It was no surprise to see Showtime's Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt looking like they were enjoying themselves Friday afternoon during their executive Q&A sesh. Any way you look at it, Showtime is on a roll. They're not getting the

"Why aren't you as cool as HBO?" questions lobbed at them at TCA anymore. Think of the programming assets Showtime has these days: "Weeds," "Dexter," "The Tudors," "Californication," "The L Word," "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl," "Brotherhood," "This American Life," "Penn and Teller's Bullshit!" and "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union."

Greenblatt reinforced the cabler's Big Mo with his rundown of the paybox's programming highlights during the past year, capped by Thursday by the best drama series Emmy nom nabbed by "Dexter." He also showed off clips of two intriguing half-hours  to come, "Nurse Jackie" (pictured left), starring Edie Falco as an unconventional nurse at a Gotham hospital; and the Toni Collette-John Corbett starrer "The United States of Tara" (pictured right), the brainchild of Steven Spielberg and Diablo Cody about a suburban mom with multiple personalities.

Greenblatt noted that Showtime's top buzz-getters, "Dexter" and "Weeds," are in a contest for bragging rights as the cabler's highest-rated shows. "Dexter" set a new high water mark for the feevee-er last September with its season two opener drawing more than 1 million viewers. "Weeds" has been smoking in its fourth season. Its June 16 debut brought in 1.35 million viewers for the premiere, and segs have been averaging a cume weekly rating of more than 3 million -- a ratings record by far for Showtime, Greenblatt assured the crowd.

Hot off the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nomination vote-tallying machine, here are the top 10 finalists for Emmy noms in the comedy and drama series heats. The final noms will be announced on Thursday, July 17.

(My 2 cents on the list follows after the jump)

COMEDY

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds

DRAMA

Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
Mad Men
The Tudors
The Wire

Not much of an upset Saturday night during the first leg of the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony as HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" maintained its trophy market share with a total of five wins, followed by Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" (wha?) and NBC's "Tony Bennett: An American Classic" with four apiece. (For a proper report on who-won-what, click here for the report from Variety's Jeff Sneider, who sacrificed his Saturday night so that you and I wouldn't have to.)

Contrary to conventional wisdom the Creative Arts ceremony isn't all craft and tech honors (though let it be said here that the below-the-line folks are not only H'wood's salt of the earth but its true artisans). NBC nearly swept the guest-star awards categories, which can be a handy career reviver for the right actor at the right moment if the sun and the moon and the stars align...

Elaine Stritch (pictured left) bagged the guest actress in a comedy trophy for her turns in "30 Rock." Leslie Caron (pictured right) took the drama trophy for her one-shot on "Law & Order: SVU." John Goodman's visits to "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" were recognized for guest actor in a drama, while Stanley Tucci (pictured above) got the nod on the comedy side for having fun with the great Tony Shalhoub on "Monk." (So if you count USA Network as one of "the networks of NBC Universal," as the Peacock likes to put it, NBC U did sweep the category. That bit of bragging rights and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee at Musso & Franks...)

(Pics of Stritch and Caron on Creative Arts Emmy red carpet by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

What Emmy didn't giveth on Thursday morning, the TCA Awards bestowed on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton.

NBC's "Friday Night Lights," conspicuously snubbed by Emmy voters, got its due in nabbing best new program. Michael C. Hall of Showtime's "Dexter," another near no-show in the Emmy derby, was deemed best drama actor at the ceremony hosted by "Daily Show's" John Oliver.

Overall the Peacock swept the Television Critics Assn. kudofest with four trophies, including best comedy for "The Office," natch, and Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" for top dog among comedy actors.TCA-ers didn't overlook NBC's other big frosh drama of last season, picking  "Heroes" the program of the year.

(Pictured: Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler of "Friday Night Lights")

Bob Greenblatt was in his element during Showtime's TCA presentations on Saturday, and why not?

By any measure, Showtime is in the best fighting shape it's ever been in, with strong momentum on the creative front -- plenty of buzz, if not viewer tonnage -- and a lean corporate structure, both of which please the feevee channel's ultimate boss, CBS Corp.'s Leslie Moonves.

The kind of questions entertainment prexy Greenblatt and his boss, Showtime chairman Matt Blank fielded during the 45-minute exec Q&A session were softballs with hot fudge, sprinkles and a maraschino cherry on top. ("How have you made Showtime such a hot place to go, Bob?") The closest thing to grilling came from one TCA-er with a distaste for CBS' summer reality mainstay "Big Brother" who demanded to know why Blank and Greenblatt weren't shamed by the "Big Brother After Dark" wee-hours feed running on the Showtime 2 channel in the wee hours. (Hey, I'm with Mr. Irate Questioner on the worthlessness of "Big Brother" but it's hard to get worked up about anything airing at 3 a.m. on pay cable.)

The most interesting lines of questioning for Greenblatt were thinly veiled entrees for him to engage in a little crowing at HBO's expense. After 30 years of fighting a mostly uphill battle against its larger, wildly profitable rival, Showtime is standing tall all on its own thanks to "Dexter," "Weeds," "The Tudors," and a raft of projects in the development pipeline with George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Tracey Ullman, etc. etc. Greenblatt didn't take the bait, for the most part, other than to (gently) join in what has become a running joke of this summer's TCA about the all the skin that's in HBO's new couples-drama "Tell Me You Love Me." And Greenblatt allowed that he wasn't much in favor of the blackout ending of "The Sopranos" but quickly followed that observation (which set the keyboards in the room clackety-clacking) by noting that HBO had little choice but to support the vision of the writer-producer who had brought them so much during the past few years.

"It's hard to say 'No' to David Chase," said Greenblatt, sounding like the producer he was a few years ago, of HBO's "Six Feet Under," among others, and the seasoned executive he is today. "I probably would've tried to talk (Chase) out of it...and I probably would've failed."