Beating its own personal best of eight, COMEDY CENTRAL earned 12 nominations in the 2006-2007 Primetime Emmy Awards competition, it was announced today by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS).
Nine-time Emmy-winner (four times for program, five times for writing) "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" the network's unique news parody series, is nominated this year in six categories: Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series, Stewart's performance for his Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program, Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program and Chuck O'Neil, singled out for the fifth year-in-a-row for Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program. Receiving their first Emmy nominations this year are the "Daily Show" editing team for Outstanding Multi-camera Picture Editing For A Series and audio engineer Tim Lester for Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Or Music Series Or Special. This brings the grand total of Primetime Emmy nominations for the "Daily Show" to 24. The program is also a two-time winner of the prestigious Peabody(R) Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.
"The Colbert Report," with Stephen Colbert assuming a dismissive, Bill O'Reilly-like persona while commenting on the issues of the day, received four Emmy Award nominations: Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series, Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program for Colbert's performance and Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program. Director Jim Hoskinson was cited for Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program. The show was nominated in each of these categories last year, bringing its total number of nominations to eight.
"South Park," the adult animation phenomenon, home to Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Cartman, received its seventh nomination for the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour), the category in which it won in 2005. Nominated for the "Make Love, Not Warcraft" episode, the show in its 11th season remains COMEDY CENTRAL's highest rated show.
"The COMEDY CENTRAL Roast of William Shatner," a no-holds-barred raucous ribbing of the popular actor, was nominated in the Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special category, earning the network's first nomination in the television specials arena.
The Emmy Awards will be presented in two ceremonies. The first, primarily for creative arts categories, will take place on Saturday, September 8, while the balance of the Emmys, primarily for the performing arts, will be announced before a black-tie audience during a primetime telecast (FOX) on Sunday, September 16. Both ceremonies will take place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA.
