HBO's Grey Gardens, AMC's Mad Men Next on List

NBC’s comedy series 30 Rock, heading into its fourth season this year, looks like a handy leader in Emmy kudos this year, garnering 22 nominations when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its preliminary awards slate this morning. That leadership position is not exactly a surprise – not only was the critically lauded episodic the big winner for outstanding comedy series last year, but the modestly viewed show has been posting year-on-year ratings gains. However, it does represent the most-ever nominations collected by a comedy series in a single year. Among the individual nominees were DP Matthew Clark; directors Millicent Shelton, Beth McCarthy and Todd Holland; and editor Ken Eluto. The show is again in the running for outstanding comedy series.
HBO’s Grey Gardens, an adaptation of the classic Maysles Brothers documentary, was nominated 17 times, including nods for director Michael Sucsy, editors Alan Heim and Lee Percy, DP Mike Eley, and production mixer Henry Embry and re-recording mixer Rick Ash as well as made-for-television movie. And AMC’s Mad Men earned recognition for DP Christopher Manley, director Phil Abraham, and editor Cindy Mollo along with its berth in the outstanding drama series category. Mad Men won the outstanding drama series category last year, a first for a basic-cable program.
HBO is out ahead of this year’s Emmy pack with a whopping 99 nominations, up from 85 in 2008. NBC led the non-cable pack, with 67 nominations compared to 55 at ABC, 49 at CBS, 42 at Fox, and 26 at PBS. CW scored two noms (one for Smallville and one for Everybody Hates Chris). Showtime and AMC are also major players, with 29 and 23 nominations, respectively.

For complete listings, visit the official Emmy Web page.