For the First Time, Official Emmy Semifinalists -- and Two Basic-Cable Series Made the List

AMC's "Mad Men" and FX's "Damages" are among the 10 semifinalists for the Primetime Emmy Award for best drama series, bringing them one step closer to becoming the first basic-cable series to ever snag a best-series nomination.

For the first time, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences yesterday released the names of the top 10 vote-getters in the race to be among the five nominees for best drama series or the five for best comedy series.

The 10 drama series to receive the most votes from the membership of the TV Academy:

· ABCs' "Boston Legal"

· FX's "Damages"

· Showtime's "Dexter"

· NBC's "Friday Night Lights"

· ABC's "Grey's Anatomy"

· Fox's "House"

· ABC's "Lost"

· AMC's "Mad Men"

· Showtime's "The Tudors"

· HBO's "The Wire"

The inclusion of "Mad Men" and "Damages" is notable because, while pay-cable networks -- mostly HBO -- swim in nominations every year, a basic-cable series has yet to receive an Emmy nomination.

The 10 series to receive the most votes toward becoming one of this year's best-comedy nominees are:

· HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

· HBO's "Entourage"

· Fox's "Family Guy"

· HBO's "Flight of the Conchords"

· NBC's "The Office"

· ABC's "Pushing Daisies"

· NBC's "30 Rock"

· CBS's "Two and a Half Men"

· ABC's "Ugly Betty"

· Showtime's "Weeds"

Showtime's "Weeds," "The Tudors" and "Dexter" also are one step closer to making some news when Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth announce the nominees for the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in a pre-dawn clambake on July 17. No non-HBO pay-cable series has ever received a best-show nomination either.

TV Academy officials released the top-10 lists after two consecutive years in which the trophy show Web site TheEnvelope.com, run by the Los Angeles Times, did it for them.

"They wanted to control this; they realized they can't stop it," Tom O'Neill, the Web site's trophy-show guru who did the leaking, told The TV Column yesterday.

"The judges will start convening in North Hollywood [at TV Academy headquarters tomorrow] to look at sample episodes of the comedy and drama series," O'Neill continued. "They're not going to stop the flight of those judges from those screening rooms to their home computers" to post on Web sites "what is the list and what they thought" of the lists, O'Neill joked.

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Katherine Heigl will put on her trashiest red dress and attend Melanie's birthday party for her husband, Ashley -- oh wait, wrong melodrama. Let's try again:

Katherine Heigl says she will return to "Grey's Anatomy" in the fall, despite having publicly trashed the show's writers, because, "of course, absolutely; those people are like my family."

This is Hollywood-speak for "I'm under contract."

Yes, she's decided in favor of the Stout Denial Strategy.

Heigl, you'll remember, released a statement earlier this month saying she had decided not to enter herself in the competition for a Primetime Emmy nomination as best supporting actress in a drama series -- a category in which she was last year's surprise winner -- because "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention.

"In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such material," said Heigl, who believes that if you're going to nick someone, you might as well do it thoroughly.

The show's writers appear to have retaliated, in the form of "key show insider" comments placed in publications such as Entertainment Weekly, calling Heigl's comment "an ungrateful slap in the face to the very writers responsible for her Emmy win in the first place."

Heigl retaliated to the retaliation by allowing herself to be included among the nominees for a Teen Choice Award for "Choice TV Actress: Drama." Notice how the word "supporting" is not in the title, as it was in the Emmy category that she won last year. Some speculate -- okay, that would be me -- that now that she's a big movie actress, or at least a movie actress, Heigl did not think she should contend for a mere TV supporting-actress trophy. And yet somehow the prospect of being named "Choice TV Actress" is entirely in keeping with a thespian of her stature.

She's competing in the Teen Choice Awards against Blake Lively of "Gossip Girl," Hilarie Burton of "One Tree Hill," Leighton Meester of "Gossip Girl" and Sophia Bush of "One Tree Hill." Here's hoping Heigl wins because we can't wait to hear her acceptance speech:

Although I did not feel I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination, I certainly feel it was good enough for a made-up-for-TV trophy show trademarked by the 20th Century Fox studio airing on its Fox broadcast network. And since there is no integrity to this trophy competition, I did not need to make an effort to maintain it. Everybody wins.

And, of course, we are all atwitter, anticipating what the writers are going to do to Heigl's Izzie character next season in response to her crack about the quality of their work. Disfiguring accident, maybe?

Execs at ABC aren't any too pleased about Heigl's crack. ABC, by the way, is broadcasting this year's Primetime Emmy Awards. Wonder if she's expecting to be invited to be among this year's presenters.