Emmy Passes Up Britney for… Actresses
Ted and Barney weren’t the only ones to give Abby the receptionist the brushoff.
Britney Spears’ hyped two-episode appearance on How I Met Your Mother didn’t catch the eye of Emmy voters, who left her off their list of semifinalists for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, per the latest round of Emmy scoopage from the L.A. Times’ Gold Derby blog.
Spears shouldn’t feel too snubbed, thoughfellow twentysomething Mary-Kate Olsen, who played a pot-dealing proselytizer on Weeds, didn’t make the cut, either. And she’s been acting all her life!
But this year, only two under-40 thesps made the first cut, the relative young’uns being Sarah Silverman, who could be a two-time Emmy nominee thanks to her turn as a psycho fan on Monk, and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan, who made quite the impression as the Michael-liking “new Toby” on The Office.
In addition to needing way more experience, it also probably would have helped if Spears and Olsen had guest-starred on 30 Rock or Desperate Housewives. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences singled out three seasoned stars apiece from eachEdie Falco, Elaine Stritch and Carrie Fisher for shaking things up at NBC and elder Housewives Polly Bergen, Shirley Knight and Kathryn Joosten, the last of whom also won the Emmy in 2005 for her role as Lynette’s neighbor, Mrs. McClusky.
Also well-served by their sharp comedic chops were Christopher Guest regular Jane Lynch, who appeared in Two and a Half Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Vivica A. Fox and Ugly Betty’s Annie Potts.
On the masculine side of things, there’s a lot to like about the short list for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, despite the pitiful absence of Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie, any of the dudes from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Entourage’s Jeremy Piven…
Kidding! Of course Piven has the chance to win his third Emmy in a row for playing Ari Gold. The Office’s Rainn Wilson, Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer, How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris and Piven’s Entourage costar Kevin Dillon have their second shot in a row for a trophy, as well, but they’ll face some stiff competition from, among others, everyone’s favorite NBC page.
Jack McBrayer, who plays the infectiously funny Kenneth on 30 Rock is facing off against costar Tracy Morgan, as well as The Office’s John Krasinski, Weed’s Justin Kirk and Back to You’s Fred Willard, whose performance looks to be the only one the Academy singled out from the already canceled Fox sitcom.
On a more serious note, House’s Hugh Laurie, Rescue Me’s Denis Leary and defending champ James Spader of Boston Legal are back in the hunt for Lead Actor in a Drama, where they join Golden Globe winner Don Hamm of Mad Men, Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy and a host of captivatingly conflicted charactersDexter’s Michael C. Hall, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Riches’ Eddie Izzard and In Treatment’s Gabriel Byrne.
Holding down the fort for the woefully underwatched Friday Night Lights is best actor possibility Kyle Chandler, who proves that nice guys don’t have to finish last.
Speaking of overlooked, the fate of Battlestar Galactica (its Emmy fate, anyway) might really rest on President Roslin’s shoulders.
It’s not confirmed at the moment, but a tipster has indicated to Gold Derby that Mary McDonnell is a semifinalist for best actress in a drama…finally.
In all likelihood, her fellow competitors will be past winners Sally Field of Brothers & Sisters, Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU and Patricia Arquette of Medium; The Riches’ Minnie Driver and The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick, both nominees last year; Damages’ Glenn Close, Big Love’s Jeanne Tripplehorn (seeing as she’s Wife No. 1 and all), Saving Grace’s Holly Hunter and, possibly, Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men.
The blog has also confirmed seven of the semifinalists for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy (again nothing shocking here): 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin, The Office’s Steve Carell, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David, Golden Globe winner David Duchovny of Californication, Pushing Daisy’s Lee Pace, Monk’s Tony Shalhoub and Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Sheen.
Lindsay Not Asking for Your Consideration
Edie Falco, Elaine Stritch, Carrie Fisher, Vivica A. Fox, Sarah Silverman and the 35 other women who were good for a hearty laugh over the last year can rest easy.
Lindsay Lohan has decided not to submit herself for consideration at the upcoming 60th Annual Emmy Awards, despite being eligible for an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series trophy for the not-quite-60 seconds she spent on screen in the season finale of Ugly Betty.
“The appearance was brief,” Lohan’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, told the Los Angeles Times’ Gold Derby blog. “We made a decision to wait.”
To be fair, Lohan’s Betty-tormenting character will have at least five episodes to strut her stuff next season, so no one can say for certain that the comebacking actress won’t leave an Emmy-worthy comedic footprint on the ABC comedy in the future.
Also in the running in 2008 after submitting their names to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are Mary-Kate Olsen, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Sherri Shepherd, Heather Locklear and, speaking of much-needed positive moments in the spotlight, Britney Spears.
A couple days ago, Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl said she didn’t give herself a chance for a Supporting Actress Emmy repeat this year because of her character’s lack of meaty material this season.
The Force Is With…Bush?
Can President Bush possibly be more popular than Star Wars? Judging by last night's Deal or No Deal overall ratings: Yes.
A two-hour Chewbacca- and Carrie Fisher-graced episode of the NBC game show averaged 9.9 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research estimates.
Last week, a President Bush-graced episode averaged 10.1 million for a 21st place finish in the Nielsen weekly rankings released today.
Bush, 61, is the widely unpopular commander in chief, who pulled a 69 percent disapproval rating in the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, per PollingReport.com.
Star Wars, 30, is the widely popular movie that spawned a multibillion-dollar franchise.
If it makes Chewbacca, Fisher and the rest of the George Lucas gang feel better, last night's Deal did bettermuch betteramong all-important 18- to 49-year-old viewers than last week's, pulling an estimated 2.9 rating, compared to the barely there 2.0 generated by the Bush cameo.
Also, it was no Star Wars Holiday Special. Which is a blessing in itself.
Here are other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:
- Last year's May sweeps period began with 26 shows averaging at least 10 million viewers, and five shows cracking 20 million. This year's began with 21 shows hitting 10 million, and only twoTuesday's American Idol (first place, 24.7 million) and Wednesday's American Idol (second place, 23.2 million)surpassing 20 million.
- According to CBS, CBS killed on Thursday with Survivor: Micronesia (12th place, 12.9 million), CSI (fifth place, 17 million) and Without a Trace (10th place, 13.5 million).
- According to ABC, CBS keeled over on Thursday, losing the battle for young adults to its returning series Grey's Anatomy (sixth place, 16.4 million) and Lost (14th place, 12.1 million), except at 8 p.m., where Ugly Betty (32nd place, 8.5 million) got beat by Survivor, and left ABC resorting to CW-esque turns of phrase (i.e., "Betty ranked a strong #1 in the hour among its core audience of women 18-34.")
- NBC's The Office (40th place, 7.7 million) liked it better when it didn't have to go up against both CSI and Grey's Anatomy.
- The second hour of USA's WWE Monday Night Raw (5.1 million) was cable's top scripted show; MTV's The Hills (3.8 million) was its No. 1 unscripted show.
- Take heart, Hannah Montana, scandal hasn't killed Nick's Zoey 101 (3.6 million).
- This is how things are at the CW: The network was excited that the returning Gossip Girl (111th place, 2.5 million) posted its "third best" numbers in adults 18-34 and the aforementioned women 18-34.
- Not to douse Gossip Girl's third-hottest hot streak, but Nick's SpongeBob SquarePants averaged more viewers in the 8 p.m. Monday hour (2.7 million) than the CW drama.
- The CW's America's Top Model (84th place, 4.4 million) hit a season high in viewers, no qualifiers required.
- The season finale of the CW's noble Girlicious quest was so ginormous (112th place, 2.3 milliona season high), the show almost outdrew Monday's installment of Yo Amo Juan Querendon on Univision (110th place, 2.5 million).
- TV's highest-rated comedy among prized 18- to 49-year-old trend-setters was CBS' old-school, three-camera Two and a Half Men, which placed a lofty sixth in the demo, and 11th overall (12.9 million).
- There must be a lot of old young souls watching NBC's ER (41st place, 7.5 million), still a top 25 18-to-49 show after all these centuries.
- In the mainstream media's beloved network news race, NBC Nightly News' Flomax ads averaged 8 million viewers to ABC's 7.8 million and poor Katie Couric's 5.3 million.
Overall, CBS's scripted shows trumped Fox's Idol, with the Eyeball emerging as the week's most ogled network, averaging 9.2 million viewers.
Fox took second in viewers (9.16 million), and first in the 18-49 demo.
ABC (9.1 million) was third in viewers, and second in the demo. NBC (7 million) was NBC.
In cable, USA (2.7 million) was the top prime-time network, followed by TNT (2.7 million) and Disney (2 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
- American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 24.7 million viewers
- American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 23.2 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17.97 million viewers
- CSI, CBS, 17 million viewers
- Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 16.4 million viewers
- Desperate Housewives, ABC, 16.4 million viewers
- CSI: Miami, CBS, 14.4 million viewers
- NCIS, CBS, 14.2 million viewers
- Without a Trace, CBS, 13.5 million viewers
TV Press Tour '07: Weeds Is Growing!
Hello, my fellow TV addicts. WWK intern Michael Berner, aka Manna White, here to bring you the latest update on Weeds while Korbi and Jen are playing wedding crashers at Kristin’s nuptials in San Diego.
As you may remember, last season Weeds ended with almost the entire cast caught in a tight spot. The third season picks up directly where we left off and looks like it just might be the best year yet…or maybe I'm just overly excited by the preview they showed us. A good five minutes of nonstop laughter. By the way, we're getting 15 episodes this time around, a nice 90-minute bump up from last season!
Here are all the goods I got from the cast, including new additions Mary-Kate Olsen and Matthew Modine, at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour:
New Neighbors: Life in the small community of Agrestic is turned upside down when developers build a new community nearby, named Majestic. The new establishment brings in several fresh characters, including real estate magnate Sullivan Groff (Mathew Modine) and the good, Christian, girl-next-door Tara Lindman (Mary-Kate Olsen). Also, look for Carrie Fisher to pop up in an episode.
The High Life: Creator Jenji Kohan tells us this season can be summed up as “evolution of a gangster. [Nancy] will own what she does and will be comfortable in her skin with that role." She also says “this season is a return to family.” But don’t forget that kiss with Conrad in the season finale—romance is not dead on Weeds, and Nancy sleeps with several cast members this season.
Higher Power: Mary-Kate Olsen's character comes into the show, shacks up with Hunter Parrish’s character, Silas, and gets high on a little herb. But wait, isn’t she supposed to be an obedient, God-fearing young gal? Jenji says, "[Tara] is comfortable with her Christianity and her recreational drug use. We’re not necessarily poking fun at religion. We’re poking fun at the commerce of religion."
Happily Ever After: Weeds won’t end anytime soon, but when it does goes off the air, don’t expect it to end happily ever after. Jenji tells us, “Some people will be happy, others won’t. Is there ever a perfect happy ending? I don’t know…it’s a harsh life. I don’t think there will be that happy ending or tragic ending in Weeds. There’s always something in the middle.”
Little Boxes: Following in season two’s footsteps, season three features new versions of the popular theme song. Look for Randy Newman to open the season and later versions in Spanish and Russian. Also, Kinky performs a take on that little tune that's guaranteed to stay in your head for hours.
Well, my fellow Weeds fans, I can say for sure that this season is one you don’t want to miss. Tune in to Showtime Mon., Aug. 13, to check out the latest goings-on among our favorite potheads.
Also, don’t forget to check out Korbi’s Quickie for the next few weeks, as fellow intern Lindsey Osborne and I will be running the show! See you there!