U.S. Series Dominate Banff Media Awards Nominations

TORONTO – American TV shows climbed all over the Banff Rockies as the Canadian TV festival on Thursday unveiled its upcoming Banff Media Award nominees.

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In the best sitcom category, ABC’s Suburgatory, NBC’s Community and CBS’ The Big Bang Theory will compete against Showtime’s The Big C, Fox’s Breaking In and the CBC’s Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays from Canada.

North American shows dominate the best continuing series category, with AMC’s Hell on Wheels, ABC’s Once Upon a Time and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire challenging the Canadian drama Le Gentleman for TVA, the Belgium drama Lucky 6 for VRT and the Turkish drama Muhtesem Yuzyil for Show TV.

European TV shows fare better with nominations in the reality TV show category, with the BBC’s The Apprentice and Belgium VRT’s Tomtesterom going up against A&E’s Storage Wars, The CW’s Remodeled, MTV’s 16 & Pregnant and the CBC’s Battle of the Blades.

And in the comedy program competition in Banff, Danish broadcaster DR’s Comedy on the Edge, and two Belgium shows, VMMa’s What If? And VRT’s Een Laatste Groet and Channel Four’s The Hunt for Tony Blair received nominations, as did Showcase Action’s Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will from Canada, and the CBC’s The Debaters, also from Canada.

Nominations for Banff Rockies were handed out in 26 categories for programming from 30 countries.

Winners of the Banff Rockies competition will be unveiled on June 12, 2012, including the Jury Grand Prize, the highest honor at Banff.

The Banff World Media Festival is set to run from June 10 to 13, 2012 in the Canadian Rockies.