Round and Round the Critics Go. Where They'll Stop . . . Won't Be CBS or Fox

As best we can figure, the Television Critics Association did not nominate "Friday Night Lights" for program of the year, though you may have seen that it had in earlier reports, and it was on the TCA ballot yesterday morning, though we've been assured that was a mistake. Or not. Oops on that.

The shows that are nominated are HBO's "John Adams," ABC's "Lost," AMC's "Mad Men," PBS's "[Golden Boy Documentarian]'s The War" and HBO's "The Wire."

Program of the year is not to be confused with outstanding new program of the year, whose contenders include AMC's "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" -- that's right, it's one of the year's best programs and one of the year's best new programs.

Are you keeping up with me? Anyway, also New and Possibly Outstanding are FX's "Damages," HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" and ABC's "Pushing Daisies," which, owing to the writers' strike, aired so few episodes it might better have been nominated as a miniseries.

Speaking of miniseries, this year's nominees for outstanding achievement in miniseries, movies and specials, according to the TCA ballot sent to members, are HBO's "John Adams," PBS's "Masterpiece: Cranford," "Masterpiece: Jane Austen Collection" and "[Golden Boy Documentarian]'s The War" and -- what's this? -- HBO's "A Raisin in the Sun"? But "A Raisin in the Sun" aired on ABC. No wonder critics liked it -- they thought it was on HBO!

What with the Hollywood writers' strike happening for 100 days in the middle of the broadcast networks' TV season but not the cable networks' TV season, which is, oh, anytime, broadcast programming fared very poorly in the TCA series nominations.

For instance, the critics' noms for best comedy series include Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," which stayed on the air during the strike, allegedly writerless, as well as Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" and NBC's "30 Rock" and "The Office."

Picks for best drama series include FX's "Damages," HBO's "The Wire," AMC's "Mad Men" and NBC's aforementioned not-nominated-for-program-of-the-year-but-definitely-good-enough-for-drama-program-of-the-year "Friday Night Lights" and, of course, ABC's "Lost."

In keeping with tradition, the network you most love to watch every year is cut by TV critics. For the past several seasons that distinction fell to CBS. But this year being Fox's very first ever as the country's most watched network, TV critics cut Fox in their nominations. But for good measure, they cut CBS again, too.

That's right, no nominations for "24" -- which stands to reason because it did not air this season. But "House," a darling of the TCA, also was snubbed. Too bad, because Hugh Laurie gives the best acceptance speeches. And by "best" we mean wildly better than anyone else's.

On the other hand, there are lots of nominations for "The Wire," one of those tough-as-nails HBO shows critics ingest in gulps to help them stomach the fact they cover an industry that includes programs such as "CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights" and "Cashmere Mafia."

"The Wire" is nominated in every category in which it was eligible: program of the year, outstanding achievement in drama, individual achievement in drama, and the Heritage Award. That, TCA elite reminded members, is to be awarded to a "long-running program with a track record of high achievement that made a lasting cultural or social impact." Given that hardly anybody watched "The Wire," it's hard to know what its cultural impact was, and given that it aired only five seasons, it's hard to reconcile the whole "long-running" thing. Particularly when you look at the other nominees in this category, including "M*A*S*H," "Saturday Night Live" and "Sesame Street" -- though what "Roots" is doing in there I'm sure I don't know, since it was hardly "long-running," except maybe for a miniseries. My head aches.