Could the Emmy Awards finally be coming around?

Winning an Emmy Award is like being voted "Miss Congeniality" at a beauty contest -- it's a cop-out award that always goes to that likeable but second-rate contestent.

As I lamented in a previous post here, the Emmy Awards are notorious for snubbing good television for mediocre fare (I mean, Barry Manilow famously bested Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart last year for best variety show. Barry frickin' Manilow!).

But the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences released a list of their "top ten" semifinalists for the comedy and drama categories that doesn't seem, well, all that lame: "The Wire," Flight of the Conchords," "Pushing Daisies," "Friday Night Lights" and even "Mad Men" made the cut. Read the entire list -- ignoring the inclusion of perennial Emmy faves "Two and a Half Men" and "Boston Legal," of course -- here.

The final five may yet still contain the Emmy snubs we've all come to expect, but there's some hope the awards are finally recognizing less-popular shows. Guess we'll find out if they can stick to their newfound standards on July 17.

Any thoughts on which shows or actors you'd like to see make the final cut? Any favorites that didn't make it?

-- Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com