Office USA up for writing gongs

Ricky Gervais may have walked away from the British Comedy Awards without his usual clutch of gongs – but The Office is in line for some new accolades.

The US version of his comedy has been nominated in all three eligible categories in the Writer’s Guild of America awards.

Its 11-strong writing team is up for best comedy series, best new series and episodic comedy.

Channel 4’s latest import, My Name Is Earl, which has 13 writers, has also been shortlisted in all three categories.

The other nominees for best comedy writing are Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

For best new series, Chris Rock’s Everybody Hates Chris, Grey’s Anatomy and Rome are in the frame.

And for best episodic comedy, the Diversity Day episode of the Office and the pilot episode of My Name Is Earl are up against shows from Kitchen Confidential, Malcolm In The Middle, Weeds and Desperate Housewives.

* The nominations for the Grammy awards for the best comedy album have also been released.

They are: Rick Moranis  for The Agoraphobic Cowboy, Family Guy Live In Vegas, Lewis Black  for Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues, Chris Rock for Never Scared and Larry The Cable Guy  for The Right To Bare Arms

Published: 15 Dec 2005