I guess it says something about the state of television today that I forgot that the Golden Globes were yesterday until I got up this morning.

In a ceremony that rivaled awards shows in years past…and by that, I mean a press conference…the winners for 2007 were announced. It’s interesting that none of the typical, go-to shows were the winners this year. As a matter of fact, with the exception of Tina Fey’s much-deserved win for 30 Rock, there is not a single network show on this list.

Maybe that should tell you something.

Also, I’ve actually just finished my first run through the season of Mad Men this weekend, and I’ve gotta say…if there’s one show that deserves Best Drama over Damages, it’s Mad Men. Absolutely fantastic show.

Best TV series, Comedy: Extras, HBO

Best TV series, Drama: Mad Men, AMC

Best actor, TV series, Comedy: David Duchovny, Californication

Best actress, TV series, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Best actress, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Queen Latifah, Life Support

Best actor, miniseries or motion picture made for TV: Jim Broadbent, Longford

Best actor, TV series Drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Best actress, TV series Drama: Glenn Close, Damages

Best supporting actress, TV series/movie/miniseries: Samantha Morton, Longford

Best supporting actor, TV series/movie/miniseries: Jeremy Piven, Entourage

Best mini-series, TV: Longford

The Directors Guild of America has released their nominations for Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Television for 2007. For me, these are a little harder to give an opinion about, since the nominations are largely about one particular episode of the series, rather than the series as a whole.

You can get the full list after the jump, or at the (incredibly designed) Official DGA Website.

MOVIES FOR TELEVISION/MINISERIES

Jon Avnet - The Starter Wife (USA)
First Assistant Director: Linda Montanti

Jeremiah Chechik - The Bronx Is Burning (ESPN)
Unit Production Manager: Michael Bederman 
First Assistant Directors: Philip Patterson, Harvey Waldman 
Second Assistant Directors: Richard E. White, Amy Lynn

Lloyd Kramer - Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom’s For One More Day (ABC)
Unit Production Manager: M. Blair Breard 
First Assistant Director: Christo Morse 
Second Assistant Director: Annie Tan 
Second Second Assistant Director: Nick Vanderpool

Mikael Salomon - The Company (TNT)
Unit Production Manager: John M. Eckert 
First Assistant Director: Michael Zimbrich

Yves Simoneau - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO)
Unit Production Manager - US: Chrisann Verges
First Assistant Director - US: Cas Donovan 
Second Assistant Director - US: Adam Martin

DRAMATIC SERIES NIGHT

Jack Bender - Lost (”Through the Looking Glass”) (ABC)
Unit Production Manager: Pat Churchill 
First Assistant Director: Richard Peter Schroer 
Second Assistant Director: Meta Valentic 
Second Second Assistant Director: Wainani Young Tomich

David Chase - The Sopranos (”Made in America”) (HBO)
Unit Production Manager: Ilene S. Landress 
First Assistant Director: Jeff Bernstein 
Second Assistant Director: Nancy Herrmann 
Second Second Assistant Director: Charlie Foster 
Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Selena Beal 
DGA Trainee: Marcos Gonzalez Palma

Eric Laneuville - Lost (”The Brig”)(ABC)
Unit Production Manager: Pat Churchill 
First Assistant Director: Richard Peter Schroer 
Second Assistant Director: Meta Valentic 
Second Second Assistant Director: Michael J. Musteric 
Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Steven E. Simon

Alan Taylor - Mad Men (”When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”) (Pilot)(AMC)
Unit Production Manager: Scott Hornbacher 
First Assistant Director: Mark McGann 
Second Assistant Director: Maggie Murphy 
Second Second Assistant Director: John Silvestri

Tim Van Patten - The Sopranos (”Sopranos Home Movies”) (HBO)
Unit Production Manager: Henry J. Bronchtein, Ilene S. Landress 
First Assistant Director: John E. Gallagher 
Second Assistant Director: Peter Soldo 
Second Second Assistant Director: Charlie Foster 
Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Henri Sann 
DGA Trainee: Kathleen Mulligan

COMEDY SERIES

Michael Engler - 30 Rock (”Rosemary’s Baby”)(NBC)
Unit Production Manager: Diana Schmidt 
First Assistant Director: Chris Swartout 
Second Assistant Director: Jane Ferguson

David Grossman - Desperate Housewives (”Something’s Coming”)(ABC)
Unit Production Manager: Charles Skouras III 
First Assistant Director: Tom Irvine 
Second Assistant Director: John LaBrucherie 
Second Second Assistant Director: Efrain Cortes 
Additional Second Second Assistant Director: Richard E. White

Beth Mccarthy-Miller - 30 Rock (”Somebody to Love”) (NBC)
Unit Production Manager: Diana Schmidt 
First Assistant Director: Stephen Lee Davis 
Second Assistant Director: Bellamy Forrest 
Second Second Assistant Director: Brendan Walsh

David Nutter - Entourage (”The Resurrection”) (HBO)
Unit Production Manager: Wayne Carmona 
First Assistant Director: Gary Goldman 
Second Assistant Director: Vernon Davidson 
Second Second Assistant Director: John LaBrucherie

Barry Sonnenfeld - Pushing Daisies (”Pie-lette”) (ABC)
Unit Production Manager: Gabriela Vazquez 
First Assistant Director: Chris Soldo 
Second Assistant Director: Greg Hale 
Second Second Assistant Director: Renee Hill-Sweet

MUSICAL VARIETY

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Hey did you miss the 34th Annual People’s Choice Awards last night on CBS? Me too!

Here are the results in the television categories

Favorite Female TV Star: Katherine Heigl
Favorite Male TV Star: Patrick Dempsey
Favorite Talk Show Host: Ellen DeGeneres
Favorite Scene Stealing Star: Chandra Wilson, “Grey’s Anatomy”
Favorite TV Drama: “House”
Favorite TV Comedy: “Two and a Half Men”
Favorite Competition/Reality Show: “Dancing with the Stars”
Favorite Game Show: “Deal or No Deal”
Favorite Sci-fi Show: “Stargate Atlantis”
Favorite Animated Comedy: “The Simpsons”

As usual, I have discovered I am not one of “the people” because there is no way in the world I can envision “Two and a Half Men” being the Favorite TV comedy. If that show is your favorite comedy on television, I’m sorry, but we can’t be friends.

..and “Doctor Who” should have won best Sci-Fi show.

So there.

NBC has officially cancelled the Golden Globes and in its place instead will be an NBC Newscast showcasing the Associated Foreign Press and detailing who the winners are.

From the Press Release:

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association today announced that the recipients of Golden Globe Awards in 25 categories will be revealed during an hour-long HFPA press conference at The Beverly Hilton to be covered live by NBC News beginning at 6:00 pm PST on January 13. “The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards” NBC telecast and champagne dinner in The Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom is officially cancelled.

“We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007’s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television,” said Jorge Camara, President of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. “We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled.”

You can probably expect something similar to this for the Oscars this year as well. The WGA is using these awards shows to make examples of what they can do as a unified group.

Early this morning, the nominees for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced. Leading the charge with three nominations a piece were 30 Rock, Ugly Betty and The Sopranos.

Personally, I don’t know that I would say that anything else on the list is really a snub. There’s nothing that really stands out as a show that should have been on this list that isn’t there. I’m absolutely thrilled to see Glenn Close nominated for Damages…one of the best performances in history, in my humble opinion. And Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are about as close to perfection as is humanly possible on 30 Rock.

Anyway, here’s the list (more after the jump), with my personal choices done this-a-way.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in Leading Role, Drama Series
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
James Spader, Boston Legal

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, Drama Series
Glenn Close, Damages
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in Leading Role, Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Ricky Gervais, Extras
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty
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Well your favorite awards shows are probably going to be pretty darn boring this year. The WGA has denied a waiver requested by the Golden Globes, and has further denied the Oscar’s request to even show clips from feature films and previous Oscarcasts.

The WGA said in a statement: “Writers are engaged in a crucial struggle to achieve a collective bargaining agreement that will protect their compensation and intellectual property rights now and in the future. We must do everything we can to bring our negotiations to a swift and fair conclusion for the benefit of writers and all those who are being harmed by the companies’ failure to engage in serious negotiations.”

On top of that several nominees have already informed the Golden Globes that they won’t be crossing picket lines to collect their awards.

Dick Clark Productions, the company that is producing the Globes has also made a statement that they hope to reach an agreement with the writers in the same way David Letterman’s company is currently attempting to do.

First, Pushing Daisies and Dexter land on AFI’s Top 10 of 2007 list (right below this post), and now the international press have given them love, as well. Daisies earned the title of Outstanding Comedy and Showtime’s Dexter took home the title of Outstanding Drama.

Grey’s Anatomy’s Ellen Pompeo and Dexter’s Michael C. Hall earned Best Actress and Actor in a Drama, respectively, while Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera and Stephen Colbert earned the same awards in the comedy category.

As I don’t have Showtime, I haven’t had the opportunity to check out Dexter, though I’ve heard good things. It’s no secret, though, that I love Pushing Daisies with an unnatural passion, so it’s great to see some love for it today. And with its nomination for a Golden Globe, it could be a promising time for the show.

Every year, the American Film Institute releases their picks for the top television programs and films of the year. Here’s the list for 2007:

- Dexter
- Everybody Hates Chris
- Friday Night Lights
- Longford
- Mad Men
- Pushing Daisies
- The Sopranos
- Tell Me You Love Me
- 30 Rock
- Ugly Betty

I really can’t say there’s much I disagree with. I think The Office should have a spot on the list, but I also believe that 30 Rock is, at times, a better show. There’s not a show on there that doesn’t belong.

What do you think? What show would you put in your Top 10?

This morning the nominations for the 2008 Golden Globe Awards were announced. There are some real surprises in here, and some things that I’m really happy to see. Multiple nominations for Pushing Daises, for example. As we get closer, Drew and I will go over out picks for the winners, but for today, let’s just take a look at all the wonderful nominees.

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA

BIG LOVE (HBO)
DAMAGES (FX NETWORKS)
GREY’S ANATOMY (ABC)
HOUSE (FOX)
MAD MEN (AMC)
THE TUDORS (SHOWTIME)
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