For Primetime Emmy Nods, The Joy of Six?

At the crack of dawn tomorrow in North Hollywood, "Grey's Anatomy's" Chandra Wilson and "Big Bang Theory's" Jim Parsons will stand in front of a gaggle of celebrity-suck-up-show hostesses, bleary-eyed reporters and eager junior publicists, and historically announce six Primetime Emmy nominees for best drama series and six more for best comedy series. They will have been chosen by popular vote of the entire TV academy membership.

Wilson and Parsons also will tick off six nominees apiece for best lead actor, lead actress, supporting actor and supporting actress, for both comedy and drama series, rounding out series "glam" categories.

The television academy added the sixth nominee to placate critics of its decision to dump exclusive "blue-ribbon judge panels" that formerly chose nominees. Those critics say the change back to voting by the whole academy -- which includes everyone from makeup artists and directors to TV stars -- will drum out "small-fry contenders" such as AMC's "Breaking Bad," which last year took home an Emmy for best drama-series actor.

With any luck, those critics are right.

Since the Emmys were launched in 1949, five nominees have competed in each of the categories, as God intended, as has been good enough for the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

But back in January the TV academy announced it was bumping the number of nominees to six in these above-mentioned derbies. The academy's board had given the idea a big thumbs up at a meeting. Also getting a resounding endorsement: scrapping the "blue ribbon" judging panel process by which nominees were determined, and reverting back to pre-2006 rules, in which noms are chosen by popular academy vote.

Critics howled in protest.

The purpose of the judging panels was "to help small-fry contenders like 'Breaking Bad,' " explained one such critic: Emmy navel gazer extraordinaire Tom O'Neil.

O'Neil literally wrote the book on the Emmys, called, appropriately, "The Emmys," published by Penguin Putnam. Now he blogs about trophy shows for his TheGoldDerby.com, which the Los Angeles Times bought a few years back.

"To use a popular ballot will obviously result in just the most popular shows being nominated," O'Neil complained to The TV Column.

Which, frankly, is exactly what CBS -- this year's Emmys broadcaster -- and the other broadcast networks need to see. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox take turns airing the trophy show: