Below is a list of the winners of the 2009 TCA Awards, and below that is the original press release from June listing all of the nominees.
PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: "Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi)
OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: "True Blood" (HBO)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: "Mad Men" (AMC)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: "The Alzheimer's Project" (HBO)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING: "Yo Gabba Gabba" (Nickelodeon)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: "Grey Gardens" (HBO)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" (AMC)
HERITAGE AWARD (a sort of career achievement award for shows): "ER" (NBC)
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Betty White
Television Critics Association Announces 2009 Award Nominees
Chelsea Handler To Open The 25th Anniversary Of The Awards
NBC Leads with 11 Nominations
June 3, 2009 Los Angeles, CA - The Television Critics Association today unveiled its 2009 TCA Award nominations.
NBC leads the list with 11 nominations including comedies "30 Rock," "The Office" and "Saturday Night Live," which garnered 7 nominations total. "Friday Night Lights," which initially aired on DirecTV, got a nomination along with long-time series "ER." NBC also received a nomination for its coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
FX's "The Shield" received the most TCA Award nominations for its final season in four categories: Program of the Year, Outstanding Drama, TCA Heritage Award and Individual Achievement, for which actor Walton Goggins was nominated. Glenn Close received a nomination for her work in the FX drama "Damages."
HBO programs received six nominations, including three of five nominations in the Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-Series and Specials categories for "Generation Kill," "Grey Gardens" and "Taking Chance." Freshman series "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and "True Blood" and the documentary series "The Alzheimer's Project" all got a nod.
The 25th annual TCA Awards honor the finest work of the 2008-09 season as selected by the association's 200-plus member critics and journalists. The winners will be announced August 1st at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa in Pasadena, California. Chelsea Handler, host of E!'s "Chelsea Lately," will open the ceremony.
Past winners up for honors this year include Steve Carell ("The Office"), Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock"), Tina Fey ("30 Rock"), Hugh Laurie ("House"), "The Office," "30 Rock'" Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," ABC's "Lost," "Friday Night Lights," AMC's "Mad Men," PBS's "Frontline" and Nickelodeon's "Nick News."
NBC has three series, "ER," "Saturday Night Live" and "Star Trek" nominated for a TCA Heritage Award, which recognizes a long-standing program that made a lasting cultural or social impact. Also nominated in this category are "M*A*S*H" (CBS) and "The Shield" (FX).
Below is a complete list of this year's TCA Award nominations. Please note career achievement nominees are not listed. A winner in that category will be chosen by TCA members.
PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
"Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi Channel)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"Saturday Night Live" (NBC)
"The Shield" (FX)OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
"30 Rock" (NBC)
"The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
"The Daily Show" (Comedy Central)
"How I Met Your Mother" (CBS)
"The Office" (NBC)OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
"Breaking Bad" (AMC)
"Friday Night Lights" (NBC/DirecTV)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"The Shield" (FX)OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT MOVIES, MINI-SERIES AND SPECIALS
2008 Summer Olympic Coverage (NBC)
"24: Redemption" (Fox)
"Generation Kill" (HBO)
"Grey Gardens" (HBO)
"Taking Chance" (HBO)OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
"Fringe" (Fox)
"The Mentalist" (CBS)
"No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" (HBO)
"True Blood" (HBO)
"United States Of Tara" (Showtime)INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock")
Steve Carell ("The Office")
Tina Fey ("30 Rock")
Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother")
Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory")INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
Glenn Close ("Damages")
Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad")
Walton Goggins ("The Shield")
Jon Hamm ("Mad Men")
Hugh Laurie ("House")OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING
"Camp Rock" (The Disney Channel)
"The Electric Company" (PBS)
"Nick News" (Nickelodeon)
"Sid the Science Kid" (PBS)
"Yo Gabba Gabba" (Nickelodeon)OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION
"60 Minutes" (CBS)
"The Alzheimer's Project" (HBO)
"Frontline" (PBS)
"The Rachel Maddow Show" (MSNBC)
"We Shall Remain" (PBS)HERITAGE AWARD
"ER" (NBC)
"M*A*S*H" (CBS)
"Saturday Night Live" (NBC)
"The Shield" (FX)
"Star Trek" (NBC)
Wow I’m kind of shocked. Less about BSG since it is the last season than about Big Bang beating 30 Rock in not 1 but 2 categories, being the only double winner. Maybe they were pissed off about the Emmys snubbing it. I wonder how Jane Kaczmarek feels; she won TCA but Bryan’s won TCA and Emmy now when she was nominated for I believe every single season of Malcolm.
The only programs that have dominated these awards for 2 years are Homicide & Sopranos. Maybe they felt Mad Men didn’t deserve to join them.
The Big Bang Theory deserves the accolades. As great as the first season was, the second season was better which is rare these days and imho why CBS renewed it for another two seasons, both of which I have no doubt will be awesome, or to borrow a phrase from a sister show… legen – wait for it – dary.
As for Jim Parsons, his portrayal of Sheldon is sublime and he throughly deserves that award for such notable episodes as The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis (a.k.a. the one with Penny’s xmas present where Sheldon’s realisation at the end is arguably the funniest TBBT moment in both seasons so far) and The Maternal Capacitance (a.k.a. the one with Leonard’s mother).
Is this setting the stage for a Jim Parson’s win at the Emmy’s? Thoughts anyone?
And seriously now…can How I Met Your Mother upset 30 Rock?
Congrats to BSG and True Blood!
Agreed on The Big Bang Theory. This is the best sitcom to come on TV in quite some time. Anybody who does not watch The Big Bang Theory does not know what they are missing.
Well deserved award for Cranston and Sheldon err Parsons
I like 30 Rock but I’m glad they pick The Big Bang Theory to win, its so refreshing to see a tradition sitcom gain recognition again
Redemption night for many Emmy snubs, including True Blood and BSG.
I love the TCA because they try and HONOR the Emmy snubs. Friday Night Lights, BSG, True Blood…need I go on? True Blood should have been nominated for Best Drama Series, Best Actress in a Drama Series (Anna Paquin) and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Nelsan Ellis, aka Lafayette) at this years Emmy’s but were all snubbed. Thank you TCA for honoring all types of television, new and old.
Was happy to see ER won the Heritage Award, but am confused as to why M*A*S*H and Star Trek were there. If they are going for good quality long-running tv shows, it should not be shows that have been off the air for 25 years or more. Where’s Law & Order and The West Wing in this category? Those would have been more suitable choices, IMO
Whats with the Program of they year and achievement in drama split? Shouldn’t BSG be the best drama, if it is in fact the best program of the year and a drama.
BSG was the Program of the Year which makes that abomination of a Series Finale all that much worse!
~Lanie~
I think Program of the Year looks at both quality & what made the most significant impact rather than just quality, ergo why SNL was there (Feylin); other years, Grey’s, Heroes, Desperate, & Idol have won. Some years they match up, some not. Some years Program actually matches up with winners that aren’t drama; i.e. Angels in America (which totally deserved it), From the Earth to the Moon, Civil War, Dear America, Eyes on the Prize.
What? 30 Rock didn’t win anything? But it’s the greatest show in the history of time, isn’t it?
Good to see Big Bang Theory, a show I’ve loved from the beginning, getting some well-deserved recognition early on. Somehow I feel I’m slightly to thank for that…for watching it and helping to not get it cancelled.
No, Crash, clearly that’s Mad Men, which has won everything it has ever been nominated for. The amount of people drooling over this show is pains my stomach.
Nice to see Fringe nominated along with True Blood, and I agree True Blood is the winner.
“BSG was the Program of the Year which makes that abomination of a Series Finale all that much worse!”
The Series finale to BSG was the most Epic, Emotional, outstanding episode of the entire series, which is what series finales should be.
It had a full-final ending, that may have been a let-down on some answers but you cant say it was an “abomination”.
Im so thankful BSG got the amazing finale it did, when i think back at the number of shows that had sooo crap finales that were barely more than another episode or were totally rushed and answered NOTHING, Andromeda comes to mind.
Im sure if you had only watched the first hour you would say it was the best episode of the series, the fact half of the finale was for goodbyes to the characters is so rare and was what i hoped the amazing series of BSG would get.
I loved 99.9% of BSG uncritically. I loved everything from the Miniseries, to the Pegasus cliffhanger, to the ‘ship in a bottle’ episodes in season 4.5 that so many other fans hated. I even loved parts of the finale: the battle scene was great, and I got teary eyed at Baltar’s redemption and Adama’s final goodbye to Roslin.
But that deus ex machina plot resolution in the final hour really was an “abomination”. Of all of the quick resolution tricks available in the drama writer’s manuel, that’s one of the laziest, and one of the most insulting to the audience–right up there with “It was all a dream”. Even Aristotle called bullsh*t on this plot device 2500 years ago.
Admittedly, I’m an atheist, but I have nothing against ‘God’ in dramas, I even love what Bryan Fuller does. In fact, many of the notions of theism and it’s role in Myth and collective consciousness in BSG are a big part of what made the show so powerful–even mystical at times. But using ‘God’ as a quick fix plot device essentially invalidates your entire narrative. And that’s what RD Moore did to his show–his otherwise magnificent, game changing piece genre television–he basically took a piss on it.
BSG program of the year?? Oh my God, the last season (especially the last 10 episodes) was 99% crap.
Although I’ve never watched BSG, my impression of the finale from its detailed description that I’ve read is basically that it was as bad as the finale for TSCC – the producer and writers just threw up their hands and said “we’re out of a job, so screw you” to the viewers.