Awards season in Hollywood is kind of like Christmas in Dr. Seuss's tale of the Grinch - nothing can stop it from coming, not even a writer's strike. What form exactly the televised awards shows will take as all the jokes are written by WGA writers is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the Hollywood Foreign Press released their nominations for the Golden Globe Awards this morning.

The television nominees skew heavily towards cable fare over broadcast; four of the six nominees for Best Drama Series come from cable, and three out of five for best Musical or Comedy Series. While cable does tend to have edgier, more hip fare than broadcast, some of the included nominees are somewhat odd. For instance, the FX series Damages garnered not only a nomination for Best Drama Series, but also one for Glenn Close as Best Actress in a Drama, another for Rose Byrne as Best Supporting Actress, and one for Ted Danson as Best Supporting Actor.

One cannot argue that Glenn Close's performance in the series was wonderful, but she was not the lead female character in the show, Rose Byrne's character was. While Ted Danson not only deserves the nomination, and quite possibly to win the award, I do not believe the same is true of the nomination for Damages as the Best Series (I can think of shows I preferred that aired on the same network).

Even so, despite one or two oddities, the list of nominees is strong, and make a relatively convincing case for television not being a vast wasteland. Take that, Newton Minnow!

Below you will find the list of nominees in the television categories.

BEST SERIES, DRAMA

• Big Love (HBO)
• Damages (FX)
• Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
• House (Fox)
• Mad Men (AMC)
• The Tudors (Showtime)

BEST SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• 30 Rock (NBC)
• Californication (Showtime)
• Entourage (HBO)
• Extras (HBO)
• Pushing Daisies (ABC)

BEST MINISERIES OR MOVIE

• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)
• The Company (TNT)
• Five Days (HBO)
• Longford (HBO)
• The State Within (BBC America)

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA

• Patricia Arquette (Medium)
• Glenn Close (Damages)
• Minnie Driver (The Riches)
• Edie Falco (The Sopranos)
• Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters)
• Holly Hunter (Saving Grace)
• Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA

• Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
• Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
• Hugh Laurie (House)
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors)
• Bill Paxton (Big Love)

BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?)
• America Ferrera (Ugly Betty)
• Tina Fey (30 Rock)
• Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies)
• Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds)

BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
• Steve Carell (The Office)
• David Duchovny (Californication)
• Ricky Gervais (Extras)
• Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies)

BEST ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

• Bryce Dallas Howard (As You Like It)
• Debra Messing (The Starter Wife)
• Queen Latifah (Life Support)
• Sissy Spacek (Pictures of Hollis Woods)
• Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre)

BEST ACTOR, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

• Adam Beach (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)
• Ernest Borgnine (A Grandpa for Christmas)
• Jim Broadbent (Longford)
• Jason Isaacs (The State Within)
• James Nesbitt (Jekyll)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

• Rose Byrne (Damages)
• Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters)
• Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy)
• Samantha Morton (Longford)
• Anna Paquin (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)
• Jamie Pressly (My Name is Earl)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOVIE

• Ted Danson (Damages)
• Kevin Dillon (Entourage)
• Jeremy Piven (Entourage)
• Andy Serkis (Longford)
• William Shatner (Boston Legal)
• Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money)