It's already been dubbed the mob versus the White House.
Nominations for Emmy Awards came out last Thursday. Home Box Office's The Sopranos and NBC's The West Wing tied for the most nominations, with 18 each.
Overall, cable copped 137 of the 294 nominations. HBO was the top vote-getter among cable programmers with 86 and second overall only to NBC, which got 97.
Showtime and Discovery Channel received 11 nominations each, and Turner Network Television got 10 nods. In single digits are A & E Network (five); American Movie Classics, Bravo, Disney Channel, MTV: Music Television and Nickelodeon (two apiece); and Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Lifetime Television and VH1 (one each).
Among broadcasters, NBC was followed by ABC (64), CBS (41), Fox (26), PBS (12), United Paramount Network (seven), The WB Television Network (five) and two for syndicated series.
While cable networks have been increasing their investments in original programming, those efforts have garnered varied results.
Bravo was rewarded for presenting a Cirque du Soleil special and for Inside the Actor's Studio. And Behind the Music could earn an Emmy for VH1.
But USA Network was shut out, and Lifetime's sole nomination was for costume design for original series Any Day Now.
Other high-profile originals, such as TNT's Animal Farm and The Hunley, were acknowledged, but in lower-profile technical categories.
Broadcast made some inroads into categories recently dominated by cable: movies for television and miniseries. Broadcast versions of Annie and Tuesdays with Morrie will compete with If These Walls Could Talk 2, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and RKO 281. Cable only got two of the five nominations in the miniseries category, for HBO's The Corner and A & E's P.T. Barnum.
A & E's Biography continued its dominance in the nonfiction-series category, earning a nomination for the fourth year in a row. It won in 1997.
The Sopranos will compete for best drama series, and HBO's Sex and the City will vie for best comedy honors.
The awards will be presented in Los Angeles Sept. 10.
