Tom O’Neil on True Blood’s Emmy Chances

Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil, as close to an expert on all things entertainment awards as you can get, waxes philosophic on True Blood‘s chances at an Emmy nomination:

The Golden Globe-nominated drama series “True Blood” earned a slew of good reviews and socko ratings for its second season premiere last Sunday. And last month it picked up a nod from the TV critics association for best new program. However, to earn an Emmy nod, “True Blood” will have to overcome the TV academy’s bias against shows about the supernatural. Remember how that critical darling “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” had a stake driven through her heart for seven successive seasons.

“True Blood” could benefit from the canny scheduling strategy that has reaped Emmy rewards for HBO in the past. While voters considered the merits of previous seasons of HBO series such as “Sex and the City” and “Entourage,” new episodes were running on the paycaster. That could well help “True Blood” register in the popular vote of academy members.

“True Blood” stars Oscar winner Anna Paquin (“The Piano”) as a telepathic waitress who falls for a vampire (Stephen Moyer). Oscar-winning scripter Alan Ball (“American Beauty”) adapted a bestselling series of books by Charlaine Harris to create the show.

The last time Ball handled a series for HBO, the result was “Six Feet Under,” which ran for five seasons and was a three-time Emmy nominee for best drama series. While that show was universally admired from the outset, this one divided opinions at first.

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