EXCLUSIVE: Minor Emmy flub reverses Fox's and NBC's nomination standings

Among the broadcast networks, ABC dominated the 2010 Emmy nominations, with 63, while CBS was second, with 57.

But NBC and Fox were neck-and-neck for third place -- with the Peacock landing 48 nominations, narrowly beating Fox, at 47.

Or so we thought.

But turns out Universal Media Studios made a slight goof in crediting the busted sci-fi pilot "Virtuality," which scored a nomination in the "outstanding special visual effects for a miniseries, movie or a special" category.

"Virtuality," which aired last June as a stand-alone TV movie, was credited to NBC. But the movie, which was produced by NBC's Universal Media Studios (and BermanBraun), actually aired on Fox.

That would generally be a pretty minor mistake. But in this case, that minor mistake carries a bit more weight: It allows Fox to slide into third place, and moves NBC down to fourth among the broadcast webs.

Here's what makes this even more odd: No one noticed. As a matter of fact, NBC took credit for "Virtuality" in its press release. And Fox didn't notice that it hadn't received credit.

So what happened? TV Academy awards senior vp John Leverence filled me in:

We got two entries for this busted pilot, one for the movie and one for SVE that went on to nomination. Both were made by a rep at NBCUni and entered as an NBC movie. Just got a call from the rep who responded to our query (prompted by yours) RE the error, i.e., it was in fact aired on NBC but only after its first airing on FOX. We are going to change our tallies accordingly and post NBC at 47 total noms and FOX at 48 total noms on our official press release at Emmys.tv and Emmys.com.

Many thanks for your sharp eye!

There you go. Variety's On the Air, making a difference. I sniff Pulitzer, baby!

Don't feel bad, NBC. You could always be the CW, which was yet again completely ignored Thursday by Academy members.