First Kate Gosselin dumped husband Jon in real life. Now she is doing the same in reel life as their hit TLC show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" is revamped to "Kate Plus 8" starting Nov. 2. In a statement, TLC President Eileen O'Neill explained, "Given the recent changes in the family dynamics, it only makes sense for us to refresh and recalibrate the program to keep pace with the family. The family has evolved and we are attempting to evolve with it; we feel that Kate's journey really resonates with our viewers."

Whether this revised version of reality resonates with Emmy voters is another matter. Last summer, "Jon & Kate Plus 8" failed to make the final cut for best reality program at the Emmy Awards. On the surface that snub seemed a surprise as it was the top-rated show in the category, drawing more than 10 million viewers to the fifth-season premiere in May. However, popular-ballot voters opted for "Antiques Roadshow," "Dirty Jobs," "Dog Whisperer," "Intervention," "Mythbusters" and two-time past champ "My Life on the D-List" in that race. The gritty "Intervention" ended up winning the Emmy Award.

The Emmy fate of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" underscored something we already knew about Emmy voters — they're snobs. Consider this: "Frasier" -- the TV series that's won the most Emmys ever with 37 --  is about two snooty brothers, Frasier and Niles Crane, obsessed with wine, women and song. Sure, voters love series about dysfunctional families such as the Cranes, but "Jon & Kate Plus 8" crossed the line, offending academy members exactly at the wrong time.

While Chris "Boomer" Beachum is supremely confident that Tina Fey ("30 Rock") will win the Emmy Award for best comedy actress again, Rob Licuria and I are leery of challenges by Toni Collette ("United States of Tara") and Christina Applegate ("Samatha Who"). The reason: Emmy voters have a bizarre adoration of actors performing multiple personalities, as Collette and Applegate — read more about that here.

Watch our video smackdowns covering these races too: best drama actor, lead drama actress and best comedy series and lead comedy actor.

Also, read Boomer's and Rob's in-depth analysis of these contests: best comedy series, lead comedy actor, lead comedy actress, supporting comedy actor, supporting comedy actress, guest comedy actor, guest comedy actress, comedy writing, comedy directing, best lead drama actor, lead drama actress, lead actor in movie/mini and lead actress in a movie/mini. See a chart of predix by top journalists here. Read more predix in our forums.

RELATED POSTS

Tom O'Neil's 100% perfect, peerless Emmy Award predictions

Gutsy Emmy Award predictions from TV's smartest experts

Uh, oh! Beware: Last year's top Emmys winners may repeat

Podcast: We dig up Emmy's dirty little secrets

Emmycast to include live band, dance sequence and some bold new twists

Video: Our most vicious, heated Emmy pundit smackdown ever -- it's over best drama actress (Glenn Close again? Ho-hum!)

Video: Emmy predictions slugfest: What will win best comedy series?

Get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner. RSS Atom.

Tuesday, July 21, is the deadline for actors nominated for their performances in a drama or comedy series to submit a sample episode to be evaluated by Emmy judges. Hey, don't worry, contenders! Our forum posters have made the selections for you! After I created a forum thread inviting everybody's views, our posters Isokolar and Bazooka Joe sifted through all of the suggestions and singled out the most popular, which are listed below.

DRAMA LEAD ACTOR
Simon Baker, "The Mentalist" ("Pilot")
Gabriel Byrne, "In Treatment" ("Gina - Week 4")
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" ("Bit By a Dead Bee")
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter" ("Finding Freebo")
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" ("The Mountain King")
Hugh Laurie, "House" ("Under My Skin")

COMEDY LEAD ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" ("Generalissimo")
Steve Carell, "The Office" ("Broke" or "Stress Relief")
Jemaine Clement, "Flight of the Conchords" ("Unnatural Love")
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory" ("The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis")
Tony Shalhoub, "Monk" ("Mr. Monk’s 100th Case")
Charlie Sheen, "Two and a Half Men" ("The Devil's Lube")

DRAMA LEAD ACTRESS
Glenn Close, "Damages" ("Trust Me")
Sally Field, "Brothers and Sisters" ("Taking Sides")
Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" ("PTSD")
Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace" ("Are You an Indian Princess?")
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men" ("Meditations in an Emergency")
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer" ("Cherrybomb")

This Tuesday is the deadline for Emmy nominees to declare what sample episode they want judges to see when determining winners. Remember, actors in the series races get only one entry and it better be a doozy. Contenders sink or swim based upon how dumb or shrewd they are when picking episode samples.

I asked our forum posters what they think are the best choices and got lots of interesting reax. In some cases, there's widespread consensus that, for example, last year's champ Tina Fey ("30 Rock") should submit "Reunion" and Toni Collette ("United States of Tara") should go with the pilot, but there's hubbub over whether last year's best actor winner Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock") should opt for the "Reunion" or "Generalissimo" episode.

Most posters think Steve Carell ("The Office") should enter "Stress Relief," but our poster Bazooka Joe thinks Carell should literally go for "Broke."

When checking out this forum thread, remember to click on the small page numbers at the bottom and top so that you read all comments. To pipe in with your own views, you must register, which is easy, confidential, free and fast -- just click on the "Login/Join" link back in the forums.

RELATED POSTS

Uh-oh! What episodes should Emmy nominees submit to judges?

Walter Cronkite wouldn't give me his Watergate Emmy

David Letterman beats Conan O'Brien in ratings and Emmy races

Harry Shearer finally lands Emmy nod for voicing all those characters on 'The Simpsons'

Justin Timberlake contends for three Emmy Awards

How the Emmy pundits scored (hey, where's my lollipop?!)

Get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner. RSS Atom.

Usually I take better behind-the-scenes photos than this. Sorry, but I left my good camera back in New York, so I just had my iPhone to take snaps this morning at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood when the news conference was held to unveil nominations.

Still, here are a few glimpses of what we journos saw. Notice that this year the academy sprang for a trucker's breakfast buffet, complete with eggs, sausage and bacon! Some years we only get muffins, bagels, coffee and fruit while hanging out in the lobby at the academy's theater where the event is held.

Most of the snaps I took inside the theater didn't come out OK. Just the one where you can barely see Jim Parsons chatting with a cluster of media hawks after he read off the list of nominees.

Photos: Tom O'Neil for the Los Angeles Times

RELATED LINKS

List of Emmy nominations

Emmy nominations: The good, the bad and the ugly (Boomer's view)

I asked our forum moderators Robert "Rob L" Licuria and Chris "Boomer" Beachum to give us their reax to Emmy nominations in the format of the good, the bad and the ugly. Rob is first to pipe in. His views below. Here is a list of Emmy nominees.

THE GOOD
 
• The drama and comedy series categories are stacked with seven nods each. Big surprise with "Big Love" finally making it in (inexplicably) without any acting or writing/directing nods. Chris "Boomer" Beachum was right about "Flight of the Conchords" and Tom O'Neil and I were right about "Family Guy"! Here is the chart with our predix.

• No "24" in drama series or drama actor. Ditto for "Boston Legal." Sigh of relief. "Breaking Bad" breaks through! Hallelujah!

• Jim Parsons! Rose Byrne! Jemaine Clement! Elisabeth Moss! Hope Davis! Kristin Wiig! Most of all Aaron Paul!

• No Katherine Heigl!

• Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colliccho in race for best reality host!

• The Timberlake/Samberg collaboration for "Saturday Night Live," "Motherlover," got a music and lyrics nod.

• Tina Fey as Sarah Palin makes it into guest.

• Although I love Tracey Ullman, I'm glad the category fraud of her in comedy supporting actress didn't work. ATAS, fix this problem!
 

THE BAD

• No nomination for John Mahoney ("In Treatment"), even though everybody thought he was a lock.

• "Rescue Me" almost completely ignored, and "The Shield" shut out entirely.

• Both of last year's series champs -- comedy "30 Rock" and drama "Mad Men" -- lead the field in their respective categories again this year. "30 Rock" broke the record for nominations it set last year with 17 bids by landing 22 nods this year. "Mad Men" repeated with 16 nominations, far off the 27 nods for the first season of "NYPD Blue" in 1994. "30 Rock" won seven of its races last year and "Mad Men" prevailed in six.

• After being benched last year because of the writers strike, former Emmy powerhouse "24" made a lackluster return to the race this year, failing to score bids for either series or TV movie ("24: Redemption"). Kiefer Sutherland, who was a fixture in the best actor in a drama series category, was snubbed for the first time in the show's seven years. He had to make do with a nod in the TV movie actor race for the one-off "24: Redemption."  How fast the mighty had fallen! For its fifth season in 2006, "24" won best drama series and Sutherland reigned as best actor.

• "Big Bang Theory" star Jim Parsons -- who announced Emmy nominations this morning with Chandra Wilson ("Grey's Anatomy") -- could win best comedy actor now that he's finally nominated. Last year, when we chatted with Parsons via podcast, we asked him how often he hears people compare his TV role to the wacky, persnickety performance given by Tony Randall as Felix Unger in "The Odd Couple." "There's no way around it," Parsons told us. "I hear that all the time." That's great news as Randall won this Emmy in 1975.

• Kathy Griffin is not only hosting the Creative Arts Emmys but may add a third Emmy to her mantle as "My Life on the D-List" once again contends for best reality program. Since Emmy voters did not nominate the increasingly popular "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Griffin is the front-runner, having won this race for the last two years. If "Jon & Kate Plus 8" had gotten its first nod, producers planned on submitting that powerhouse Season 5 premiere, which showcased the happy celebration of the sextuplets' fifth birthday mixed with harsh scenes of Jon and Kate Gosselin confronting their crumbling marriage. It scored staggering Nielsen ratings: more than 10 million viewers. No word yet on which episode of "My Life on the D-List" Kathy Griffin will submit.

• Just as I had predicted, "Family Guy" broke through to become the second cartoon nominated for best comedy series. Only "The Flintstones" managed the feat back in 1961, losing to "The Jack Benny Program." "The Simpsons" tried to make the cut during the 1990s, switching from the category for best animated program (which it won a few times) to best comedy, but didn't get nommed, so switched back and resumed winning. How did "Family Guy" pull it off? It had two strong pluses that "The Simpsons" didn't have: There are currently only a few strong comedies on TV and the Emmys just expanded this category to include at least six nominees (turns out seven made it in) from five.

• Given that seven comedies and seven dramas are contending for best series, it is odd that none of the newcomers nabbed Emmy nominations: "True Blood," "The Mentalist," "United States of Tara," etc. However, there are four veteran shows that finally made the cut in comedy: "Family Guy," "Flight of the Conchords," "How I Met Your Mother" and "Weeds." And "Big Love" and "Breaking Bad" broke through on the drama side.

Ah, the Emmy nominations that might have been! Below is a list of the programs and stars that got snubbed by the 14,000 voters in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Here is a full list of nominees.

* = Top 10 Semi-Finalist in 2008
** = Nominee in 2008

NOT-SO-BEST DRAMA SERIES
"Battlestar Galactica"
"Boston Legal" **
"ER"
"Friday Night Lights" *
"Grey's Anatomy" *
"In Treatment"
"The Mentalist"
"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
"Rescue Me"
"The Shield"
"True Blood"
"The Tudors" *
"24"

NOT-SO-BEST COMEDY SERIES
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Californication"
"Desperate Housewives"
"Scrubs"
"Two and a Half Men" **
"Ugly Betty" *
"United States of Tara"

NOT-SO-BEST MINISERIES
"House of Saddam" (HBO)
"Maneater" (Lifetime)

NOT-SO-BEST TV MOVIE
"Accidental Friendship"
"America"
"Front of the Class"
"Gifted Hands"
"God on Trial"
"Jesse Stone: Thin Ice"
"Living Proof"
"My Zinc Bed"
"Natalee Holloway"
"Sybil"

Since the nominees for TV's top award are a lot like TV reruns, there's a good chance we'll see most of last year's nominees for outstanding lead actor in a drama series return when bids are unveiled on July 16.

Judging panels will not be used this year to whittle down final nominees after evaluating sample episodes submitted by the top 10 voter-getters determined by a popular vote of members of the TV academy's acting branch. This year, six nominees (instead of the traditional five) will be decided by an outright popular vote, so that makes predicting the outcome much easier.

Sure bets probably include last year's nominees Gabriel Byrne ("In Treatment"), Michael C. Hall ("Dexter"), Jon Hamm ("Mad Men"), Hugh Laurie ("House M.D.) and 2008 winner Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad"). That leaves room for just one more. Serial past winner James Spader ("Boston Legal"), who made last year's rundown? Previous champ Kiefer Sutherland ("24"), who had to sit out the last Emmy derby due to the writers strike? Hot new rookie Simon Baker ("The Mentalist")? Past champ Michael Chiklis ("The Shield")? Overdue past nominee Denis Leary ("Rescue Me")?

* = Top 10 semifinalist in 2008

** = Nominee in 2008

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
(Front-runners)
Simon Baker, "The Mentalist"
Gabriel Byrne, "In Treatment" **
Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights" *
Michael Chiklis, "The Shield"
Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" ** (winner, 2008)
Laurence Fishburne, "CSI"
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter" **
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" **
Hugh Laurie, "House M.D." **
Denis Leary, "Rescue Me" *
Bill Paxton, "Big Love"
James Spader, "Boston Legal" **
Kiefer Sutherland, "24"