TVSquad

Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the TV Squad Put Me Out Of This Misery Award for 2008 is ... According To Jim!

It was inevitable, really. It was the heavy favorite in the TV Squad offices, and the show has really been baffling TV fans with its uncanny ability to survive. A show hasn't survived like this since CBS' Yes, Dear, which lasted for many seasons, then was seemingly canceled, only to come back out of the ashes later with new episodes that hadn't aired yet (hell, it could still come back: the web site is still live).

While it was the clear winner in the category, that doesn't mean there wasn't any discussion. My personal choice for the award was Last Call with Carson Daly, which just seems to be a nothing show, with a lackluster host and bad guests, in a time slot that no one cares about. And his coming back early from the WGA strike didn't endear Daly to many either. But in the end we realized that even though his show is deadly, it's on at 1:35 in the morning and doesn't have the head-slapping "WTF" factor that According To Jim seems to get every season that it's renewed (full disclosure: while I think its time has passed, I find According To Jim rather harmless and better than has been advertised).

That's the Television Critics Association, the organization that represents over 200 TV critics nationwide and in Canada. They've revealed their nominees for their annual awards, and while a lot of the usual shows make the list, there are a few surprises as well. Some of that has to do with their choices, and some of it has to do with the categories they have and the way they nominate (for example, there aren't separate categories for "Best Performance in a Drama - Male" and "Best Performance in a Drama - Female," it's all under "Individual Achievement in Drama."

The list is after the jump.

It looks like the Emmy Awards are turning into the SATs.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has made several changes to the way Emmy nominations are chosen. For one, series and acting category nominations will be chosen by a mix of a regular vote and voting by a blue-ribbon panel of voters. Second, there's a new "Ellen Burystyn" rule. An actor can only be nominated if he or she was in at least 5% of an episode (Burstyn won a Supporting award last time, even though she was only on screen for 14 seconds). Third, public performances on TV will no longer compete in the music/variety category. They're adding a new special category where more than one performance could win an award.

Oh, and there's one more change: actors and producers will have to submit an essay of 250 words or less as to what their character/show is about and why they think they should be nominated. This wiill come in handy when Jim Belushi has to explain the complexity of his According To Jim character.

And let me predict what you're going to say in the comments section:

"Studio 60 isn't funny!"
"Studio 60 should be canceled!"
"Studio 60 sucks!"

Only that last one will probably be spelled SUX, in hip web/AOL lingo.

The Emmys are thinking about making a "dramedy" category, for shows that fall in between comedies and dramas. Shows like the above two I mentioned plus Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, and Ugly Betty.