The nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards were announced yesterday and the HBO miniseries “The Pacific”, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, leads the Emmy race with 24 nominations.

Following closely behind is the breakout TV hit “Glee” about school outcasts and their passionate mentor, with 19 Emmy nods including nominations for Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Comedy Actor for Matthew Morrison, Best Lead Comedy Actress for Lea Michele, Best Supporting Comedy Actress for Jane Lynch and Best Supporting Comedy Actor for Chris Colfer.

Joining “Glee” in the Best Comedy Series category are “Modern Family”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “30 Rock” which won the award last year, and in 2008 and 2007, as well.

One of the biggest surprises came in the Best Variety, Music or Comedy category where Conan O’Brien earned a nomination for his 5-month stint at “The Tonight Show”, while rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman, who both had more than their fair share of controversies and issues surrounding their own talk shows, were snubbed.

As for the drama department, the recently concluded “Lost”, “The Good Wife”, “Dexter”, “Breaking Bad”, the HBO daring series “True Blood”, and last year’s winner “Mad Men” are all in the running for the Best Drama Series Award.

For Best Lead Drama Actor honors, Matthew Fox of “Lost”, Michael C. Hall of “Dexter”, Kyle Chandler of “Friday Night Lights” and previous winner Hugh Laurie of “House” will compete against last year’s winner from “Breaking Bad”, Bryan Cranston.

Julianna Margulies from “The Good Wife”, Connie Britton from “Friday Night Lights”, Mariska Hargitay from “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”, Kyra Sedgwick from “The Closer”, and January Jones from “Mad Men” will be battling it out with last year’s winner, Glenn Close from “Damages”, for the Best Lead Drama Actress honors.

Meanwhile, “Saturday Night Live”, who has earned 12 nominations this year – one from the top rating Betty White episode – has set a new record for a total of 126 Emmy nods, toppling over “ER” with 124 Emmy nominations.

They’ve hit a high note.

“Glee” from Fox, “Modern Family” of ABC, and “The Late Show With Craig Ferguson” on CBS head up the winners from the 69th annual Peabody Awards, the most prestigous honors for television.

It’s only the latest accolade for “Glee,” the biggest phenomenon on television since debuting last fall. The show also won a Golden Globe as Best TV Series for a Musical or Comedy and trophy from the Screen Actors Guild as Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

HBO continues living up to its delivering critic friendly programming, with three of its showing getting Peabody awards. “The No. 1 Ladies” Detective,” staring Jilly Scott playing a Botswana private eye and “In Treament,” which stars Gabriel Byrne playing a psychotherapist in search of inner peace, won Peabodys along with “Thrilla in Manila,” a documentary of the legendary showdown between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

News shows, as usual, were well represented as well. “The Madoff Affair” from PBS was a winner, along with “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” from ABC News, as well as “Sabotaging the System,” a segment from 60 Minutes about cyber threats on the infrastructure of America.

The train for Glee made another stop on Saturday night at the SAG awards and picked another passenger up to keep their award from the Golden Globes company. The Glee cast won the award for Actor for best ensemble in a comedy series. These awards are based on peer votes, the Screen Actors Guild membership, so winning wasn’t an easy task considering the casts from The Office, Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock were nominated as well. It was quite the feather in the little show’s cap. Glee is quite dependent on the sum of their parts instead of relying on one individual or set of individuals for carrying the show. The designated speaker to represent the group was Jane Lynch.

In other news from Glee, this fall Matthew Morrison will be recording his debut album. He said, it will be different. What I would consider the album to be is a classier type of Justin Timberlake album. It will be more plus a big orchestra and some beats also.

There are also several reports out that Jennifer Lopez is in discussions for potentially being the show’s lunch lady.

Other reports are stating that Neil Patrick Harris, star of How I Met Your Mother and Dr. Horrible, is also in discussions for appearing on the show.

Justin Timberlake was also on the SAG awards red carpet. He stopped by for an interview with E! and dropped a subtle hint that he wanted to appear on Glee as well. You really have to love performers dropping hints about shows they want to appear on while doing red carpet interviews.

Soon Fox will be debuting “Glee” in Japan. The show has some great promos with Akebono Taro, former sumo star, singing “Don’t Stop Believing” acapella style.

“Glee,” the first year show, won top television honors on January 17 during the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. The series took home the best musical or comedy television series award over other veteran shows like Entourage,” “30 Rock,” and “The Office.”

Ryan Murphy, creator of the show said in his acceptance speech with the cast celebrating behind him, thank you to Barbra Streisand and the Hollywood Foreign Press. We want to thank all of the amazing people who thought that a musical really would work for prime time television.

Although “Glee” did win the biggest award for its category, they did lose three awards that cast members had been nominated for. Leah Michele lost to Toni Colette of “The United States of Tara,” for best actress in a musical or comedy series. Jane Lynch lost to Chloe Sevigny from “Big Love” for best supporting actress. Matthew Morrison, who signed a recording deal earlier this week with Mercury Records, was beaten by Alec Baldwin from “30 Rock” for best actor.

The singers Cher and Christina Aguilera were presenters for best original song in a motion picture award. Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett won for “The Weary Kind,” for the movie “Crazy Heart.” Bingham and Burnett won over fellow nominees U2 for “Winter” from the movie “Brothers” as well as Paul McCartney for his song “I Want to Come Home,” for the movie “Everybody’s Fine.”

However, McCartney had his moment up at the podium. The former Beatle was a presenter for the best animated motion picture award. He joked, I’m Paul McCartney. I’m also known as the “Rock Band” guy.

Julia Roberts, presenter for best drama, bragged about how she had shared a table with McCartney. If you want to get lots of attention, just sit next to McCartney. In all my life I have never had this many texts.

Karen O, front woman for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, received a nomination for the award best original score in a motion picture along with Carter Burwell. However, Michael Giacchino won the award for his “Up” score.

In terms of the top acting and film categories for the Golden Globes, “Avatar,” current best grossing movie, won for best drama. “The Hangover,” the summer blockbuster, “ won for best comedy or musical. Jeff Bridges won best actor for his role in “Crazy Heart” and Sandra Bullock won best actress for her role in “The Blind Side.” The Golden Globe’s 67th annual awards show was hosted by Ricky Gervais, the comedian, and broadcast live from Beverly Hills, California on NBC.