Emmy's picks for writing and directing nominees in the series categories are kinda like a state of the craft report card every year. They're often the category where new and innovative programs are recognized long before they crack the more prominent races.

But in a year when Emmy voters seemed to embrace new and different, the choices in the writing and directing heats seem more pedestrian, though some of this year's contenders were so obvious (Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld for "Pushing Daisies" Pie-lette, Matthew Weiner and Alan Taylor for the "Mad Men" pilot) as to take some of the suspense out of the race this year. Sonnenfeld (pictured left) and Taylor (pictured right) have already bagged DGA Awards for their work on these pilots.

Sonnenfeld, IMHO, can safely begin rehearsing his acceptance speech for comedy helmer. (Coming from him, it oughta be a doozy.) The competish is strong -- a six-nominee category meaning that there was one tie in the nom ballotting -- but nothing was quite so inventive and visually distinct as that first slice of ABC's "Pushing Daisies."

From my viewfinder, the dark horse in the race could be James Bobin of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords." Bobin, co-creator of the series with Kiwi comedy-rockers Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, is up for the "Sally Returns" episode of "Conchord's" 12-episode frosh season.

Dan Attias nabbed a nom for the "No Cannes Do" installment of "Entourage." Paul Lieberstein has shown that there's no end to his talents by performing, writing and directing segs of NBC's "The Office," and now he's up for helming the seg "Money" Parts 1 and 2 (sounds like a James Brown hit from the early '70s). Also nommed from "Office" is Paul Feig, for handling the season finale, "Goodbye, Toby," which happened to mark the farewell of Lieberstein's character. Michael Engler of NBC's "30 Rock" is up for the "Rosemary's Baby" installment.

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

It wasn't a total loss. This is a contrarian view on the season that will go down in the Nielsen annals as the lowest rated on record for the Big Four nets, but there was some good news to be found here and there, amid the wreckage.

For sure, the season-long stats on the 2007-08 campaign are pretty darn ugly, as Variety ratings guru Rick Kissell smartly and soberly details in this season wrap. But in actuality we didn't have a season, we had two abbreviated seasons -- pre- and post-strike. Writers Guild of America leaders were as strategic as Eisenhower and Marshall carving up the European theater in triggering the work stoppage to begin on Nov. 5, to ensure maximum impact on current production and pilot development.

Of course, most everything the WGA was fighting for in its 100 Days War has been at work in force  -- on steroids -- in this topsy-turvy season: the increasing popularity of web streaming of programming and DVR time-shifted viewing, the increasing use of digital extensions of traditional programs to drive traffic to network-affiliated websites and to generate new revenue streams for our half-dozen favorite media congloms.

Beyond the fairness issue and the wonky oh-my-god-younger-generations-will-never-watch-TV-the-same-way-again considerations, let's look at what the nets have to show for themselves program-wise out of the fall and spring mini seasons of '07-'08.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE AND JON WEISMAN

Like a parent with kids on different teams squaring off against each other, Warner Bros. TV prexy Peter Roth will watch with both glee and terror as the 2008-09 TV season kicks off.

Of the four new WB dramas picked up by the broadcast nets during last week’s upfronts, three have been thrown against each other in the same 9 p.m. Tuesday timeslot: “The Mentalist” (CBS, photo on right), “Fringe” (Fox) and “Surviving the Filthy Rich” (CW).

For better or worse, this kind of fraternal battle is becoming familiar for Warners. Mondays at 8 p.m. feature a head-to-head-to-head-to-head slugfest among four WB shows, as hourlongs “Chuck” (NBC), “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (Fox),  “Gossip Girl” (CW) face CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”

“It’s a very high-class problem to have,” Roth said. “While it wouldn’t necessarily be our preference to have programs competing against one another, we have been in this situation before.  We suggest since they are all great shows, viewers should watch one of them live, TiVo the others and, preferably, watch them within the advertiser-desired three-day window.”   

At 10 p.m. Thursday, WB rookie “Eleventh Hour” goes up against veteran “ER,” which will begin its 15th and final season. And on the comedy side, it’s no laughing matter for WB as Pushing Daisies” (ABC) and “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (CBS) both vie for the same eyeballs at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Maybe you had to be a "Star Trek" geek as a kid, and it probably helps to have grown up with Caltech and JPL being places you visited on school field trips... but even if you didn't mark time by the "star date" calendar or spend your formative years in Pasadena, you've gotta be able to get a giggle out of "The Big Bang Theory."

CBS/Warner Bros. TV comedy, created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, is the frosh MVP of the tortured 2007-08 season, IMHO. Episode by episode, the ensemble is getting tighter and more playful, making the characters richer and, most important, funny. This is not one of those half-hours that is stingy with big, broad laughs, or more concerned with advancing soapy storylines than the pound-for-pound silliness of each episode.

Perhaps the buddy comedy's biggest accomplishment has been making Kaley Cuoco's Penny, the ditsy hot chick who moves in next door to the egghead Caltech-ers (played with aplomb by Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons), more than a one-note punch line.

Producers are promising some extra-special hijinks for "Big Bang's" May 19 season finale.

For a representative sample, spin this recent "Big Bang" seg, "The Bat Jar Conjecture," as pictured here. Hint: As always, keep your eye on the red shirts.

There's welcome news in the CBS press bundle today -- a fresh logline for "The Big Bang Theory."

Frosh sitcom that showed so much promise, creatively and ratings-wise, prior to the strike interruption, returns March 17 with a seg dubbed "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization." Story's by co-creator Bill Prady and Stephen Engel, with the teleplay from the capable hands of co-creator Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn and Dave Goetsch.

"When Sheldon and Leonard are invited to present their joint findings at a physics conference, Sheldon refuses, and Penny steps in to mediate … only deepening the rift between the two best friends."

Sounds like fun. The guest cast list for this seg indicates that our nerdy heroes Sheldon and Leonard may meet their Asian doppelgangers (if not in looks then in spirit, perhaps). Thesp Talbott Chin is on board to play "Chinese Leonard"; Howard Chan will play "Chinese Sheldon."

(Unfortunately, there's no fresh art yet for the show on CBS' press site, so here's a pic featuring "Big Bang's" fab four from an earlier seg. Left to right: Simon Helberg, Jim Parsons, Kunal Nayyar and Johnny Galecki. )

A writers strike could ruin your whole day. Or night.

My hard-working Variety colleagues spent all day Tuesday turning over rocks and looking into every aspect of what a scribe work stoppage would mean for this town, and none of it is good. TV editors Joe Adalian and Michael Schneider did a fine job of explaining how quickly a strike would KO our favorite latenight companions -- read their reportage by clicking here, and check out the rest of Variety's team coverage by clicking here.

Speaking of our fave latenight companions, here's a look at what David Letterman looked like the last time the WGA went out. While some part of Letterman might want to turn back the clock to those lazy-hazy days of July 1988 when this pic was snapped (actually, he seems so happy these days as little Harry's proud papa I'll be he wouldn't go back for nothin'), fans of quality television do not want to be deprived of our daily and weekly fixes of our fave primetime raves. (No more visits to "The Office," a dimming of "Friday Night Lights," a busted "Big Bang Theory," losing "Lost" in midstream, uprooted "Pushing Daisies," etc.)

So here's to hoping the federal mediator or somebody can bring about a meeting of the minds in the ultimate writers' room this week.

(Letterman pic by Ron Galella/WireImage)

NBC's tack in promoting the return of "Scrubs" on Thursday seems kind of unusual for the show.

Peacock's on-air tubthumping has emphasized that show is in its final season and playing up the will-they-or-won't-they? angle regarding Zach Braff's J.D. and Sarah Chalke's Elliot. The on-again, off-again sparks between those two have been a running thread of the laffer, fer sure, but not as much as you'd think from watching the promos.

Opening seg of season seven, "My Own Worst Enemy" -- penned by exec producers Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman and helmed by creator/exec producer Bill Lawrence -- and is zany-funny in typical "Scrubs" fashion but not one of the series' highest notes, perhaps because of its emphasis on laying plot track.

The highlight is a quick detour into the "Who Caresies" awards ("take that, Tony Shalhoub!," J.D. declares  in his acceptance speech), which comes on the heels of John C. McGinley's Dr. Cox calling J.D. an "annoying whiny manchild" more than once.

Those who have stuck with "Scrubs" through its ups and downs the past seven years won't be disappointed but here's hoping they return to laugh-out-loud form in the coming weeks.

POSTED BY JON WEISMAN

Chuck Lorre didn't even own a TV in the 1970s, so any similarities between his new CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" and the swinging late '70s icon "Three's Company" are completely coincidental. Really, Lorre insists.

Lorre, co-executive producer Bill Prady and the cast of "Big Bang" seemed a little taken aback to find themselves in the unexpected position of being asked to compare and contrast their program to that of Jack, Janet and Chrissy during the "Big Bang" TCA sesh on Wednesday.

Tops on the list: Three decades after Suzanne Somers redefined the role of the dumb blonde on "Three's," is it possible that Kaley Cuoco's Penny (pretty small-town gal befriended by two neighbors who are Caltech physicists) is ... dumberer? (Pictured from left, "Big Bang" stars Jim Parsons, Cuoco, Johnny Galecki)

No way, said Lorre.