Here’s a news flash: “Lost” is a hit online. But so is CW’s “Privileged.”

For the first time, Nielsen Online has released rankings for online streaming of episodes and clips.
“Lost” tops the chart for the month of December with 1.4 million unique viewers, followed by NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with 1.1 million.

By the yardstick of the total time viewers spent with a show online, the surprise leader in December was CW’s “Privileged.” The rating-challenged dramedy drew only 29,000 unique viewers, but those that did tune in stuck around for an average of 214.6 minutes.

There’s a big caveat to these rankings, however, in that they don’t include shows streamed via Hulu because Hulu won’t breakout its numbers to Nielsen (at least if I'm reading Nielsen-ese right. A Nielsen Online rep would only say that Hulu is "not available in our syndication service.")

Nielsen’s survey includes the websites of Hulu partners NBC and Fox, as well as ABC, CBS and CW. But by all accounts, Hulu's vid streaming traffic has outpaced that of the Peacock and Fox nets' individual websites. The survey captures clips that are embedded on other websites and blogs, as long as the streams come from the network's proprietary player (but not Hulu's player).

Interesting to see the networks getting more aggressive about reporting their DVR numbers.

ABC today is touting "Grey's Anatomy" (pictured above) retaining its crown as the most-DVR'd show of the season so far. The medical drama's Sept. 25 season preem numbers (18.5 million viewers, 7.4 in 18-49) don't look so soft when you add in 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 demo rating points from DVR playback viewing in the week after the premiere telecast. (The premiere ratings are based on the new industry standard of Live-Plus-Same Day, which means the aud for the initial telecast plus those that watched it on the same day of the preem.)

ABC also reports that "Desperate Housewives," "Boston Legal" and "Brothers and Sisters" added 1 million viewers or more to their preem numbers through DVR viewing. "Grey's," "Boston Legal," "Ugly Betty" and "Brothers and Sisters" registered gains of 10% or more in the demo derby too, according to ABC.

CBS also sent out a bunch of info on its premiere week DVR ratings. "CSI: Miami," "NCIS," "The Mentalist" (pictured right), "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds" and "Two and a Half Men" all padded their opening-night numbers by 1 million or more viewers.

The lag time in getting the DVR numbers out seems so incongruous in this era of non-stop, insta-information. But it's also true that success breeds success. A show that performs poorly in the old-fashioned overnights is not likely to turn the corner when the DVR numbers are factored in. But strong shows look even stronger when the ratings yardstick is stretched out to include the DVR aud.

Listen up, "Ugly Betty" fans. Variety's Season Pass blog has a Mode-errific interview with showrunner Silvio Horta, the scribe with the brightest smile in Hollywood (as evidenced at left).

Horta touches on a little bit of everything about the show in the Q&A conducted by Kathy Lyford from questions submitted by fans. Among the topics he touches is how the relationship between Betty and Gio, played by Freddy Rodriguez, developed.

As Horta explains:

I've always known Freddy Rodriguez to be an outstanding actor, but even so, I never expected the chemistry that he brought — it was simply incredible. Obviously, we saw this chemistry immediately and that did affect certain details of Betty and Gio's relationship. In other words, we utilized the chemistry America and Freddy brought to the show by writing scenes with that same chemistry in mind.

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

Of all the strong convictions expressed by the hundreds of Writers Guild members who took to the streets on Monday, none was more pervasive among the strikers than the certainty that the television business as we know it today will soon be a distant memory.

Many scribes are convinced that soon all television program distribution, or at least the reruns that generate the stuff of mortgage and car payments for WGA members, are going the way of the Web. The advent of buy-to-own downloads, web streaming of full-length segs and DVD box sets by season will combine to put the knife in the kind of mammoth syndication deals that for decades have yielded the biggest windfalls for studios and profit participants.

The CEOs of the struck studios and networks undoubtedly share those fears/concerns -- on that point at least they can all agree. Warner Bros. did well with old-fashioned syndie sales to local broadcast stations of CBS' "Two and a Half Men," but is it the last one? How long will cablers keep paying $1 million-plus for rerun rights to an hourlong series that can be readily accessed on an on-demand basis?

"The media is changing. The way our product is getting out is changing," said writer David Fury as he stood outside the 20th Century Fox lot on Pico Boulevard holding up one end of a large homemade paper banner reading "Writers 4 a Fair Contract." Fury, who also gamely leaned into the street with a sign urging drivers to "Honk 4 Writers" (and they did, through the gamut of Toyotas, Mercedes, BMWs, Lexuses, Prius, Hondas, etc.), said the fire this time stems from a desire to protect themselves in the future.

The hangover of the much-reviled formula writers agreed to in the mid-1980s on homevid compensation hovers like smog in Riverside on a windy day in L.A. over every move the scribes and studios try to make on new media. In the view of writers who took roles in Monday's picket street theater, the biggest problem is that the studios have refused to make any moves on the matter.

"The younger writers -- the kids who are now in college -- are not protected" for the new media world order, said Fury, whose credits include "24," "Lost" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."If we don't do it now, a lot of writers are going to wonder why we let them down."

Whoo-hoo, it's a collision of two things I love: Betty White and "Ugly Betty."

The indefatigable Ms. White has booked a guest shot on the ABC dramedy, playing herself. Seg that begins filming next week finds Vanessa Williams' Wilhelmina (or Wilhel-MEAN-a, more accurately) trying to change her image as a nasty you-know-what, but she's dealt a setback when she's caught on a cellphone vid manhandling an older woman to snare a cab. The victim happens to be none other than America's Beloved Betty White...and really, what else do you need for a set up?

I've said it before, I'm sure I'll say it again: I adore Betty White. She stands for all that is good and fun in our business, and we know she's kind to animals. She can't be on the smallscreen too much for my liking. Go Betty, and "Betty"!

(Pictured above: Betty White gets into the spirit of shopping for free stuff at the Daytime Emmys gifting suite in June. Pic by Jesse Grant/WireImage.)

Some Emmy tidbits I really should have written up Sunday night before going off to parties:

Consistency, thy name is David Chase. "It's open to interpretation," the "Sopranos" creator said backstage at the Emmys when asked, inevitably and more than once, about the series' famed blackout finale. In a convoluted way, after being pressed by multiple questioners, Chase seemed to say that he knew in his mind what happened to the family, but he had no intention of sharing it with the intimate room full 200 or so reporters. Chase did say that he'd had the notion to take the show out in the way that he did for a long time....

Earlier in the night Alan Taylor told us backstage scribblers that Chase was pleased by the fact that even members of "Sopranos'" production crew debated what the finale really meant. Chase wanted it to be something people would chew over and talk about, Taylor said...

And as for the Emmy snub of James Gandolfini after the tour de force he turned in? Paulie Walnuts had his back, backstage on Sunday. "I think it was a shame. He should've won tonight...but we won all around (for drama series)," Tony Sirico (pictured right) said. "We've been honored. I speak for Jimmy when I say he can handle it." .....

America Ferrera was such a doll in the backstage quip room. She displayed her usual humility and gratitude for the career-making break that "Ugly Betty" has been for her. And she's happy that her star turn has come on a show that is light and frothy on the outside but meaningful on the inside, where it counts, by challenging the conventional notions of beauty and body image for women.
"It's fun and it's funny and entertaining and I feel so incredibly blessed," Ferrera said. "To be acknowledged for it, to know peep are watching it and enjoying it -- it's just a dream for me. This is what I have wanted to do since I was 5 years old. It just reassures me in the power of dreaming. Now I can set my (career) heights even higher." And she was channeling the self-assured Betty Suarez when a questioner tried to pry into her love life. "I don't talk about my personal life. Thank you," she said in a Betty-esque polite-but-firm tone....

Don't ask Terry O'Quinn what's going on in "Lost" in its upcoming fourth season, because he doesn't know. Is John Locke really Jacob? Is he going to somehow kill Jack? Will he ever get near a shower again? I'm telling ya, don't ask because Quinn doesn't know. (And no, winning an Emmy doesn't entitle him to a few free plot points.) Backstage after his win for supporting drama actor, Locke showed off his hot pink shirt and black tie with glittery rhinestones. When asked, Quinn admitted that early on in the show's run he would go on the Internet to see what the fans were speculating about the Deeper Meaning of it all and where the castaways were headed. But not any more. "I'm sated," he said....

Sally Field was feeling strong, confident and not ready to suffer any cliches on Sunday. She made fast work of a question about actresses of a certain (out-of-the-demo) age enjoying a renaissance on cable ("The Closer," "Damages," "Saving Grace," etc.) and why aren't there better roles for women in features and blah blah blah...."I don't listen to any of that stuff. You guys are the ones who are listening to that," Field shot back.

Where fore art thou, Oscar? Jon Stewart had a cheeky response for the reporter who just had to know what it meant to him to be asked to host the Academy Awards a second time. "Whatever emotional hole I had in my soul vanished at that moment and I was complete," he deadpanned. "That's why I decided to do it."...

And thus brings to a close this inaugural edition of live blogging at the Emmys. I'd be remiss without giving a special thank you to the shooters of WireImage, who moved Emmy photos lickity-split last night and thus livened up this blog considerably. Honorable mentions go out to Steve Granitz, Jeffrey Mayer, John Shearer, Jeff Vespa and Todd Williamson.

Another big win for a frosh ABC show. "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera besting tough competish for lead comedy actress. She's earned it, she deserves it and like her character Betty Suarez, she's always demonstrated nothing but a fantastic attitude toward her work. Here's to you, America.

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)

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I'd say this year's crop of Emmy nominees fall into a few broad categories.

IT'S ABOUT TIME:

David Morse. Morse (pictured left) broke your heart every week during the 1982-1988 run of NBC's "St. Elsewhere." But was he nominated? Nooooo. It took a guest shot role on another hospital drama, Fox's "House," to win this underrated actor some Emmy appreciation.

Rainn Wilson. How could he have been overlooked last year? Just the sight of  him in his Dwight Schrute persona (pictured right) makes me laugh.

Mary-Louise Parker. Emmy voters felt so bad for snubbing her last year for "Weeds" that they gave her two noms, this year, one for "Weeds," one for the Oxygen movie "The Robber Bride."

This category can also encompass the new names and faces Emmy voters let into the tent this year, including "30 Rock"; "Ugly Betty" and America Ferrera; "Heroes" and Masi Oka; Neil Patrick Harris of "How I Met Your Mother."

Ben Silverman's having a good week. First he charms the assembled multitudes at TCA on Monday, getting through his first big press test as co-chair of NBC Entertainment without any scars. Then he wakes up this morning to a bounty of Emmy good news, with comedy series noms for "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," plus two NBC rookies, "Heroes" and "30 Rock," flexing some muscle by landing high-profile series noms that could translate into a bigger ratings next season. It could've been a Ben trifecta if "The Tudors" had hit big, but, hey, it did get costuming and a few other arty type nods. Congrats Ben.

(Pictured above, L-R, "Office" costars Melora Hardin and David Denman with Ben Silverman.)