Well, thanks to Tom O’Neill over at TheEnvelope.com, the Top 10 Drama and Comedy Series according to the popular voters of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have been revealed. These 10 shows will then screen an episode each in front of blue ribbon panels, and the Top 5 with the two processes combined will be nominated. If they didn’t make this list, they’re screwed.
Top 10 Drama Series
Boston Legal
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
House
Lost
Rome
The Sopranos
24
Biggest Surprise: I’m much happier about Friday Night Lights making it, but arguably Rome is the bigger surprise. The show had much less critical hype and aired such a short 2nd season that it was unexpected to get much attention. It appears that it got the period costume sex drama buzz as opposed to Showtime’s The Tudors.
Most Glaring Omission: Brothers & Sisters had good ratings, buzzworthy stars, but apparently voters didn’t feel the love. The aforementioned Tudors was also quite a shock considering how hard Showtime had pushed it, but Brothers & Sisters probably deserves one of those spots. And, even though it had no shot, Battlestar Galactica deserved better. Le sigh.
Network Breakdown: ABC leads with three series, while HBO, NBC and FOX all perform well with two a piece. Meanwhile, CBS is completely shut out while Showtime grabs the 10th spot.
Who Will Do Well: Lost and the Sopranos are riding the most buzz right now, and Grey’s and 24 both submitted strong episodes.
Who Won’t Do Well: Heroes, having submitted their pilot, will be EATEN ALIVE by these other shows. And Friday Night Lights, unfortunately, might have hit a roadblock against such tough competition. But it’s made it in, and that’s what matters.
Top 10 Comedy Series
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
Extras
My Name is Earl
The Office
Scrubs
Thirty Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds
Biggest Surprise: Eh, not much of one. We knew there were two spots up for grab, and it appears that voters liked British comedy (Extras) and American commercial success (Two and a Half Men) out of the remaining candidates.
Most Glaring Omission: With NBC’s entirely Comedy Night Done Right represented, it is the ratings success of CBS that has been shunned here. Both The New Adventures of Old Christine and How I Met Your Mother are unrecognized, which is more surprising for the Julia-Louis Dreyfus led sitcom. Other than Everybody Loves Raymond and the show with Charlie Sheen, Emmy just doesn’t love CBS.
Network Breakdown: NBC’s four Thursday comedies lead the way, with ABC’s two hour-longs, HBO’s two industry shows, Showtime’s dramedy and CBS’ sitcom rounding out the 10.
Who Will Do Well: 30 Rock and The Office are perhaps the frontrunners, but Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty have a whole hour to work their magic as opposed to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Scrubs’ musical episode will be a nice change of pace.
Who Won’t Do Well: My Name is Earl will be overshadowed by its Thursday neighbours, and Weeds might be too lowly rated and edgy for judges to embrace entirely. Extras also might not work as well with a panel as it did with voters as a whole.
Panels begin deliberating this weekend, and the nominees are announced on July 19th.
Cultural Learnings 
It seems to me that in the drama category, 24 and Heroes face alternate challenges in getting a nomination. Everyone agrees that 24 had a bad season (which will hurt it in the general voting round) but submitted a good episode that might play well to the panel. Whereas Heroes was a show that got better as it went along (finale aside) but submitted a bad episode.
If this were last year, and the panel’s votes were final, I’d say 24 makes the cut and Heroes does not. But this year, where it’s half-and-half, I wonder if either has the appeal in both rounds of voting to make it.
I believe that Heroes will get the edge of 24, easily. I thought the Heroes pilot was one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. It creates a huge, detailed narrative world in a short time, is very compelling, and answers questions as soon as it begins to ask them.
Heroes has been the most successful new drama of the year, while 24 had by far its worst season ever. While judges are supposed to look at just the one episode, they aren’t idiots, and will certainly be taking the series’ as a whole into account, much as the voters did.
Look for Heroes to make that ballot. And yay for Rome!
Heroes? Pilot? Good?
Media Maven, you’re speaking in tongues. These words don’t go together at all. The Heroes pilot is uninteresting and while it creates a universe it offers no dramatic resolution. There is no storyline in that premiere episode, and it shows little to none of the potential that the series had.
As the beginning of a Sci-Fi series, Genesis is quite good. As a dramatic hour of television, it’s borderline boring.
Comedy:
Entourage
The Office
Scrubs
30 Rock
Ugly Betty
Drama:
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Lost
The Sopranos