HOLLYWOOD — PBS led Writers Guild of America TV program nominations announced Wednesday with nine nods, followed by eight each for HBO and CBS.
HBO’s “The Sopranos” and PBS’ “Frontline” each snagged three nominations, while HBO’s “Sex and the City,” Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle,” PBS’ “The American Experience,” NBC’s “The West Wing” and “Saturday Night Live” each took a pair.
The guild, which reps 11,000 members, will unveil feature film nominations on Feb. 7. The winning writers in all categories will be announced in simultaneous ceremonies at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and the Pierre Hotel in Gotham on March 2.
PBS swept the two documentary categories with all eight nominations, including the trio for “Frontline” and the pair for “American Experience,” and snagged an adapted long form nod for “The Song of the Lark.”
Besides the five noms for “Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” HBO was tapped for three of the four honorees in original longform for “61*,” “Conspiracy” and “For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.”
Laffs, crime & soaps
CBS’ nominations included “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” for drama series, “Everybody Loves Raymond” for comedy series, “The Kennedy Center Honors” and “The Late Show With David Letterman” for comedy/variety, “The Young and the Restless” and “The Guiding Light” for daytime serials and a pair of news program nominations for “Wedding Disaster” and “The Cruelty Connection.”
NBC totaled seven nominations, including its pair for “West Wing” in drama series, another pair for “Saturday Night Live” in comedy/variety and one for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien in comedy/variety, “Days of Our Lives” in daytime serials and “Just Deal” for children’s script. NBC won last year’s drama series award with “West Wing” and the comedy series award for “Frasier,” which was shut out this year.
ABC took five nominations with a pair in adapted longform for “Anne Frank” and “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” “Politically Incorrect” in comedy/variety, “All My Children” in daytime serials and a news nomination for “Eyewitness to Summer Sun & Storms.”
Fox, Showtime nab 3 each
Fox took a trio of nods in comedy series with a pair for “Malcolm in the Middle” and another for “Titus” while Showtime also copped three with “Varian’s War” in original longform and a pair in children’s with “My Louisiana Sky” and “By Dawn’s Early Light.”
TNT received a pair of nods in adapted longform for “The Mists of Avalon” and “Baby.” Disney’s single nomination came in children’s with the pilot for “Lizzie McGuire”; Sci Fi also scored a single nod with “Dragonheart: A New Beginning” in children’s.
The nominations cover scripts originally broadcast between Sept. 1, 2000, and Aug. 31, 2001.
CBS Radio garnered four radio nominations, followed by three for ABC and a pair of promo nominations for NBC.
