Saunders: Huffman OK without Emmy

Monday, July 24, 2006

HOLLYWOOD - The major reason to watch Desperate Housewives?

To view the performance of Felicity Huffman, last year's deserving Emmy winner as best actress in a comedy series.

Some contend - legitimately - that the popular Sunday ABC series is in a no-awards land because it moves back and forth between mediocre comedy and sappy drama.

Whatever.

Huffman, during the recently concluded second season, continued to display her ability to handle all types of convoluted plotlines.

Her performance as working mom Lynette Scavo, trying to balance her high-profile executive life with her role as a mother raising her super-hyper youngsters, was even better than during season one.

But she wasn't nominated for an Emmy. So much for the Emmy panel's new blue-ribbon judging format.

If Huffman is suffering from ego pain, she isn't showing it in public.

Interviewed at a crowded ABC party, Huffman smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and said, quietly: "It's the luck of the draw . . . the finger of fate.

"This is an up-and-down business. And a lot of worthy actresses have been nominated.

"I'll be at the awards to present an Emmy."

Huffman said she had more important things on her mind while relaxing at home with husband William H. Macy and cheering his acting.

Macy last week had a double role as a writer and actor while playing the '30s detective character he created in an eerie episode of TNT's anthology series Stephen King's Nightmares & Landscapes.

Huffman's quick review: "He was marvelous."

While Huffman seemingly is not bothered by the Emmy snub, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson is anything but silent on the controversy.

Unhappy that Lost (last year's award-winning drama) and Desperate Housewives were overlooked in nominations, McPherson said: "To have that kind of oversight is just remarkable.

"There's a major problem with the nominations."

He urged the Emmy voters to examine the rule changes which produced "bizarre" nominations.

DIFFERENT SCHEDULE: Lost will be lost to viewers for a major part of the fall season.

ABC will premiere six new episodes Oct. 4 and then yank the series in favor of Day Break, a new cop drama starring Taye Diggs.

Lost will return in February with 16 new uninterrupted episodes airing through the May sweeps.

Such scheduling is designed to eliminate Lost reruns during the regular season - a past policy that has been an anathema to series fans.

RATINGS ROULETTE: Did you see last week's debut of The One: Making a Music Star, an ABC summer reality series?

If so, you can claim to be part of television history.

Tuesday's two-hour premiere delivered the worst audience ratings for any series premiere in ABC's history, according to Nielsen Media research.

An obvious rip-off of Fox's American Idol, the Tuesday show, dealing with young contestants who live together in the same house, drew only 3.2 million total viewers.

The following Wednesday shows which included the voting on Tuesday's performances drew 2.6 million viewers.

Only an NHL hockey game in 2004 had a lower prime-time audience on ABC.

It's safe to predict The One will not be an ABC series regular.

WARDROBE WARS: One critic, caught up last week in the Katie Couric saga, asked at a press conference about the wardrobe the new anchor will wear for the CBS Evening News.

Couric wisely dismissed the question as silly.

Then ABC anchor Charles Gibson, interviewed by critics via satellite from Cyprus where he had been covering hostilities in the Middle East (he has since returned), was facetiously asked the same question.

"I have four ties and five suits," he responded. "And whatever suit is to the right in the closet is the one I put on."

Gibson has received more evidence his anchor chores on ABC's weeknight newscast won't be a part-time assignment.

The half-hour is now titled World News With Charles Gibson. Tonight was eliminated also to reflect news series' move to the Internet during mid-afternoon reports.

QUOTABLE: "I sent personal letters to the two viewers who were watching." - NBC President Kevin Reilly, talking about why the network canceled Heist, the spring drama series that failed miserably in audience ratings.

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On July 24, 1979, CBS premiered a two-night documentary, Black in America, an examination of 25 years of desegregation. Ed Bradley hosted.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcasting critic. Saunders@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5137