By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, July 20, 2007

HOLLYWOOD, July 19

"The Sopranos," the HBO mob drama that angered and intrigued fans with its inconclusive, cut-to-black finale, got a lot of love from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, receiving 15 Primetime Emmy Award nominations -- the most for any series on any network.

Recognition for the show included nods to stars James Gandolfini, who played the sociopath mob boss, and Edie Falco, who played his pragmatic wife.

But two westerns -- both miniseries -- topped the list of Primetime Emmy nominations announced Thursday morning. HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" received 17 nominations, and AMC's first stab at the genre, "Broken Trail," had 16.

Newcomers scored big this year, thanks to a change in how the academy chooses nominees.

NBC's paranormal drama "Heroes," ABC's telenovela adaptation "Ugly Betty" and NBC's "SNL"-esque sitcom "30 Rock" were among the beneficiaries of the change in the voting procedure. It's now a sort of "Dancing With the Stars" process. Nominees in all the best-comedy and best-drama races -- including best show and all acting competitions -- are picked by combining the votes of judges in so-called blue-ribbon panels (populated, detractors say, with older members who are slow to recognize newcomers) and the general academy membership.

"The real good news today is that about half of the contenders in these main categories are newcomers," said Tom O'Neil, author of "The Emmys," the definitive book on all things Emmy-related. He noted that the streak of older shows that are nominated and win year after year has tended to make the Emmy Awards ceremony look like a repeat broadcast.

"Ugly Betty," based on a Colombian telenovela, received 11 nominations, including one for star America Ferrera, making it the second-most-nominated series. On its heels was "30 Rock" with 10 nominations, including best-acting nods to Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

In the best-comedy race, "Ugly Betty" and "30 Rock" join HBO's "Entourage," CBS's "Two and a Half Men" and last year's winner, NBC's "The Office."

If "Sopranos" is named best drama series when the Emmy trophies are handed out Sept. 16, it would be the first time a drama series won that race after going off the air, according to O'Neil, a columnist for the awards Web site The Envelope, which is hosted by LATimes.com.

In the best-drama-series derby, last year's winner, Fox's "24," was snubbed -- deservedly so, some critics say. Also snubbed: ABC's "Lost" -- ironic given that the show has been credited with helping push the change in the nominations process. Last year, TV critics screamed loud and long when "Lost" wasn't nominated for best drama, after which the academy changed its voting model.

Instead, "The Sopranos" and "Heroes" are playing in a field with "House," "Boston Legal" and "Grey's Anatomy."

"Grey's" got some good news after a very bad year public-relations-wise, in which cast member Isaiah Washington was dumped after twice using an anti-gay slur. The hot docs drama nabbed a hefty 10 nominations, including nods for supporting cast members Katherine Heigl, Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh and T.R. Knight (the alleged target of Washington's slur). None of the lead actors, including Washington, was nominated.

"30 Rock" star Baldwin also had a lousy year PR-wise, after a recorded phone call -- in which he screamed at his daughter -- was released to the media. Baldwin's daughter lives with Kim Basinger, his ex-wife, with whom he has been in a protracted court battle. But unlike Washington, Baldwin got an Emmy nomination -- the sixth of his career. And he's considered the odds-on favorite to win; his competition is last year's winner, Tony Shalhoub of USA's "Monk," Ricky Gervais of HBO's "Extras," Steve Carell of "The Office" and Charlie Sheen from "Two and a Half Men."

Joining Ferrera as nominees for best comedy actress are last year's winner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus of CBS's "New Adventures of Old Christine," Felicity Huffman of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," "30 Rock's" Fey, and Mary-Louise Parker of Showtime's "Weeds."

Gandolfini runs in a pack with Hugh Laurie, star of Fox hit "House"; James Spader of ABC's "Boston Legal"; Denis Leary of FX's "Rescue Me"; and last year's winner, Kiefer Sutherland of "24."

Falco's competition includes last year's winner, Mariska Hargitay of NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"; Minnie Driver of FX's "The Riches"; Patricia Arquette of NBC's "Medium"; Sally Field of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters"; and Kyra Sedgwick of TNT's "The Closer."

Sedgwick, along with "Two and a Half Men" star Jon Cryer, announced the glam-category nominations on TV from academy headquarters in North Hollywood.

The nation's most popular TV show, Fox's "American Idol," could become the biggest Emmy loser ever on awards night. The singing competition, which previously was nominated 22 times but never won, will have seven chances this year to break that streak.

If the reality series goes 0 for 7, however, it will dethrone the record-holding "Bob Newhart Show," O'Neil says. That sitcom, in which Newhart played a Vermont innkeeper, never won despite 25 nominations.

On the other hand, Fox's ooh-it's-from-Steven-Spielberg! reality series, "On the Lot," received just one nomination -- for best title music.

A full list of nominations is available on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Web site, Emmys.com.

By network, HBO once again led the pack with a total of 86, followed not closely by ABC with 70 and NBC with 69.

Ironically, NBC's newly named co-chairman, Ben Silverman, bagged himself 24 nominations Thursday -- tying PBS, nearly matching Fox's 28 nods and beating all cable networks except HBO. Silverman was a producer before joining NBC's staff in late May; among his programs are "Ugly Betty" with its 11 noms, "The Office" with nine and Showtime's crunchy-gravel drama "The Tudors" with four.

When it hired Silverman, NBC traded in Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, whose programming choices landed the network those 69 nominations -- a whopping 22 more than last year, by far the biggest year-to-year improvement of any network. It would appear the TV academy is more impressed with Reilly than NBC was.

* * *

Back in Beverly Hills at Summer TV Press Tour 2007, CBS handed out bags of peanuts for its Q&A session on returning series "Jericho."

The end-is-near drama about residents of a cloyingly quaint Kansas town after a nuclear mushroom cloud appears on the horizon did not get a pickup for a second season. When fans found out in May, they sprang into action and, egged on by Nutsonline.com, began to pummel CBS suits with tons of protest peanuts, which are not nuts, by the way.

This was supposed to be a reference to the "Nuts!" line delivered by Jericho's resident hottie Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, in response to a demand for surrender from a formerly peaceful town located down the road a spell.

Critics, many of whom have been holed up in the Beverly Hilton Hotel for more than a week, were not impressed by peanuts and sat through the session with murderous "Why not cashews?" looks in their eyes.

"If you guys had been asked what the viewers should send to CBS . . . what would you guys have sent?" one critic finally asked.

"Snakes," Ulrich said without missing a beat.

"Strippers!" cast mate Lennie James chimed in.

"Little-people strippers," actress Ashley Scott added for reasons not entirely clear.

"Strippers that bounce," James said, improving on the theme.

James said they thought it might be a good idea to try to insert into each episode a line fans could rally around, a la "Nuts!" But this time they'd be smart enough to buy the online company that would cash in on fans' enthusiasm.

"That's Strippersthatbounce.com. That's what we're going to do -- so listen out for it."