But "Lost" — which had won best drama series the previous year — submitted a lesser choice instead and got snubbed. Producers and ABC didn't want to accept the blame for playing the Emmy game poorly so they fingered the TV academy and screamed, "J'Accuse!" When reporting on the hubbub that followed, most journalists piled on top of ATAS, too, because, after all, the Emmys aren't the Oscars and must be punished for it.

When covering sports, journalists never blame the Olympics for failing to give the gold to an athlete performing poorly, but, strangely, nobody blamed "Lost" last year for stumbling in the Emmy race. That's because nobody understands the Emmy Award. It's the only showbiz prize that requires contenders to pay attention to the voting process and actually compete. When players don't, we witness The Susan Lucci Syndrome: careless contenders continuing to get snubbed when they hand in junk to judging panels. Lucci only won at last when she finally figured out what the judges wanted to see: a full-spectrum acting sample, not just a videotape full of diva screaming. Imagine that. Had that dawned on La Lucci earlier she might have avoided the public humiliation of being slapped by her peers 18 times.

Last year, when the "Lost" flapdoodle erupted, ATAS chiefs panicked and decided to slap the judges in turn, taking away half of the impact of their vote in the future.

ATAS decided to use the same voting model as "Dancing with the Stars," which combines an equal 50/50 mix of judges' scores with popular vote. If pressed, ATAS chiefs will probably deny that they copied it deliberately. But the result is the same. They decided to combine their judges' scores with results of the original popular vote of ATAS members, which concluded last Friday and resulted in the Top 10 finalist lists.

Panels convene at the academy's headquarters in North Hollywood over the next two weekends to vote on best drama and comedy series. Since actors are a pampered lot and must be coddled, they don't have to leave their private whirlpools to cast their votes for the acting races. They get shipped DVD screeners of sample episodes to watch at home where they vote after signing affadavits attesting that they've viewed everything. They don't have monitors standing over them to make sure they actually watched it all like the judges do who screen the drama- and comedy-series categories at the academy's panel sessions.

When academy accountants tally up those judges' scores, they'll mix them up with results of the original popular vote and — presto! — we'll have the nominees, which will be unveiled on July 19.

What's wrong with this new voting system is that it's probably going to result in the exact opposite of its intent, which was to quiet the screams of damning TV critics furious over the Emmys failing to nominate the obvious.

The problem with this new approach is that it screws over low-rated shows. This year the TV critics' darling happens to be one of them — "Friday Night Lights." If it doesn't get nominated for best drama series, expect all Emmy hell to break loose.

Ironically, "FNL" may be gypped out of a nomination thanks to a new voting system put into place in order to stop critics from screaming LAST YEAR.

"FNL" ended this TV season ranked 95th in the Nielsens. There's a good chance it might not even squeak into the Top 10. If it does, it's probably in the bottom rung — ranked, let's imagine, 8th, 9th or 10th. That means nearly all judges must rank it 1st, 2nd or 3rd among their 10 choices in order for it to be nominated after accountants mix the two forms of voting on a 50/50 basis.

That's unlikely because "FNL" producers submitted the pilot. It's good, but not the best episode of a series that most TV critics claim got better and even better as the season progressed.

Furthermore, let's be honest. "FNL" has lots of drawbacks. It's about sports. Do TV industry snobs care about high-school football in Texas? That's enemy territory to Hollywood liberals. George W. Bush country. It's possible that TV academy members don't even know "FNL" is on the tube. If so, we'll find out soon. No doubt lots of Emmy judges will tattle on what made the Top 10 this weekend in our message boards as they did last year. You can follow all of the excitement — and I recommend that you NOT miss it — RIGHT HERE!

We know that "Dexter" is definitely in the drama-series mix. Yep, somebody tattled already! We can safely assume that these shows made the cut, too: "The Sopranos," "House," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "24," and "Heroes." That's seven. It's also quite likely that "Brothers and Sisters" and "Rescue Me" made the cut. That's nine. Close behind are "The Tudors," "Boston Legal" and, not far behind those, "The Closer" and "Law & Order: SVU." Maybe "Rome"?

Hmmmm . . . Did "FNL" even make it into the Top 10? Stay tuned and check in with Gold Derby throughout the weekend — BOOKMARK THIS LINK — we'll be giving you frequent reports.

And remember to run and duck on July 19 when "Friday Night Lights" isn't among the five nominees for best drama. Nearly every top TV critic I've spoken to really expects that it will be. When they're disappointed, beware: they won't just hurl insults at ATAS this time. We're talkin' nuclear weapons.

But at least they won't be mad about "Lost" getting snubbed again. That's impossible. Not only is it assured a nom based upon its TV popularity (thank you, "Dancing with the Stars"!), but based upon its episode submission, too. Producers got smart this year and entered "Through the Looking Glass." It's two hours long. Double-length submissions almost always get the most Emmy votes. Isn't that hilarious? Yes, size matters in Hollywood.