The Office makes initial Emmy cut?

The Gold Derby folks have been working, what seems to be around the clock, in deducing the lists of potential Emmy finalists based on “insider information” during the judging panels.

According to these lists, The Office for Best Comedy Series and Steve Carell for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy both made the initial cut.

I waded through 40-plus pages of the thread to see if The Office was mentioned by name, and it was, by Emmy voter (and insider) “EA”:

Weeds was the show that seemed like it was in a whole different league than the rest. The crowd loved it. Two and a Half Men was received very well. The Office had people laughing a bit, but it still seemed to underachieve. Scrubs had little reaction, it did not go over well in my screening. It felt very flat. As for Will & Grace, well enough said. The audience hated it.

The thing about the voting in the comedy series was, the first show we saw was The Office (ed: Booze Cruise was the episode shown), I gave it a very high rating. Then they played Scrubs and it felt not as good as The Office. We weren’t supposed to compare the shows, but that is hard not to do. The first episode played at every screening seems to set a bar.

Here is the potential list of Emmy finalists.

Remember that the official Emmy nominations will be announced this coming Thursday, July 6th, at 5:30am PT!

11 comments

  1. I was going to say that I’m shocked to see Jenna, John, and to a lesser extent Rainn (lesser because I just think he doesn’t have as good of a shot, not because he’s less worthy) not make even the top 15 or so. Then I noticed they didn’t list anything for the supporting categories.

  2. Booze Cruise was a terrific episode and it’s a shame to be given an “underachieved” rating. I’m still crossing my fingers for John and Jenna in the nominations.

  3. Personally, I don’t think Booze Cruise is one of The Office’s best episodes. I know, I know, a lot of people here like it because they want JAM to get together, but it’s not that funny otherwise. There are other episodes this season that were hilarious and a LOT better than Booze Cruise. When I first saw Booze Cruise, I was disappointed.

  4. Carly – I can see why you’d say that. There was a weird feel to that episode, probably because it was on a real boat and they shot it over the course of a long night. Personally, that vibe is part of what I liked about it. I’d just recommend going back and looking at the scene where Dwight is “steering” the boat and singing “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” one more time before you decide.

  5. PWJ, yes, that is correct, the lists that were compiled were only for Best Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Leads. We will find out soon enough … :)

  6. I think Booze Cruise is an excellent episode but was a poor choice to show what The Office is capable of as a comedy series. The Injury, The Fire, The Fight, and The Secret better illustrate how The Office is on the innovative, cutting edge of comedy. FWIW, I had similar overrated thoughts about Booze Cruise after only a few viewings but have warmed up to it.

  7. I agree w/ the thoughts concerning Booze Cruise. I think they should have shown The Injury (it’s a personal favorite of mine) because it is a hilarious episode. I think it just captures everyone better than Booze Cruise, despite it still being a great episode (Booze Cruise, that is). I agree, Diana, i was a little disappointed when they gave The Office an “underachieved” rating. It’s just so hard to capture how brilliant this show is from one episode. This cast and show are pure genius and it’s sad that it’s not recognized as such.

  8. While The Injury is definitely in my top three, I wouldn’t want that episode to be the one shown to Emmy voters because so much would be lost if they’ve never seen an episode before. They wouldn’t realize that Dwight was actually not that nice a guy to people in the office (missing the point of the whole concussion), the relationship between Pam & Jim isn’t shown at all really, and the whole thing about Angela being concerned about Dwight doesn’t really make as much sense.

  9. You make an excellent point, Kristina. I never really thought about it that way. I didn’t even consider that they wouldn’t see how much of a jerk Dwight could be. I’m not too keen on showing them an episode that takes the cast outside of their familiar environment, but Booze Cruise does show a lot of the JAM dynamic. Overall, it just boils down to the emmy audience not really grasping the show for what it is, after being shown only ONE episode. It just sucks that they could only see one.

  10. i really don’t get why teri hatcher is on that list and jenna isn’t.

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