<i>Six Feet Under, Sex and the City</i> on top at DGA nominations (10977)

HBO's Sex and the City and Six Feet Under dominated the Directors Guild of America nominations, unveiled Tuesday for the annual DGA Awards. HBO's Sex earned three bids in the comedy series category, while Six Feet matched that total with nods for drama series for the 56th annual DGA Awards. Perennial DGA favorite James Burrows picked up his 20th career nomination in the comedy series category and sixth consecutive nom for his work on NBC's Will & Grace. James Widdoes, who helmed the hourlong return episode of ABC's 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter that dealt with the death of the show's fictional patriarch following the September passing of series star John Ritter, also was recognized in the comedy series category with his first DGA nom. Overall, HBO and ABC took in seven nominations apiece, followed by NBC with three and CBS and the Disney Channel with two bids apiece. "Through the vast reach of television, these 25 directors have touched the lives of people all over the world, and I'd like to commend them on their superb work and congratulate each of them on their nominations," DGA president Michael Apted said.

In the drama series field, the Six Feet nominees were out creator-executive producer Alan Ball for the "I'm Sorry I'm Lost" episode, Kathy Bates for "Twilight," and out producer-director Alan Poul for "Nobody Sleeps." Rounding out the category were Jon Cassar for the "7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m." episode of Fox's 24 and Christopher Misiano for the "25" episode of NBC's The West Wing. The trio of nominees for HBO's Sex in the comedy series category were out executive producer Michael Patrick King for the "Great Sexpectations" episode, Michael Engler for "Hop, Skip & A Week," and Timothy Van Patten for "Boy Interrupted." They'll compete against Will & Grace's Burrows, who already holds the all-time record for most DGA noms and most recently won in 2001, and Widdoes of ABC's 8 Simple Rules. The musical variety category brought nominations to Marty Callner, his third, for HBO's Rolling Stones: Forty Licks World Tour Live at Madison Square Garden. Louis Horvitz earned his 10th DGA Award nomination for The 75th Annual Academy Awards, broadcast on ABC. Horvitz also has been nominated for four of the previous five Academy Award broadcasts. He has won once, for The Kennedy Center Honors in 1997. Two-time DGA Award-winner Beth McCarthy-Miller received her fourth nomination for the episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live with Christopher Walken and the Foo Fighters.

Two first-timers also received nominations in the musical variety category: David Mallat for NBC's Cher: The Farewell Tour and Chuck O'Neil for Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. It was the second nomination for four of the five directors recognized for daytime serials: Larry Carpenter for episode 8,849 of ABC's One Life to Live, Sally McDonald for episode 7,784 of CBS's The Young and the Restless, Susan Strickler for episode 14,279 of CBS's Guiding Light, and Angela Tessinari for episode 8,722 of ABC's All My Children. Strickler has won the award before. Also nominated Tuesday for daytime serials was Andrew Lee, who received his first nomination for episode 1,561 of ABC's Port Charles.

Among children's programming, two directors received their third nominations: Kevin Hooks for ABC's Sounder and Sean McNamara for the Disney Channel's The Even Stevens Movie. A past winner in the documentary category, Peter Gilbert earned his second nomination for Showtime's A Time for Dancing. Two first-time directors also were nominated for children's programming: Kevin Lima for ABC's Eloise at Christmastime and Oz Scott for the Disney Channel's The Cheetah Girls. Winners in film and TV categories will be announced at the 56th annual DGA Awards dinner February 7 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.