Awards & Recognition News

In an unprecedented move, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences posted online the top 10 finalists for nominations for the 60th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in the outstanding comedy series and drama series categories.

Among the top shows still being considered: Friday Night Lights.

The 10 drama contenders are Boston Legal, Damages, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Grey's Anatomy, House, Lost, Mad Men, The Tudors and The Wire.

The final five nominees in each category - which will be voted on and a winner announced at the Emmy Awards - will be released on July 17.

All we have to add is Go Panthers!

Despite being snubbed in the Best Actor category, Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler joined Katherine Heigl Sunday to present at the Emmy Awards.

Kyle Chandler, of course, had a memorable guest starring turn as Dylan Young, an ill-fated bomb squad member, on Grey's Anatomy, the show which Katherine Heigl stars on - and won Best Supporting Actress for later in the evening!

You'd think the most original depiction of the modern American family since The Sopranos would reel in countless viewers and a big sack full of Emmys.

Not so for Friday Night Lights.

Despite developing into the most dynamic, heartwearming drama on the small screen and garnering glowing praise from swooning critics and passionate fans alike, this gem still hasn't attracted the ratings or awards it deserves.

However, for what it's worth, Friday Night Lights has won Salon.com's Buffy Award, the fourth annual, given to the most underrated show out there (past winners are The Wire, Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica).

But don't take their word for it - or ours. Ask anyone who watches Friday Night Lights and you'll see it in their eyes how madly in love they are.

While so many programs mutate into the realm of perky, overstyled, bantering professionals - a shiny, idealized picture that either feels too giddily happy or too heavy, Friday Night Lights shows real Americans living real lives.

Week after week, they endure the indignities of frustrating jobs, grapple with narrow minded co-workers or neighbors, usher up laughter in spite of family arguments, and do the best with what they have.

While the Dillon High School Panthers football team wins or loses, the true heart of the story lingers, like life so often does, somewhere in between.

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It may have been blanked from the major categories, but Friday Night Lights picked up an Emmy for best casting when the creative arts Emmy awards were bestowed Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Austin's Beth Sepko was honored for location casting, reports today's Austin American-Statesman, with Linda Lowy and John Brace both taking home Emmys for the show's primary casting.

This is nice, but ow a series can win best casting while no members of its cast receive individual Emmy nominations is beyond us. It makes zero sense.

Friday Night Lights' cast was universally snubbed.

Nevertheless, the Central Texas-filmed series, as it enters its sophomore season, should have received Emmy consideration for best drama series and several acting nods, but it got only two nominations, for casting and directing.

The Primetime Emmys will be handed out Sunday, September 16, with Friday Night Lights nominated for best directing in a drama series. Peter Berg, who adapted FNL for TV, and helmed the pilot, is up for the award.

For the best casting in a drama series award, Friday Night Lights beat Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Tudors. Not bad for a show that earned high praise but low ratings its first season.

It's almost Emmy Awards week, which is great, except that perhaps the four best shows all year — Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire and The Shield — accumulated a meager six nominations... total.

To correct this injustice, Entertainment Weekly presents The Gluttys, given to the most egregious Emmy snubs of the year. Let's take a look...

Best Series, Drama
The nominees: Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, The Wire.
And the Glutty goes to... The Wire! It wasn't just the best drama of the year, it was perhaps the best drama of any year. An engrossing look at cops, crime, politics, and education, and how they intersect in ways we never imagined.

Best Actor, Drama
The nominees: Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), Eddie Izzard (The Riches), Ian McShane (Deadwood).
And the Glutty goes to... Kyle Chandler! Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose! Except, apparently, when it comes to the Emmys. Indeed, Kyle Chandler's snub is mind-boggling to many.

Best Actress, Drama
The nominees: Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Annabeth Gish (Brotherhood), Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica).
And the Glutty goes to... Annabeth Gish! As a cheating addict-politician's wife, Gish was last summer's biggest surprise. Well, second biggest, if you include Tuesday Night Book Club making it onto a network schedule.

Best Supporting Actor, Drama
The nominees: Jack Coleman (Heroes), Walton Goggins (The Shield), Gerald McRaney (Deadwood).
And the Glutty goes to... Walton Goggins! In a naked and raw performance (literally and figuratively), Goggins mesmerized as a cop haunted by his past.

Best Supporting Actress, Drama
The nominees: Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost), CCH Pounder (The Shield), Sonja Sohn (The Wire).
And the Glutty goes to... Elizabeth Mitchell! Katherine Heigl over her? Really? As fertility doctor Juliet, Mitchell was savvy, intelligent and complex — all the things that Emmy succeeds so well in overlooking.

The presenters at this year's Emmys will include a mix of former winners, current nominees and people who deserve great recognition, even if they didn't get it.

Among the snubbed was the amazing Kyle Chandler of NBC's Friday Night Lights, but he will be on hand to present.

So, too, will Hayden Panettiere of Heroes - a cheerleader who helped save the world - and even a network (NBC).

Past winners Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer will promote their new sitcom, Back to You. Jimmy Smits will plug his new Cane, while Kate Walsh will help boost Private Practice, her Grey's Anatomy spinoff.

Fox will present the Emmys on September 16. Ryan Seacrest of American Idol will host the event. Other presenters include The Office star Steve Carell, Jon Stewart, Kiefer Sutherland and the cast of Entourage - Jeremy Piven, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara.

Despite being a critical favorite, the debut season of NBC's Friday Night Lights failed to secure big ratings, consistently placing below 50 in the Nielsens chart.

Still, the network decided to renew it for a second season, confident that the series would grab a number of Emmy nominations this year.

However, when the nominees were announced last month, Friday Night Lights was snubbed in all major categories, only receiving nods for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series.

The show's Emmy blanking is sad, especially since earning major nominations could have helped boost its popularity. Nevertheless, Friday Night Lights executives are looking ahead.

"Obviously, it was a disappointment. It's a challenge for any first-year show to get a nomination. But it certainly doesn't change our perception of the show," said NBC executive vice president Erin Gough Wehrenberg.

Although scoring Emmy nominations after a difficult first season does not always mean more viewers - as evidenced by FOX's low-rated but Emmy award-winning comedy, Arrested Development - producers point instead to Hill Street Blues.

The 1980s police drama struggled in the beginning, but after capturing several Emmys, became a cultural sensation and lasted seven seasons.

The small but loyal fan base of Friday Night Lights is hoping the strong cast and well-developed characters will be enough to save the series, but there are some who remain doubtful, especially with the lingering perception that it is a show for sports fanatics.

According to John Rash, senior vice president at ad firm Campbell Mithun, the network's problem is one primarily of marketing.

"The Emmys got it wrong, but there are no do-overs, and NBC has got to look for another marketing tool to energize the deserving fan base for this show," he said. "It's got one more year to catch on, at most."

The network, in turn, acknowledges the problem and admits that viewers may have gotten the wrong idea about Friday Night Lights.

"We're altering the marketing message a little bit and selling elements of the show people may not have known were there," Wehrenberg said. "We're going to work hard to get the message out that the show is not entirely about football."