'Parks and Recreation' Among Top Contenders for Critics Choice TV Awards

(Via GoldDerby)

The Broadcast Television Journalist Assn. announced nominations for the second annual Critics' Choice TV Awards Tuesday. Leading with six bids is "Community," which has been snubbed by the Emmy Awards for its first two seasons.

With five nods apiece are "Parks and Recreation" (another NBC laffer that has yet to win a top Emmy) and "Mad Men," a four-time Emmy winner for Best Drama Series. 

The organization emphasized the "broadcast" part of its name with over-the-air nets leading the nominations. NBC may be in fourth place in the ratings but came first with 14 bids while ABC has 13 and Fox 12 (CBS has nine). Cablecaster HBO, which has reaped the most Emmy nominations for years, was cited a dozen times while AMC and FX each have 11 noms. 

"Community" and "Parks and Recreation" contend for Best Comedy Series against last year's champ "Modern Family" and freshman series "Girls" and "New Girl," all of which reaped five bids as well as "The Big Bang Theory" (2 noms).

"Mad Men" defends its Best Drama Series title against "Breaking Bad" (4 noms), "Downton Abbey" (2), "Game of Thrones" (2), "The Good Wife" (4) and "Homeland" (3). 

The BTJA is an offshoot of the group that gives out the Critics' Choice Movie Awards. However, unlike those prizes which include many of the Oscar categories, these do not include any recognition of the directors and writers responsible for television's finest programming.

Last year, the BTJA did not acknowledge the TV movie and mini-series genres but remedied that this time around. Indeed, they preview what the Emmys will look like next year by combining the lead and supporting categories for this genre. 

Last year, the top comedy and drama races included 10 series each. This year, those fields, as well as all others, are restricted to six nominees, echoing the Emmy races.