The nominations have been announced for the 2006 Television Awards. Topping the nomination count was Masterpiece Theater’s miniseries Bleak House. Taking 11 nominations, it beat out broadcast series Arrested Development and Scrubs with 9 nominations each. Elizabeth I, Mrs. Harris and The West Wing followed those up with 8 nominations each.
The Simpsons which will soon, if it keeps going, become broadcast history’s longest running scripted primetime program. Here is records history with the longest break between Best Comedy Series nominations. This is its third nomination in the category but first since the 2nd Annual Awards.
The West Wing inched its final tally higher this year to 92 total nominations keeping its record intact. While the first three years saw Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and ER capture enough nominations to bring them near or above this total, there were separate categories for Syndicated Series and Overall Series that were not present the following 7 years, thus pull several nominations out of consideration. As it stands now, Deep Space Nine, which officially has 109 nominations and ER, with potentially record breaking 90 nominations, have their totals revised to 34 and 71 respectively. The West Wing has ended its run. Its closest rivals include ER (21 nominations behind and still in production), The Sopranos (also at 71 nominations but ending its run shortly) and Will & Grace (also at 71 nominations but already cancelled). It does not appear likely that any of the other series that may go for a few more years (Scrubs and The Simpsons each with 51 nominations) will be able to break the virtually impenetrable record of The West Wing.
Other interesting facts abound. ER received no nominations in the last awards and thus falls out of consideration of this next impressive statistic. The Simpsons is the only primetime series that has managed a nomination in every single year of the OFTA’s Awards.