The nominees for best comedy series will be . . . '30 Rock,' 'The Office,' 'Two and a Half Men,' Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'Pushing Daisies'
Unlike their discord over drama series, our top-notch Emmy gurus — Chris "Boomer" Beachum and Robert "Rob L" Licuria — agree on the comedy series that will be in the running when nominations are announced on Thursday morning. As per the boys, the final five should be: last year's winner "30 Rock;" 2006 champ "The Office;" perennial nominee "Curb Your Enthusiasm;" top-rated "Two and a Half Men;" and newcomer "Pushing Daisies."
To determine the nominees, Rob and Boomer follow the actual voting process. First, they predict the order of the top 10 semifinalists as determined by the popular vote of the entire TV academy.
How Rob ranks the popular vote outcome — 1.) "30 Rock" 2.) "The Office" 3.) "Two and a Half Men" 4.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" 5.) "Pushing Daisies" 6.) "Entourage" 7.) "Ugly Betty" 8.) "Weeds" 9.) "Flight of the Conchords 10.) "Family Guy"
Here's how Boomer thinks the popular vote tallied — 1.) "The Office" 2.) "30 Rock" 3.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm"4.) "Ugly Betty" 5.) "Entourage" 6.) "Pushing Daisies" 7.) "Two and a Half Men" 8.) "Weeds" 9.) "Flight of the Conchords" 10.) "Family Guy"
Then, they calculate how the panel judges scored the sample episode entries.
How Rob thinks the judges ranked episode entries — 1.) "30 Rock" 2.) "Pushing Daisies" 3.) "Two and a Half Men" 4.) "The Office" 5.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm"6.) "Family Guy" 7.) "Entourage" 8.) "Flight of the Conchords 9.) "Weeds" 10.) "Ugly Betty"
Here's how Boomer ranks the judges' views of the episodes — 1.) "Pushing Daisies" 2.) "Two and a Half Men" 3.) "30 Rock"4.) "The Office" 5.) "Family Guy"6.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" 7.) "Entourage" 8.) "Ugly Betty" 9.) "Weeds" 10.) "Flight of the Conchords"
Combining these results on a 50-50 basis, just like the academy accountants do, they determine the final ranking of the nominees. The lower the final number, the higher the ranking.
BEST COMEDY SERIES: BOOMER'S PREDIX
(Top five = nominees)
1.) "The Office" ("Local Ad") — 5 points
1.) "30 Rock" ("Cooter") — 5 points
3.) "Pushing Daisies" ("Pie-Lette") — 7 points
4.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" ("The Bat Mitzvah") — 9 points
4.) "Two and a Half Men" ("Rough Night in Hump Junction") — 9 points
6.) "Entourage" ("The Day ...") — 12 points
6.) "Ugly Betty" ("Something Wicked This Way Comes") — 12 points
8.) "Family Guy" ("Padre de Famila") — 15 points
9.) "Weeds" ("Go") — 17 points
10.) "Flight of the Conchords" ("Sally Returns") — 19 points
BEST COMEDY SERIES: ROB'S PREDIX
(Top five = nominees)
1.) "30 Rock" ("Cooter") — 3 points
2.) "The Office" ("Local Ad") — 6 points
2.) "Pushing Daisies" ("Pie-lette") — 6 points
2.) "Two and a Half Men" ("Rough Night in Hump Junction") — 6 points
5.) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" ("The Bat Mitzvah") — 9 points
6.) "Entourage" ("The Day ...") — 13 points
7.) "Family Guy" ("Padre de Famila") — 16 points
8.) "Flight of the Conchords" ("Sally Returns") — 17 points
8.) "Ugly Betty" ("Something Wicked This Way Comes") — 17 points
8.) "Weeds" ("Go") — 17 points
Rob's commentary: It just so happens that the way I think the popular and panel votes rank, we’ll have a very tight race in the top five behind formidable leader "30 Rock." I am pretty confident that these will be the five nominated shows, but I would more than welcome "Family Guy"’s nomination, although I am quite skeptical. Despite the glowing reports from our Emmy panel spies, the episode chosen by the show’s producers was not its best, and surely it only squeaked in on the popular vote. Unless it scored a 1 or 2 in the panels and did not score last in the popular vote, don’t count on it being nominated.
(Photo: ATAS)
