Emmy Likes HBO a Lot

Not only did HBO dominate this year's Emmy nominations with 124, but, for the first time, cable networks got more total prime time nominations—220—than broadcast networks, which copped 206.

HBO's was showered mainly for its presentation of Angels in America, which has 21 chances to win, followed closely by The Sopranos with 20.

In second place, NBC had 65 nominations, led by The West Wing with 12. Will & Grace
and Frasier, in its last year, got nine nods each, while the much ballyhooed last season of Friends received seven. But Emmy snubbed Friends
and Frasier, too; neither was nominated for best sitcom.

CBS, the broadcast network that won the most Emmys last year, was third with 44 nominations. Everybody Loves Raymond was CBS's leader, garnering nine nods, but the network's spurned miniseries, The Reagans,
scored seven noms for sister network Showtime. (As it turns out, if CBS had kept The Reagans on its air and received the same nominations, cable and broadcasting would have tied with 213.)

ABC, Fox and PBS were all in the same range—with 33, 31 and 27 nominations, respectively. UPN got four Emmy nods, all for ratings-challenged Star Trek: Enterprise, while The WB received two, for Everwood and Gilmore Girls.

Critical darling FX had only seven nominations, five for Nip/Tuck and none, surprisingly, for The Shield, which two years ago broke the basic-cable barrier with a best-actor win for star Michael Chiklis. USA Network received nine nominations, four of them for Monk. Bravo had four nominations, two for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Additional reporting by John Eggerton and Abbie Jean Sparks

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.