True Blood honored with "New Program" award by Television Critics Assoc.

TCA Awards hail 'True Blood' and (finally) 'Battlestar Galactica'

The Envelope, Awards Insider | LATimes.com

Wow! Members of the Television Critics Association actually put their awards where their big mouths are! Finally, the TCA Awards recognized "Battlestar Galactica" after voters beat the beans out of the Emmys for failing to give the show any major awards in the past.

Can this mean a break from the TCA Awards' hypocrisy? In years past, voters whined, fumed and harrumphed about the Emmys failing to recognize "The Wire" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," then they snubbed them too. TCA members never gave those shows real prizes — just handed them that bogus "Heritage Award" after they went off the air and failed to win best drama series or program of the year.

"Battlestar Galactica" didn't win a significant TCA Award in the past and now finally reaped one after sailing off the airwaves, but at least it's fared better than other great TV series cruelly snubbed by TCA and the television academy. And while TCA voters skunked vampires back in Buffy's heyday, they did just hail HBO's walking dead by giving "True Blood" their prize as best new program. TV academy members recently drove a stake through "True Blood's" Emmy hopes by snubbing it in all top categories, including best drama actress, which was a major surprise considering Anna Paquin is a past Oscar winner ("The Piano") and Emmy nominee ("Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee").

But don't get too excited about the TCA Awards mending its old, bad kudos biases in a big way. As usual, women just got snubbed in the performance categories. This year, those awards went to Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") and Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") at the expense of Tina Fey ("30 Rock") and Glenn Close ("Damages"), the only women nominated this year. That's typical.

Sometimes TCA kindly permits a token female to get an honorary career achievement award. This year, that lucky (and deserving) gal was Betty White.

Below, a full list of winners:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
"Battlestar Galactica"

NEW PROGRAM
"True Blood"

DRAMA SERIES
"Mad Men"

COMEDY SERIES
"The Big Bang Theory"

NEWS & INFORMATION
"The Alzheimer's Project"

CHILDREN'S PROGRAM
"Yo Gabba Gabba"

MOVIES, MINISERIES, SPECIALS
"Grey Gardens"

COMEDY INDIVIDUAL
Jim Parsons

DRAMA INDIVIDUAL
Bryan Cranston

HERITAGE AWARD
"E.R."

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Betty White