Showtime outdraws HBO in Golden Globes TV series nominations
12/14/10 09:41 AM
By ED BARK
Long overshadowed by premium cable's big daddy, Showtime shed its weak sister status Tuesday by scoring twice as many Golden Globes nominations for its series programming than HBO.
Showtime's haul of eight nods, led by three for Dexter, outshone HBO's four nominations, three of them for Boardwalk Empire.
HBO still outscored Showtime overall, playing to its traditional movies and miniseries strengths with an additional eight nominations in those categories while Showtime got shut out. Still, it was a punch to the pride of HBO, which had viewed Showtime as an afterthought until recent years.
AMC likewise came up big in the latest Globe announcements, also whipping HBO in the series categories with five nominations. Its Mad Men and The Walking Dead snared two of the five best drama series nods, with Dexter, Boardwalk Empire and CBS' The Good Wife also joining that field.
The Globes added an extra contender in the best comedy series competition, where Showtime's The Big C and Nurse Jackie will go against ABC's Modern Family, Fox's Glee, CBS' The Big Bang Theory and NBC's perennial 30 Rock.
Showtime had three of the five nominees in the best lead actress in a comedy or musical category. Laura Linney and Edie Falco, the respective stars of The Big C and Nurse Jackie, are joined by Toni Collette of Showtime's United States of Tara, Lea Michele of Glee and Tina Fey of 30 Rock.
Dexter also received acting nominations for Michael C. Hall's title character and Julia Stiles in a supporting role this season as a near-dead victim of serial killers who then teamed with Dexter to hunt down her torturers.
HBO has three of the five finalists in the best miniseries or made-for-TV movie category, with The Pacific, Temple Grandin and You Don't Know Jack. Claire Danes and Al Pacino also were nominated for their starring roles in the latter two films, but The Pacific was shut out of any acting nominations.
The 68th annual Globes, presented by the smallish Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be telecast Sunday, Jan. 16th on NBC, with Ricky Gervais returning as host.
Here is the complete list of nominations, for both TV and feature films.