Emmy Nods

Best drama series: Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights, Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Mad Men.
As much as we would like to see Friday Night Lives recognized for five years of great drama, the last season wasn’t its strongest. Dexter peaked last season, Boardwalk Empire wasted most of its potential being boring and focusing on romance. The Good Wife is overrated, but good. The only season here that we missed was Mad Men’s, and that’s the likely winner. However, we would like to see it go to Game of Thrones for taking that story and putting it onscreen in the best, most creative, most memorable way possible. We think it improved on the first book. But none of these would be bad choices. This is one of the strongest lineups ever.

Best comedy series: Modern Family, 30 Rock, Glee, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, Parks and Recreation.
Obviously the best answer is Community….but it doesn’t seem to be there. Lame. The Office got better than last season but is still far from consistently funny. Same story for 30 Rock. Modern Family offered us the same stuff as last year. Glee was so inconsistent it hardly deserves to be nominated. Leeard’s choice of The Big Bang Theory is always a pretty good choice, and Ern is going to have to pick Parks and Rec. They are long shots, but we laughed more at these shows this season than all the other nominees combined. For consistency and laughs, these are our winners.

Drama actress: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife; Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men; Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU; Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law; Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights and Mireille Enos, The Killing.
Leeard’s pick is Mireille Enos from The Killing. Ern is rooting for Connie Britton of Friday Night Lights. That show needs to get at least one of the big awards.

Comedy actor: Steve Carell, The Office; Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory; Matt LeBlanc, Episodes, Louis C.K., Louie; Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory.
Leeard has to go with Jim Parsons, but is shocked and happy that Johnny Galecki was nominated. Very nice. This is Steve Carell’s last chance to win for The Office, but Ern would like to see Matt LeBlanc win for mocking himself on Episodes and single-handedly making that show worthwhile. Seriously, without him there was no reason to watch it.

Drama actor: Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights; Michael C. Hall, Dexter; Hugh Laurie, House; Timothy Olyphant, Justified.
Both bloggers agree: Kyle Chandler. Mainly because this is Friday Night Lights’ final season and, also, FINALLY. Timothy Olyphant is hot though. But that’s reward enough.

Comedy actress: Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie; Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation; Laura Linney, The Big C; Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope; Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly.
Probably Melissa McCarthy. Leeard watches Mike & Molly and assures Ern that she is funny in that. It’s not that great of a show, but she makes it better. She’s that show’s Matt LeBlanc. Ern liked her in Bridesmaids and is fine with her winning for her TV show.

Supporting drama actor: Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age; John Slattery, Mad Men; Alan Cumming, The Good Wife; Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones; Josh Charles, The Good Wife; Walton Goggins, Justified.
Alan Cumming is one of Ern’s top 50 favorite actors (yep, we are making that list soon), and he brings a lot of fun to The Good Wife. That’s Ern’s pick. Leeard is going with Peter Dinklage, because she loves him. Ern approves and is almost ashamed that she isn’t rooting for Tyrion. He slapped Joffrey! What’s wrong with Ern, seriously?

Supporting comedy actor: Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family; Ed O’Neill, Modern Family; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family; Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men; Chris Colfer, Glee.
Chris Colfer takes a well-written character that was sometimes annoying and unsympathetic this season and makes us still shed tears for him and laugh with him. He’s got charisma and talent and Ern is very impressed. His version of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" has gotten a lot of play on her iPod. Plus, those Glee kids work hard. All those dance routines? Summer tours? Singing? Hard. As for the Modern Family people? All are good, but they are equally funny and hard to choose from. Leeard refuses to answer out of protest for Community and Cougar Town. (Silly Leeard, there aren't enough gay characters on those shows!)

Supporting comedy actress: Julie Bowen, Modern Family; Sofia Vergara, Modern Family; Jane Lynch, Glee; Betty White, Hot in Cleveland; Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live; Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock.
Obviously Kristen Wiig.

Supporting drama actress: Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife; Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire; Christine Baranski, The Good Wife; Michelle Forbes, The Killing; Margo Martindale, Justified; Christina Hendricks, Mad Men.
As good as Kelly Macdonald always is, we are going to have to go with Michelle Forbes.

Reality competition: So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Project Runway.
Duh, So You Think You Can Dance. It won’t win, but it should.

Reality host: Jeff Probst, Survivor; Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance; Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race; Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars; Ryan Seacrest, American Idol.
Leeard picks Cat Deeley. It’s not even a competition in her mind. One of her life goals is to have Cat Deeley call her “Darling.” Ern thinks Cat Deeley is extremely annoying. Ryan Seacrest is charming, makes the contestants look good, and is operating at the top of his game. As much as Ern hates American Idol, he’s her pick.

Variety, music or comedy series: The Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, Conan, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Leeard picks SNL and Ern picks The Daily Show. And one day, she will marry Jon Stewart. How long do wives live, anyway?

More comments:

Ok, first of all, what’s so great about Mad Men, a show that’s managed to lose one of the bloggers not once, but three times? Three times she has tried to get into it, each time picking up where she left off. Even the blogger who likes it isn’t remotely caught up. We actually have different taste in shows a lot of the time, and the fact that this can’t legitimately snag either of us makes us question whether it’s just dull awards fodder. Then again, we didn’t see this season. This season might have been great and the show might just be one of the biggest slow-burners in TV history.

We aren’t upset that Lea Michele got no love. Her character was flat, underused, and poorly written this season. And we know that she will get the award next year when she exits Glee with Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith after the third season. We are also not upset that True Blood was ignored. Lots of overacting and suckage on that show last season.

Baffled by the complete lack of Fringe. This was that show’s strongest season, and that guy playing Walter/Walternate is genius. Also missing: The Walking Dead. We are unsurprised and displeased by the snubbing of everyone on Parenthood for acting. The Vampire Diaries is entertaining enough to at least get a best drama nomination, but it’s not really awards material and the other shows were so strong this season. Breaking Bad is ineligible this year, so that's why we're not complaining about that (and we would have been).