five nominees for best new program are comedies -- or five, if, like some of my friends, you think "Big Love" and Fox's "Prison Break" are hilarious.

The other nominees in that derby are Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" and NBC's aforementioned "Earl."

The mostly male TCA membership did not show much love to women this year. Only two actresses received nominations: Lauren Graham of "Gilmore Girls" for best comedy performance and Kyra Sedgwick of TNT's "The Closer" for best drama performance.

Graham hasn't a prayer against Steve Carell of "The Office," Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report," Jason Lee of "Earl" and Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" -- partly because Graham isn't in a comedy, of which TCA was once aware, back at the turn of the century, when they nominated her series in the best-drama derby.

But last year "Gilmore Girls" was nominated for best comedy series and this year there's Graham's nom for comedic performance. Either this show's gotten funnier or the critics' sense of humor has gotten darker.

Sedgwick hasn't a much better chance against Alan Alda of NBC's "The West Wing," James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," Hugh Laurie of Fox's "House" and Kiefer Sutherland of Fox's "24."

Replacing "Desperate Housewives" as best program of the year will be ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" or "Lost," "The Office," "The Sopranos" or "24."

All but "The Office" are also up for best drama series, because the TCA believes that any show worth nominating once is worth nominating twice. And the only reason "The Office" isn't joining them is because even the TV critics couldn't bring themselves to call that show a drama.

So "The Office" is also nominated for year's best comedy series, along with "The Daily Show," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Earl" and NBC's "Scrubs."

PBS bagged seven nominations, after mopping up in the news and information category with nominations for "American Masters: Newhart," "Broadway: The Golden Age," "Frontline" and a separate nomination for "Frontline: Country Boys."

No, I cannot explain it.

Also in that race is "60 Minutes."

"High School Musical," that Disney Channel phenomenon you're tired of hearing about, is up for best children's program, as are Nickelodeon's "Dora the Explorer" and "Nick News," Cartoon Network's "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" and PBS's "Sesame Street."

And, finally, TCA's Heritage Award will be given to "Hallmark Hall of Fame," "The West Wing" or "Will & Grace."

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Kimberly Dozier, the CBS correspondent critically wounded by a car bombing in Iraq on Monday, started communicating with her family and doctors yesterday and asked what had happened to her two crew members.

CBS's British cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were killed in the attack, as were a soldier and a translator.

"She is sharp as a tack, really . . . she knows where she is, she knows the questions to ask. One of the very first questions she asked was how her teammates were," her father, Benjamin Dozier, said in an interview with CBS correspondent Sheila MacVicar on the "CBS Evening News" last night.

Dozier's family and doctors had decided that if she asked about the two men she should be told what happened, CBS News rep Kelli Edwards told The TV Column.

"You could tell it upset her," her mother, Dorothy Dozier, said during the interview with MacVicar. "She kind of closed her eyes."

Edwards declined to discuss the incident "to protect her privacy because it was an emotional moment."

Dozier was flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Tuesday with head and lower body injuries. Her family and boyfriend arrived the next day. When she first met with her family, Dozier was less sedated than she had been and wrote her comments and questions on paper because she was on a ventilator. Her condition was still critical but stable.

Kept less private by CBS News was the ceremony held Thursday at London's Heathrow Airport for the families and colleagues who'd come to meet the flag-draped caskets containing the bodies of Douglas and Brolan.

Portions of the event were broadcast on the "CBS Evening News," including shots of Linda Douglas, the distraught wife of Paul Douglas, and his daughter, Joanne.

"I'm going to miss him so," said a choked-up Linda Douglas.

"So many kind people have sent so many kind messages from around the world and stories that we never even heard and it just shows that he didn't just touch our hearts he touched the hearts of so many people," Joanne wept.

The report also included close-ups of CBS News President Sean McManus telling the families, "I hope you will all know . . . that you will always be part of our family at CBS News."

And Mark Phillips, of CBS News in London, who told the mourners, "This, quite frankly, is the day we've always dreaded. This was always the day of the unspoken horror, and now it's happened. To their families and to Paul and James, welcome home."

The hospital would not give details of Dozier's treatment yesterday, saying CBS had asked to handle all further media inquiries, the Associated Press reported. Edwards told The TV Column she could not confirm Dorothy Dozier's comment on air that her daughter's legs had been "badly injured" and she would need rods in her legs.

Last night, McManus sent an e-mail to CBS News staff: "You will all be very pleased to hear that I just left Kimberly and she is really doing well. She is talking well, hasn't lost her sense of humor, and was disappointed that we had to meet in Landstuhl, Germany, instead of over a drink in New York City. Kimberly obviously has a very tough and long road ahead of her, which she understands, but I'm confident that she will come through this and will again be one of the best reporters CBS News has."

The CBS Web site said Dozier may be transported to a medical facility in the States in the next couple of days.

Dozier had been traveling in an armored Humvee with a U.S. military convoy in Iraq on a story for a Memorial Day broadcast when a car bomb exploded. At the time of the blast the CBS crew members were outside the vehicle and on the street with troops who had stopped to inspect a checkpoint; they were wearing helmets, flak jackets and protective eyeglasses.